Build Your Workforce
Start with the work. Not the org chart.
Before moving boxes on an org chart, define what marketing must deliver. Which capabilities matter most to the revenue plan? Which decisions need human judgment? Which tasks can agents support?
Then map the people you have to the work the business needs.
By Mark Tack, author of Marketing Rebuilt
01Three owners
Three kinds of ownership
- 01
Executive sponsor
A CEO or senior executive makes the commitment visible and backs the work through setbacks.
- 02
Engine owner
One accountable leader, usually the head of marketing, owns the engine end to end.
- 03
Capability owners
Named people own each capability and its agents. One person may own several. These are responsibilities, not mandatory new hires.
02Ownership map
Put a name next to every capability
For each capability, record who is accountable today and how fully it is owned. Several contributors do not equal one owner.
| Capability | Who's accountable today | Owned |
|---|---|---|
| Example: Scoreboard | A named capability owner | ●●●●○ |
| AI Agents | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Scoreboard | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Positioning | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Brand | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Pipeline Generation | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Customer Marketing | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Revenue Acceleration | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Content Marketing | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Product Marketing | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
| Engine Operations | Name the person | ○○○○○ |
For empty rows, reassign work, bring in a partner, or deliberately defer the capability. Do not pretend it is covered.
03Agent oversight
How many agents can one person run?
The number matters less than the rules.
Within rules
Low-risk agents can work within approved boundaries with periodic review.
Review
Customer-facing work or consequential analysis may require sign-off.
Approve every time
Spending, price changes, and company commitments require explicit approval.
Every owner should know each agent's trigger, permitted data, independent actions, escalation rule, and shutdown path.
Before a workflow runs, its owner should be able to answer the six questions from Chapter 14:
- 01
Problem
What problem is this solving?
- 02
Signal
What signal makes it fire?
- 03
Data
What data can it see?
- 04
Authority
What can it do without asking?
- 05
Handoff
When does it stop and hand the call to a human?
- 06
Shutdown
Who can shut it off today without calling a meeting about it?
04People development
Build the human bench
- 01
Redraw roles
Redraw roles around what stays human.
- 02
Give them something to lead
Give someone a capability or agent portfolio to lead.
- 03
Protect the time
Remove enough production work to create time to learn.
- 04
Change the measures
Measure outcomes and judgment, not just volume.
- 05
Bring in experience
Bring in outside experience where needed while building the internal skills that sustain the workforce.
05Cadence
The right structure will change
Monthly
Review ownership.
Quarterly
Revisit the full organization. Ask whether owners are stretched, priorities moved, or a capability has become unowned.
The organization that fit last year's strategy may not fit this one.
06FAQ
Agentic marketing questions
- What is agentic marketing?
- Agentic marketing is marketing where AI agents take action inside rules set by people. Agents handle defined execution work. People set direction, approve consequential steps, and stay accountable for outcomes.
- Who owns AI agents in marketing?
- A named person owns each capability and its agents. An executive sponsor backs the work, one leader owns the engine end to end, and capability owners answer for their agents' rules, handoffs, and results.
- How do you use an AI agent for marketing?
- Start with one recurring problem tied to a business outcome. Name the human owner, define the trigger, the data the agent may see, what it can do without approval, and when it must hand off. Prove one workflow before adding more.
Find the most expensive empty row
You do not need to fix every gap at once. Start with the unowned capability that matters most to your revenue plan, name a human owner, and prove one useful partnership.