Mar 27 2025 65 mins 1
Paul Roetzer is the founder and CEO of SmarterX and the Marketing AI Institute—a media, event, and online education company that he started back in 2016 to make AI accessible, approachable, and actionable for marketers and business leaders. Through the institute, he created MAICON—the leading annual Marketing AI conference, which is hosted here in Cleveland!
He is also the co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence: AI, Marketing, and the Future of Business, the co-host of The Artificial Intelligence Show podcast, and the creator of The AI Literacy Project, where he’s working to make AI education accessible and personalized for everyone.
Paul graduated from Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and has since consulted for hundreds of organizations, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. In 2005, he founded Ready North (formerly known as PR 20/20), a digital marketing agency that became HubSpot’s first partner agency and played a pivotal role in launching HubSpot’s entire partnership strategy. He successfully sold the firm in 2021 to Blue Cypress.
This was such a fun conversation for me—I love thinking about how exponential technologies will affect the future of society, and that is exactly what Paul and I got to do—we explore the vast and profound implications of AI on the future of work and society overall while also exploring the business of conferences, the importance of AI literacy going forward, lessons from the early days of HubSpot, building in Cleveland, and a whole lot more!
00:00:00 - The Evolution of Podcasting and AI Integration
00:04:13 - The Journey of Building Marketing AI Institute
00:07:12 - The Impact of AI on Marketing and Business
00:09:47 - Navigating Challenges and Embracing Change
00:12:38 - The Role of Conferences in AI Education
00:15:15 - Cleveland as a Hub for AI Innovation
00:17:48 - The Future of AI and Its Societal Implications
00:20:32 - AI Literacy and Its Importance
00:23:03 - The Philosophical Dilemmas of AI Decision-Making
00:25:45 - The Uncertain Future of Work in an AI-Driven World
00:35:59 - The Inevitable Disruption of Jobs by AI
00:41:32 - AI's Impact on Knowledge Work and Industries
00:46:35 - Marketing in the Age of AI
00:49:46 - Defining AI Literacy and Its Future
00:52:45 - Lessons from the HubSpot Journey
00:57:04 - The Entrepreneurial Journey and Its Challenges
01:01:30 - Hidden Gem
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LINKS:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulroetzer/
https://smarterx.ai/
https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/
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