Is AI your best team member?
LVL with me.
LVL with me.
We’re back in the ring with another no-BS debate on modern marketing.
Two experts.
One question.
The only rule: no sitting on the fence.
This week’s debate:
Is AI your best team member?
NXT LVL contributors Sedge and Lauren go head-to-head.
🔔 Ding, ding, ding 🔔
🥊 In one corner: NXT LVL founder, Sedge.
Sedge says: AI trims the fat.
AI will absolutely replace parts of your team.
There’s no debating that AI is the ultimate efficiency streamliner. But once you start using it, it exposes not just flaws in process, but weaknesses in people’s performance.
Right now, people have a direct responsibility to upskill. If you’re not fluent in AI, not learning how to use it to boost your output, you’re at risk. As AI becomes more dominant, people who can’t work with it won’t keep their jobs.
And it’s not hypothetical. Agencies are already feeling this.
Established agencies are being forced to run on leaner teams and put strategy at the forefront, because AI can smash through huge amounts of execution work.
New agencies and businesses can also be started faster than ever. AI can handle so much of the busy work that you no longer need massive teams or big upfront investment.
But strategy is what keeps humans indispensable. AI can’t deliver it in the same way - it needs to be backed by lived experience. So if you want to outrun AI, human-first skills like strategy need to sit at the very top of your skillset.
Sedge’s TL;DR:
If you know how to use AI properly, you’ll be a standout. If you don’t, AI is coming for you.
🥊 In the other corner: NXT LVL contributor, Lauren.
Lauren says: AI doesn’t replace teams - it strengthens them.
Yes - AI is insanely efficient at removing admin work and eliminating bottlenecks. BUT its value isn’t in cutting people out, it’s in giving them space to do the work that actually matters: creative thinking, strategy, judgement, experience-led decisions.
You have to treat AI as revenue building, not cost cutting.
Using AI to reduce headcount might look good on a P&L in the short-term, but it’s a risky game in the long-term. Strategy needs lived experience and human judgement - and if your teams are so lean that no one can build that experience, you don’t have a growth plan.
Sedge and I might agree on strategy, but AI cannot do that much of the heavy lifting when it comes to running a business. Replacing teams with AI leads to smaller operations that overload the people who are left. It drives burnout, not growth. The smart choice isn’t to “replace with AI” - it’s to integrate AI in a way that boosts your people and your output.
Lauren’s TL;DR:
AI isn’t your best team member, but it can make your existing team a lot better.
So… who’s right?
No question - AI absolutely boosts efficiency. IF you know how to use it.
It removes grunt work and gives you space to think bigger. But whether that leads to fewer people or just better work is a choice your business gets to make.
If you treat AI like an alternative for an employee, you shrink teams and concentrate output. But you risk losing strategic depth and burning out the people left behind. If you treat AI as support, you unlock higher performance without losing human judgement and experience.
Humans still bring strategy. Humans still bring nuance. They just need to know how to leverage AI so they have the time to focus on the higher-level stuff, instead of getting caught up in fiddly tasks.
Your turn in the ring 🥊
Is AI replacing roles in your business, or making your team stronger?
📹 Watch the first LVL WITH ME debate over on our Instagram (and give us a follow whilst you’re there 👋 )
Solid take on the cost-cutting vs revenue-building angle. Ive watched companies try the lean AI-only route and they usually hit a wall around strategic depth within6 months. The burnout risk is real when teams shrink too fast. Integration over replacement makes way more sense for sustainable growth, esp when experiece still matters for high-stakes decisions.