Red Flags Every Marketer Should Know: The AI Arms Race is a Head Fake

Introduction

In today's rapidly evolving AI landscape, marketers face the challenge of distinguishing genuine i ovation from empty hype. Tom Chavez, Founding General Partner at super{set} and serial entrepreneur with successful exits to Salesforce and Microsoft, joins the MarTech Podcast to share critical insights on navigating the AI revolution. With decades of experience building data-driven companies that have generated 17.5x returns for investors, Chavez offers a refreshingly pragmatic perspective on how marketers can identify real AI value while avoiding the snake oil salesmen riding the hype wave.

Identifying Authentic AI Expertise

The biggest red flag in today's AI-saturated market is distinguishing between those who merely talk about AI and those who genuinely understand how to implement it. Chavez emphasizes looking for practitioners who are actively engaging with the technology rather than just repeating buzzwords. "The first thing we look for is are you going to the shed? Are you learning these new frameworks? Are you prototyping and building against them?" he explains. True experts demonstrate curiosity and a willingness to continuously learn and adapt to new technological frameworks, rather than relying on past experience alone.

Systems Thinking Over Technical Expertise

One of the most valuable insights from the conversation is that you don't need to be an AI expert to effectively leverage AI tools. What matters more is being an expert in your domain and understanding how to integrate AI into existing systems. As Chavez notes when evaluating potential founders: "We push people to diagram it out, teach me exactly how that works. And if they just sprinkle some buzzwords and arrows pointing nowhere in a make-believe picture, then we know they're full of it." The ability to think architecturally about how different components work together is far more valuable than deep technical knowledge of how LLMs function internally.

The Real Opportunity in AI

While much attention focuses on foundational AI models from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, Chavez argues that the real business opportunities lie elsewhere. "Leave the science of LLMs to the anthropics and open AIs of the world. Be all about the engineering of AI," he advises. The most promising area for marketers and entrepreneurs isn't building new foundation models but creating vertical-specific applications that solve real business problems using existing AI infrastructure. This approach allows companies to focus on delivering practical value rather than competing in the resource-intensive race to build better base models.

Curiosity as a Competitive Advantage

In a technology landscape where major companies like Microsoft are reportedly pla ing significant reductions in engineering staff, continuous learning becomes essential for survival. Chavez emphasizes that curiosity is the differentiating factor between those who will thrive and those who will struggle: "If you're out there and you're a builder of one of these kinds of systems, you've got to be tooling up, you got to stay curious. You got to be ambitious enough to repot yourself and learn these new methods." This mindset applies equally to marketers who must adapt to rapidly evolving AI capabilities.

Conclusion

The AI arms race dominating headlines may be a distraction from where the real value lies for marketers. Success in AI-powered marketing doesn't require building foundational models or becoming an AI researcher. Instead, it demands domain expertise, systems thinking, and the ability to apply AI tools to solve specific business problems. By focusing on practical applications rather than chasing the latest buzzwords, marketers can cut through the hype and leverage AI to deliver measurable results. As Chavez succinctly puts it, the opportunity isn't in the science of AI but in the engineering of solutions that address real business needs.