He didn’t yell.

He didn’t posture.

He didn’t say “AI” like it was a spell you chant to scare CFOs.

He said this:

If an agency can’t tell a client whether they actually sold something, it’s not a growth partner. It’s overhead.

From there, things escalated.

We talked about why “agency of record” is a title from a different era.
Why consumers have already moved on while agency models are still arguing over FTE math.
Why most agency tech was built to make agencies richer, not clients better.
Why transparency isn’t a virtue, it’s a threat.
And why AI isn’t your savior, your intern, or your fall guy.

The most interesting part wasn’t the tech.

It was the accountability.

Bob’s argument, in plain English:
Marketing, sales, and finance should stop pretending they’re separate religions.

Same metrics.
Same scoreboard.
Same consequences.

That idea alone explains why this industry resists change like a cat being pushed toward a bathtub.

If you want the full conversation — including the parts that don’t fit neatly into LinkedIn optimism — it’s on the latest episode of The ADOTAT Show on Spotify.