This content was created by Eric Siu. This content was uploaded by Eric Siu. This is a YouTube vlog episode titled "Will AI End Marketing Jobs as We Know It?" (part of a "Founder Story" series) published February 18, 2025. The excerpt is a candid conversation led by Eric Siu with two other participants (labeled Speaker B and Speaker C). Eric discusses leadership decisions taken during an all-hands (setting expectations, accountability, firing/role-fit), the impact of AI on future hiring and headcount (preferring "AI-enhanced" workers), interview expectations around AI skills, and founder responsibilities. The vlog also plugs a B2B ad/product called Karrot (carrot.ai) and touches on practical advice (RACI/RACIA charts, adapting to change). The tone is direct and managerial, aimed at founders and professionals navigating AI-driven change.
Chapters
Alright guys, I'm risking my life to make this vlog today. So there's a— you can basically call it a Category 2 windstorm coming in. That means winds up to 80 to 100 miles per hour. Californians have no idea how to deal with this. Fortunately, I lived in Miami for 2 years, so I know how to deal with this stuff. What I wanted to talk about today— Mondays are my busiest days. We're talking about doing a lot of meetings, A lot of one-on-ones, a lot of group meetings. We have our all-hands as well. And I really used that day yesterday to set the tone. We have some teams that are not doing as well as they could do, and they're kind of resting on their laurels. Sometimes you have to come in and you have to just outline what your expectations are and outline what the consequences are if we don't hit those expectations.
Because people think they can just come in and, you know, coast, right?
But it's really easy for us to see who's coasting and who isn't. And it's not fair for the people that are busting their asses to watch someone else coast. And so as a leader, if you accept that kind of behavior, then other people start to think they can do it and your star players start to resent working at your company because you tolerate that behavior and you get what you tolerate ultimately. You know, I think, I mean, yesterday was kind of a, call it a come to Jesus moment for some people. You know, in the all hands, what I had talked about was basically, hey guys, I don't wanna be a fearmonger, but At the end of the day, it's not AI that's coming for our jobs. It's people that are AI enhanced will come for your jobs. And I still stand by my hypothesis that companies of the future are gonna have less headcount. They're gonna pay people that are AI enhanced more. They're gonna pay for more compute, more GPUs, more resources, because you're basically paying for intelligence at that point. That's not something everyone wants to hear. I think people wanna be comfortable. People don't wanna be bothered. I think you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable, because who knows what it means to be a human in the next, I don't know, 5, 10 years or so.
All we can do is adapt, and you have to adapt, right?
And I basically said that to everyone.
We have to adapt, or else we're going to be in trouble.
The company is going to be in trouble, and we're, we're all going to be in trouble as well. And then I showed a couple things that we do with AI that's possible right now, and I'm saying, hey guys, I'm expecting you to raise your hand and show me the things that you're doing with this stuff. And you know, when we're interviewing people for jobs, I remember we interviewed someone last week. I just asked him, I was like, hey, so tell me what you're doing with AI right now. And he just kind of stared at me. He said, you know, honestly, we're Doing much right now. I think anytime you see someone, you ask someone about AI and they can't give you a straight answer, you can't hire them. With AI, a lot of people like to say, oh, it's not 100% right now. Of course it's not 100% right now. Like, did you think self-driving cars were 100% when Waymo started in what, 20— I think 2014 or so?
No, of course not.
Don't say stupid things like that. Sorry, it's just what I feel, right? You know, Bitcoin's never gonna work. It's like everything is a toy in the beginning until it's not. You might as well have an open mind. Or get left in the dust, and I have no sympathy for people that remain closed-minded. Then they complain about the results that they don't get because they they're closed-minded. So don't be like that. You're not watching this channel for that. You're watching this channel because you want to get better. You're watching this channel because you want to do better for not only yourself but people around you. That's what I would say. I mean, yesterday I I walked into the office, and then the first thing I said to my chief of staff is, "I'm choosing violence today." Yesterday was a full day of uncomfortable conversations, conversations I don't prefer to have, but at least people know where I stand now. Yesterday was. Setting roles and responsibilities on the Carrot side of things because that's still moving. And then just really setting the foundation for the year.
