What It Takes to Become a 10X Marketer

The promise of the 10X marketer is stronger judgment: a clearer understanding of customers, more informed investment decisions, and teams that can put their expertise to better use. AI’s ability to increase output is only part of that ambition.

At Zeta Live 2026, marketing leaders and advisers explored what it takes to turn greater capability into better decisions. Here are seven perspectives worth taking back to your team.

Janet Balis on connecting intelligence across the brand

Better decisions require a view beyond an individual team. Janet Balis, Managing Director and Partner at BCG, described how AI can bring commercial functions closer together.

“The silos are breaking down because you can drive more connectivity using data and driving better decisioning than ever before,” she said.

For the CMO, that means helping redesign how teams share information and work toward a business objective.

Norm de Greve on the judgment AI still needs

“You still need taste. Judgment becomes so important,” said Norm de Greve, former Global CGO and CMO of General Motors.

He compared guiding agents to raising children: marketers must instill values and judgment rather than assume those qualities arrive with the technology. The more work agents take on, the more consequential that guidance becomes.

Kelly Mahoney on knowing the person behind the data

For Ulta Beauty CMO Kelly Mahoney, judgment begins with a practical instruction: “Understand your customer. Do whatever it takes.”

At Ulta, that includes getting into stores, spending time with associates, interacting with customers, and examining the data. Those experiences help marketers assess what customers need and whether a decision is right for the business.

Carla Hassan on teaching people to manage agents

JPMorganChase CMO Carla Hassan described a new responsibility for marketing leaders: “you’re going to have to teach people how to work with people and agents.”

Her teams were finding that managing an agent could be harder than building it. Leaders need to develop the managerial skills that help people direct the work, alongside the technical skills required to create it.

Jill Cress on making room for strategic work

At Babylist, CMO Jill Cress described email marketers moving from building messages and handling production tasks into managing agents.

The change means “they can do the strategic thinking,” she said. Marketers are becoming more embedded in product squads, contributing to design and strategic work. The important question is what people can now contribute with the capacity they have gained.

Grace Dolan on using existing knowledge in better ways

“It’s just smarter use of information that always existed,” said Grace Dolan, President of Sharp Electronics USA and former marketing executive.

She described AI helping extract patterns from customer-service calls and share them with sales and marketing. Sales teams could recognize emerging issues; marketers could improve answers to customer questions. Information already inside the business became useful to more of the people making decisions.

Kevin Wertz on changing the investment decision

Better measurement has changed how Kevin Wertz, CMO of Bedrock Manufacturing’s Shinola and Filson brands, allocates media investment.

He described using incrementality testing to assess channel performance and first-purchase economics to guide spending. As he put it, “we don’t have a fixed media budget anymore.”

The budget can move with performance, giving the team a more responsive way to decide where the next dollar should go.

Becoming a 10X marketer means being more deliberate about the work AI makes possible. What should the team learn, which decisions need human judgment, and where will the next investment create value?

Marketing becomes an intelligence function when it helps the business answer those questions—and act on the answers.

Watch The 10X Marketer session in full, or explore all the conversations from Zeta Live 2026 on demand.