The 5 Skills AI Can't Buy
The LinkedIn CEO and CEOO just published a book about the future of work. It's called Open to Work, and the headline claim is one most people in our industry should sit with for a minute: the skills AI can't replace are curiosity, courage, creativity, compassion, and communication - what they call the 5Cs.
Date
Apr 1, 2026
Apr 1, 2026
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Category
Media Strategy
Media Strategy
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Writer
David Coleman
David Coleman
It's not a hot take. It's just true. And it's particularly true in the music, events, and experience space.
AI Is Already Doing the Easy Part of Your Job
Budget pacing, audience segmentation, bid optimisation, creative testing - all of it is being handled at a level of speed and scale no human team can match (I'd still keep an eye on your ad performance though, from experience). The platforms are getting smarter, the automation is getting better, and the marginal value of someone who "knows how to run ads" is collapsing fast.
What isn't collapsing is the value of the person who actually understands why someone decides to go to a show on a Tuesday night, or what makes a new artist feel worth the ticket price before anyone's heard of them. That's not a data problem. That's a human problem.
The LinkedIn CEO's framing is useful here: break your job down into tasks, figure out which ones AI can automate, and then be intentional about building depth in the ones it can't. For anyone in performance marketing, that line is shifting fast, and the people pretending it isn't are the ones who'll be easiest to replace.
The 5Cs, Applied to What We Do
Curiosity - knowing why a campaign worked, not just that it did. Asking what the behavioural signal actually means before you scale it.
Courage - recommending the uncomfortable thing when the data points that way. Telling a client their strategy is wrong when everyone else is nodding along.
Creativity - finding the angle that makes someone stop scrolling. Not the one the brief asked for. The one that actually lands.
Compassion - understanding that the person on the other side of an ad is a fan deciding whether an experience is worth their time and money. Not a conversion event.
Communication - translating what's happening in a campaign into something an artist, a venue, or a label exec actually cares about. The ability to do that well is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
The Shift Is Already Happening
By 2030, job skill sets globally are expected to shift by as much as 70%. That's not a future problem - it's already underway. The question isn't whether your role changes. It's whether you're the person shaping what it changes into, or the one reacting after the fact.
The agencies and operators who survive the next five years won't be the ones with the best tech stack. They'll be the ones who still have something the stack can't replicate.
Check out Open to Work by The LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky and CEOO, Aneesh Raman here
It's not a hot take. It's just true. And it's particularly true in the music, events, and experience space.
AI Is Already Doing the Easy Part of Your Job
Budget pacing, audience segmentation, bid optimisation, creative testing - all of it is being handled at a level of speed and scale no human team can match (I'd still keep an eye on your ad performance though, from experience). The platforms are getting smarter, the automation is getting better, and the marginal value of someone who "knows how to run ads" is collapsing fast.
What isn't collapsing is the value of the person who actually understands why someone decides to go to a show on a Tuesday night, or what makes a new artist feel worth the ticket price before anyone's heard of them. That's not a data problem. That's a human problem.
The LinkedIn CEO's framing is useful here: break your job down into tasks, figure out which ones AI can automate, and then be intentional about building depth in the ones it can't. For anyone in performance marketing, that line is shifting fast, and the people pretending it isn't are the ones who'll be easiest to replace.
The 5Cs, Applied to What We Do
Curiosity - knowing why a campaign worked, not just that it did. Asking what the behavioural signal actually means before you scale it.
Courage - recommending the uncomfortable thing when the data points that way. Telling a client their strategy is wrong when everyone else is nodding along.
Creativity - finding the angle that makes someone stop scrolling. Not the one the brief asked for. The one that actually lands.
Compassion - understanding that the person on the other side of an ad is a fan deciding whether an experience is worth their time and money. Not a conversion event.
Communication - translating what's happening in a campaign into something an artist, a venue, or a label exec actually cares about. The ability to do that well is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
The Shift Is Already Happening
By 2030, job skill sets globally are expected to shift by as much as 70%. That's not a future problem - it's already underway. The question isn't whether your role changes. It's whether you're the person shaping what it changes into, or the one reacting after the fact.
The agencies and operators who survive the next five years won't be the ones with the best tech stack. They'll be the ones who still have something the stack can't replicate.
Check out Open to Work by The LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Roslansky and CEOO, Aneesh Raman here
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