I just returned from attending several spring digital marketing conferences – Adobe Summit and Martech West. In both the art of the possible was on full display and got me thinking about whether fully-automated AI-driven digital marketing could ever be a thing, and what realistic automation goals look like. Digital marketing continues to be on the leading edge of AI advances and high-tech innovations. Surveys repeatedly indicate AI professionals aim their efforts at infusing intelligence into digital marketing. And every day we're inundated with news of more advances in marketing automation such as: From all this, some might conclude the end of human-powered marketing is close at hand. But others, unconvinced by these tenuous signs, might simply respond, "Poppycock!"