“We’re not hiring less because of AI. We just expect each hire to be more productive.” 

Is AI shrinking your marketing team, or just changing who belongs on it? 

Connor Rolain (Head of Growth, HexClad) and Cody Plofker (CEO, Jones Road Beauty) get into how two of the most operator-driven brands in ecommerce are rethinking their AI marketing team structure heading into the second half of 2026. 

They cover which roles are compressing, which are expanding, and what it actually looks like to build a leaner growth team that outputs more. Cody breaks down the CRO program he runs with one person that used to require six. Connor explains why HexClad hired more people after building an AI-powered seeding system, not fewer. And both share how they think about headcount requests now, and what they make teams prove before saying yes. 

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Motion Creative Benchmarks 2026 

https://motionapp.com/thumbstop-pulse/creative-benchmarks-2026?utm_campaign=marketing-operators&utm_medium=sponsor&utm_content=creative-benchmarks-2026&utm_source=marketing-operators-podcast

Aftersell 

https://9ops.co/4i3bb5 

Haus

https://www.haus.io/operators 

Richpanel

https://9ops.co/richpanel 

Operators Newsletter

https://9operators.com/

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