Ai's Not Gutting Marketing Like They Say, Stock Buybacks Are The Real Problem

TL;DR: AI's getting too much blame for marketing woes; stock buybacks are quietly starving the industry to stuff Wall Street's pockets.

Been seeing all these headlines freaking out about how AI is destroying the marketing world, wiping out creative jobs, and basically turning everyone into glorified prompt writers. But honestly, from what I've seen day-to-day, AI hasn't hit us that hard. It's got its limits, like how it totally flops on real creativity, how it's very derivative, and unoriginal. It does great at spitting out some basic copy or tweak ads, it can boil down 1000 blogs into a strategy, but it can't touch deep strategy, cohesive thought across multiple focal points, or touch the human experience -a la that instinctual spark that makes marketing magic.

So teams aren't cutting budgets just because of some AI tool; it's something way more under the radar: I think it's stock buybacks.

Here's my take: the thing that's really killing off marketing, PR, and ad teams isn't a fancy algorithm. It's this corporate fixation on pumping up stock prices with buyback programs. They suck up billions that could go into growing the business and instead use it to jack up share values, all to make sure the c-suite and BOD get their bonuses and keep institutional investors smiling.

Back when, execs and boards got props for actually building stronger companies: cooler products, customers who love you, teams that stick around. But at some point, everything boiled down to just the stock price and this "shareholder value" buzzword. And once the SEC okayed stock buybacks in 1982 (not super recent, but they've blown up since), it turned into the easy button for boosting those numbers without much effort.

Instead of dumping money into R&D, bumping up pay, adding perks, or giving marketing more cash for campaigns, events, or hiring sharp folks, companies just scoop up their own shares. That cuts down the total shares floating around, jacks up earnings per share, and boom, stock climbs. The higher-ups high-five, pocket bonuses tied right to that stock bump, and do it all over again. For marketers? It means departments running on fumes. Layoffs they call "streamlining." No new hires for creative spots. Zero budget for that killer rebrand or customer outreach because every extra buck heads to Wall Street.

It's ramped up even more recently. After those 2017 tax cuts, buybacks smashed records, trillions thrown in, while pay stayed flat, and stuff like training or product upgrades got ignored. Even low-wage outfits dropped over $340 billion on buybacks since 2020, way more than on upgrades or raises. And here we are in marketing, scraping by and getting blamed on "AI taking over" when it's really just top-level greed dressed up as smart finance.

This can't last forever. Since March of 2020 there are no (meaning 0%) required for fractional reserves, so I deeply, deeply suspect that all this stock market pumping is "ferry dust" from fake money being created on the books of the big 3.

Real healthy companies used to put money back into what mattered: fresh ideas, loyal customers, and solid marketing that drives it all. Now it's all quick stock tricks that screw over the long game. If we want better budgets, steadier jobs, and real progress, we've gotta call out these buybacks for being a total drain except for the execs' bank accounts.