He Milked Cows Before He Milked Data — Tim Armstrong on Why AI Can't Fix Stupid | ADOTAT Show

116 views Feb 26, 2026 #AI #audio #podcasting

Tim Armstrong went from a dairy farm in rural New Zealand to leading digital transformation at Mangrove Digital in Australia. Somewhere between herding 200 cows through lightning storms at 5 a.m. and optimizing programmatic supply paths, he picked up a take so hot it might melt your entire AI strategy: People still matter more than your algorithm. Yeah. We said it. In this episode of the ADOTAT Show, Pesach Lattin sits down with Tim to talk about why 53% of marketers think their AI is underwhelming (they're being generous), why companies are firing humans based on vibes and pitch decks, why soft skills are the actual hard part, why audio advertising is the dark horse nobody's betting on, and why the ad tech industry has an "artificial complexity" problem that Tim is absolutely done tolerating. Also: desert islands, Dave Grohl on driftwood guitar, Elon Musk building coconut blockchains, and why Tim's three-year-old thinks dad just "goes to work." If you've ever sat in a meeting where someone said "let's leverage AI to synergize our pipeline" and wanted to scream — this episode is for you. Stay Bold. Stay Curious. Know More Than You Did Yesterday. #adtech #AI #programmatic #digitaladvertising #podcasting #audio #adotat