“Bots are just workflows, so they don’t belong on org charts,” exclaimed a CMO from a $225 million SaaS company. It was a pin-drop moment as the other CMOs considered the thought.

I’m not so sure.

Not because I’m ready to give bots titles, managers, and performance reviews. That feels like org chart theater, perhaps even a way to signal to investors, “See, look how tech-forward we are!”

But if agents are doing real work, influencing real outcomes, and changing how humans spend their time, don’t they need to show up somewhere?

Rethinking the Org Chart

This question has been haunting our FOMO Task Force, short for Future of Marketing Org Design, and it came up again this week in two of our Leader Huddles.

One CMO said, “Before you make any org changes, you need to reimagine the work.” That feels like the right starting point.

Liza Adams made a similar point in her excellent piece (will link to it in comments) on the future of GTM roles: “What’s happening to the work?” Answer that first, and the roles and org follow.

Three Principles for AI Org Design

So here are three guidelines that feel right at this moment:

1. Reimagine the work, not the org chart.

If AI simply makes old work faster, you may get efficiency, but not necessarily growth. The bigger opportunity is to rethink the work itself: what can be automated, what can be augmented, what can be eliminated, and most importantly, what can now be done that was previously impossible?

2. Redesign the operating model, not just the tools.

One leading-edge CMO told us, “A lot of marketing leaders deploy these agents, but the org structure stays the same.” Same collaboration model. Same approval model. Same measurement model. That’s how you end up with AI-powered bureaucracy. Faster handoffs are still handoffs.

3. Make accountability visible.

Whether bots appear on the org chart or not, someone needs to own the outcome. Someone needs to own the guardrails. Someone needs to own quality, judgment, cost, governance, and business impact.

One CMO described the future as “a lead with a cloud of agents wrapped around them.” I like that image because it keeps humans accountable while acknowledging that the work is no longer being done by humans alone.

How CMOs Are Preparing Now

What am I certain about?

Marketing orgs will look very different a year from now. The savviest CMOs are already preparing for that transition, not by blowing everything up, but by mapping workflows, testing new operating models, training their teams, adding AI ops experts, and deciding where human judgment matters most.

We’ll be sharing the FOMO Task Force's findings and guidance at the CMO Super Huddle on October 22-23.

In the meantime, I’d love your take:

• Do you already have bots or agents on your org chart?
• If yes, why did you put them there?
• And if not, where should they show up?

Written by Drew Neisser