Around the Digital Campfire: Rebuilding Community for Marketing Leaders in the AI Era
By Guest Contributor:
Morgan Doyle, The Home Depot
Morgan Doyle is an International Marketing Executive with 13+ years of success in global marketing strategy, data-driven storytelling, and revenue acceleration within the Tech and SaaS industries. She specializes in leading high-performing teams, developing marketing talent, and driving go-to-market execution, translating complex software innovations into high-impact, customer-centric messaging that fuels adoption and revenue growth. A skilled leader in stakeholder alignment and market expansion, Morgan thrives in fast-paced, competitive environments, leveraging consumer insights and emerging technologies to drive business success. She is passionate about global impact and mentorship and actively supports humanitarian initiatives, including clean water projects and community development worldwide.
We’ve been gathering in circles far longer than we’ve been building companies.
Before there were cities, humans gathered around fires to share stories, plan the hunt, and make sense of the world together. Anthropologists say we spent most of history in groups of 100‑150 people, small enough to know everyone, big enough to survive.
That’s not trivia; it’s how our brains and leadership instincts were wired.
From ancient forums and markets to medieval guilds and early scientific societies, progress has almost always come from people choosing to gather with intention — to debate, challenge, and advance ideas together, not alone.
Why Community Still Anchors Modern Leadership
Today, we like to pretend we’ve “outgrown” that. We have Slack channels, dashboards, and AI copilots. But none of that changes a simple reality: Community is still infrastructure for human survival – only now it’s mental, strategic, and organizational survival.
That’s why communities like the Marketing AI Pulse Community matter so much.
From the 6th Marketing AI Pulse
Thanks to the intentionality of founder Aby Varma, we’re not just another professional group or event. We’re recreating something very old in a very new context: leaders around the same “fire”, asking harder questions, sharing what’s really happening in their orgs, and making sense of AI together, so we can learn best practices and don’t all repeat the same mistakes in isolation.
The AI Era Has Raised the Stakes for Leaders
In a moment where:
Every executive is under pressure to “have an AI strategy,”
Teams are anxious about what AI means for their roles, and
The signal-to-noise ratio on AI content is getting worse, not better…
…a strong professional community isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a risk mitigation strategy.
Even the world’s most brilliant founders didn’t build alone. Behind every “visionary” you recognize are investors, advisors, operators, and teams who sharpened the idea, challenged the blind spots, and helped turn one person’s vision into something the world could actually experience.
If our ancestors needed each other to survive new climates and predators, we probably need each other to navigate new technologies and business models.
After all, iron sharpers iron.
A Call to Leaders Navigating AI Together
So here’s the question for us:
If community has always been essential to human survival, why would we expect our companies or our careers to thrive without it now – especially in an AI era that’s rewriting the rules as we go?
For those of us in the Marketing AI Pulse community, that’s the challenge and the invitation: Show up. Share honestly. Push each other’s thinking.
Build the kind of community your future self and your organization will thank you for.
Join us for our next event February 12th, 2026!
If you’re an executive or senior marketing leader trying to navigate AI without a real community around you, it might be time to fix that.
Search #LinkedIn, your local scene, and your industry networks, and get connected.
Connect. Learn. Build. Grow.
Get Involved
Join the Community: Connect with marketing leaders navigating AI together.
Volunteer: Help shape events and shared learning.
Partner: Reach senior marketing leaders evaluating real AI solutions and capabilities.
