In the age of AI, marketing leaders face a paradox. On one hand, AI optimists predict that “95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists, and creative professionals for today will easily, nearly instantly and at almost no cost be handled by AI.” On the other, experienced communicators remind us that AI “can’t replicate or replace human creativity and emotional intelligence.” The truth lies in between: the most effective teams strike a balance that leverages AI’s speed and human ingenuity. The challenge is knowing which tasks to automate and scale, and which require uniquely human touch.
This post introduces a simple 2×2 quadrant framework to cut through the noise and help you decide. By mapping your team’s activities on axes of Syntropy Score (how irreplaceable human input is) vs. Relevance Score (how critical the task is to client value), you can quickly see what to focus, automate, rethink, or eliminate.
To prioritize effectively, evaluate each recurring task along two dimensions:
Syntropy Score (Human Input): Rate 1–10 based on how much unique human judgment, creativity, or contextual understanding the task requires.
Relevance Score (Client Value): Rate 1–10 based on how important the task is to delivering real value for your client or organization.
Scoring Guidelines (1 to 10):
Syntropy Score: 1 = fully automatable (routine scheduling, formatting data). 10 = deeply human craft or judgment (original strategy, live negotiation).
Relevance Score: 1 = negligible impact (no one would notice if it disappeared). 10 = mission-critical to client success.
Top Right: Core Human Signal – High Syntropy, High Relevance
Top Left: Automate & Scale – Low Syntropy, High Relevance
Bottom Right: Rethink or Reduce – High Syntropy, Low Relevance
Bottom Left: Kill or Outsource – Low Syntropy, Low Relevance
These are the tasks at the heart of your value proposition. They demand uniquely human insight and matter greatly to client outcomes. Protect and invest in them.
Examples:
Developing core brand messaging and positioning
Designing creative campaign concepts
Conducting deep customer interviews and extracting insights
Writing thought leadership or executive keynotes with unique POV
Strategic marketing planning and prioritization
Action: Double down. Let AI assist with scaffolding or research, but humans must own the final outcome. This is your differentiation.
These tasks are important to client value but don’t require much originality. They’re perfect for automation, freeing up human focus for higher-value work.
Examples:
Weekly performance reporting and analytics
Social media scheduling and basic content distribution
Email nurture campaign execution
SEO keyword research and optimization
Paid ads management and bidding
Action: Automate aggressively, but keep humans in the loop for oversight and interpretation.
These tasks burn human energy but don’t deliver significant client value. Question why you’re doing them at all.
Examples:
Over-engineering minor design assets
Writing niche blog posts with little traction
Producing custom reports no one uses
Running small, low-impact events or newsletters
Responding in detail to every minor social interaction
Action: Reduce, reinvent, or eliminate. Reallocate time toward higher-value activities.
The graveyard quadrant. These tasks neither add value nor require human creativity. They’re pure entropy.
Examples:
Manual data entry or duplicative reporting
Maintaining unused social media channels
Formatting and file conversion chores
Excessive internal process overhead
Legacy tasks done “because we always have”
Action: Stop doing them. If they must persist (compliance, edge cases), automate or outsource at the lowest cost.
Here’s how to implement:
List your team’s top recurring tasks.
Score each task for Syntropy and Relevance (1–10).
Place each in the quadrant map.
Agree on one clear action per quadrant:
Q1: Invest and elevate
Q2: Automate and systematize
Q3: Reduce or reinvent
Q4: Kill or outsource
Finally, share commitments. Decide what each leader will stop, start, or change immediately. Publish those commitments to your team so everyone sees the focus shift.
This framework gives you a simple but powerful filter: Does this task create irreplaceable human signal, and does it truly matter? Use it to make AI a lever, not a distraction. Your team’s energy should go where human creativity and client value intersect.
Now—grab a whiteboard, run the exercise, and start pruning entropy. The future belongs to those who create order from chaos.
World Economic Forum, The Future of Jobs Report 2023 – notes that AI cannot replace human creativity and emotional intelligence.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI – prediction that 95% of marketing tasks will be handled by AI.
Forbes / MarTech interviews – highlight balance of AI automation with human oversight.
Peter Drucker – “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”