I remember one of the developers said they like this new version of Eric already where it's, it's much more direct. And I'm just, I'm just tired of, I'm tired of having to check, look behind my back and check on things, right? If you have to do that, by the way, that means people in your company aren't doing their jobs. And if you find yourself taking on more things, ultimately, that means you probably need to fire the people in those roles, right? You know, the thing is, as a, as a founder, you're okay doing any job, right? But I think as you start to take on more and more, I think it's really important for you to also Take a look at, um, we call this a function accountability chart. So you can take a look at, you know, what are all the things you're responsible for right now? What are things people are accountable for? Who needs to be consulted and things like that, or who else needs to be informed, right? You can call that a RACIA chart as well. That's R-A-C-I-A. You should do that every now and then because, you know, before you know it, you find yourself taking on all these other things. You just have to ask yourself, hey, are the people in those roles right now, are they the right fit right now? Are they the right fit long term? Because if not, you got to make a move. Otherwise, you're hurting your company. And that's ultimately your responsibility.
LinkedIn ads are great. But let me give you the bad news first. The bad news is that you can't personalize the ads and you can't scale up the ads as quickly. The good news is if you're in the B2B space, you're doing account-based marketing, we have a solution for you called Karrot. That's K-A-R-R-O-T. And the good news is that you can create a lot of these campaigns with the click of a button, you can personalize the ads. And there's a whole host of new things that are coming. If you want to get on the waitlist, just go to carrot.ai. Again, it's carrot.ai, and we'll see you on the other side.
And the other thing I want to say too is I had some conversations yesterday. It's like, oh, you know, I really tried these, I tried these initiatives, you know, they didn't really work. Well, did they not really work? Or did you just not, did you not go deep enough? Right. And then also, if like, let's say like a team isn't performing, let's say I'm managing a paid media team, for example, and my team doesn't perform, do I blame my team? Or is it ultimately my fault as a paid media The manager of the people. It's obviously my fault as the manager of the people, right? And by the way, the one thing I'll say too is, you know, you let's say you decide to start a company. Everything that goes wrong in the business is your fault. Sure, you can blame oh you know a team's not working. I'll blame the manager. But no no no no no. It's also your fault too. You don't get to abstain from that responsibility. Every single thing that you do is your fault. If you don't want to take that responsibility, then don't start a company. If you're afraid of having tough conversations, don't start a company. Also keep in mind too, if you're going to start a company, people are going to be like oh you know I want this, I want that. Okay, well, you want to get promoted, for example, or if you want a raise or whatever, show me evidence of greatness. You have to keep proving it.
And if you can't, then what, what, why should you be entitled to anything, right?
I think you as a founder, you're gonna get people asking you for this type of stuff all the time. And that's fair. Like, people are human, people need to take care of their families, take care of themselves. But ultimately, you need to be asking, hey, you know, what is it that you want? And can you actually afford it as a business? If you can't afford it, just say, hey, like, if someone gets an offer for like triple their salary, for example, they should take it, especially if you can't afford it, right? And you have to just say, hey, like, this is what We can afford as a company, and we know that people aren't going to stay here forever. And you know, you got to do what's best for you. I think in the past, earlier in my career, I wouldn't know how to push back against that. But that's a very real response, and that's okay response to give. You know, I think where we're at for this coming year and the next coming years is I think we'll hit all our numbers and more. I don't know why there's a checkpoint over here. Like there's like a checkpoint over here. But anyway, I'm excited about where we're going.
But I'm also aware of the fact that not everyone is going to be along for the ride, right?
And not everyone's going to be here forever. Same with me. I'm not going to be at this company forever. Nothing's forever, really.
Here's the deal. I hope you enjoyed this vlog episode. This is called Founder Story. If you want me to continue to post these vlogs to this channel, type in a comment, say this channel. Or if you want it to move over to the new channel, type in new channel. That way I can know whether we should just separate it or just continue to serve it here, right? That's all. And we'll see you later.
