On a recent YouTube binge, I stumbled upon a video titled “We’re Not Ready for Superintelligence.” What began as mindless scrolling quickly turned into me being completely captivated by the idea of AI agents from the US and China collaborating to take over the world.

It sounds like science fiction, but it would be naive to completely dismiss the possibility of an AI takeover, or more specifically, the rapid arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI).

While I don’t personally believe AI agents are plotting world domination anytime soon, I do believe it’s essential to understand what this means for the future of sports marketing.

Most of what we currently use falls under artificial narrow intelligence (ANI): rule-based systems that follow patterns without true understanding. Think automation in advertising platforms, chatbots, or predictive analytics.

AGI, however, is different. It will rival or even surpass human intelligence with the ability to learn, reason, adapt, and apply knowledge across diverse problems. It isn’t here yet, but it’s on the way.

So what does this mean for marketing? Like most industries, we don’t have all the answers. But ignoring the exponential growth of this technology and the “great replacement” it could bring for many roles, would be short-sighted.

Everywhere.

ANI has already automated tasks like paid media optimisation, CRM workflows, and content scheduling. It makes mistakes (don’t we all?) but it is getting better all the time. AGI will take us further, merging creativity, strategy, and execution inside a single system.

Roles once thought to require a distinctly “human touch” may not be as safe as we’d like to think.

And it’s not just about how well AGI performs tasks, it’s also about how fast. Picture a world where a campaign moves from brief to execution in the time it takes to finish a coffee.

Audience analysis, competitor benchmarking, and sentiment scanning could feed into thousands of campaign directions simultaneously. AGI could instantly test, evaluate, and discard weaker ideas, long before a human team even opens the first deck.

The uncomfortable truth: nobody knows for sure.

With ANI already reducing the need for certain marketing executive roles, we can expect this trend to accelerate as the technology evolves. This raises challenges not only for current marketers but also for leaders facing future recruitment and talent pipeline gaps.

Even for more senior roles, the threat is real. We could soon find ourselves competing not just with peers—but with technology that we simply cannot outpace.

But hope is not lost.

The skills that matter will shift. Taste, vision, trust, and relationships will remain distinctly human strengths. Perhaps the greatest opportunity lies in orchestration—learning how to integrate and direct the technology so we remain at the forefront of its implementation and leadership.

This cannot be seen purely as a threat. It must be recognised as the truth.

The leaders of tomorrow will be those who collaborate with the technology: making better decisions, turning speed into cultural impact, and transforming data into emotion.