We’ve made marketing leaders accountable for technology we never taught them to understand
We’ve made marketing leaders accountable for technology we never taught them to understand
Publish Date: 2026-05-11 11:14:00
Source Domain: www.thedrum.com
Marketing leaders are being held accountable for technology they were never equipped to understand. The result is performative fluency, quiet erosion of confidence, and growth that moves slower than it should
‘Where are we on AI?’ ‘How are we using technology to drive growth?’ ‘How are we proving the ROI of our technology investments?’
Over the last few months, several marketing leaders have told me about having to constantly field questions like these, frustrated that IT has suddenly become yet another problem for marketing to solve.
I have seen the pattern emerging for some time, and these questions, marketing leaders tell me, are relentless. It’s never really a question about a specific platform (although based on who is in the CEO’s network, you can bet they’ll have an opinion on which tools should be used without knowing any of the details). It’s much broader than that, and the pressure to deliver a solid answer seems to be building.
Everyone understands the leadership expectation to evolve and innovate, to drive progress, create impact, and build momentum, but what it looks like in practice seems to be less clear. There is a gap that no one calls out. We’ve created a role that’s accountable for technology but never designed to truly understand it.
The expectation gap
Technology now sits at the center of how marketing operates: how we reach audiences, how we measure impact and how we drive growth. The expectations on marketing leaders have shifted with it. Today, they’re expected to own the tech stack, justify the investment, translate it into commercial outcomes and speak about it with confidence at the board level.
But most didn’t build their careers in technology. They built them in customer understanding, brand and growth. That’s where their instinct was sharpest. But somewhere along the way, many have lost confidence in that instinct. They might not want to say it out loud, but when they are honest, they will often admit it to…
