Which Craft Beverage Jobs Will Survive AI?

Is your team wondering if Artificial Intelligence will replace them? Or on the flip side, are they convinced they’re irreplaceable?

How do Owners and Managers even begin to respond to the uncertain future AI has helped create for their tasting room employees?

We hear phrases like, “Oh, no, AI isn’t THAT good.” Maybe even, “Artificial Intelligence is for bigger players, not us.” Quite the contrary. You already know that AI IS that good. And whether you’re a small local tasting room or a nationwide producer, chances are good you already depend on it.

We’ve seen this movie before. Critics portray AI as the antagonist in an apocalyptic future scenario where the few remaining Marketers in the world hide in the shadows, waiting for the opportune time to rise against the machines. We addressed the doomsday critics head-on in our response to Molecular Beverage Printers threatening to put bartenders everywhere out of work in early 2022, then again soon after the commercial launch of ChatGPT in November. And our reco for utilizing AI back then is the same today:

“We believe work done now to craft your unique brand story will position you for the eventuality that Artificial Intelligence will help new drinkers find your tasting room.”

In fact, ChatGPT is beta testing brand and product recommendations as a part of its search experience RIGHT NOW. So, if your website allows ChatGPT to crawl the site for content, chances are good you’re already showing up in “best tasting room near me” queries. Try it yourself.

Twenty or so years ago you could find one individual in any marketing department “responsible” for optimizing your website for search, managing a list of relevant keywords and phrases to ensure your brand’s presence on Google. Multiple brands in the same space were then competing for ranking in search results, prompting dedicated resources to be assigned to search engine optimization. The complexity of keeping up with Google and Microsoft gave rise to outside agencies offering entire teams to help your brand build relevance. Then tools like SEMRush.com were developed to help automate the process, using AI for keyword research, content creation, and on-page SEO optimization for faster, more accurate delivery. And the market size for SEO software this year? Nearly $75B (February, 2025. “SEO Software Market Size, Share and Trends 2025 to 2034.” Precedence Research. https://www.precedenceresearch.com/seo-software-market).

Which leads us to our thought experiment for today: which if any jobs in the craft beverage space will be outsourced to AI? What is the next SEO Manager-type role to be eliminated in the wake of Artificial Intelligence?

Caveat: no one knows, really. And we’re certainly not encouraging widespread layoffs and removing humans from the craft formula. Like it or not, AI is already integral to the future marketing success of your business, so let’s talk about roles and functions that can be made easier putting it to use.

Below we’ve grouped 20 marketing roles according to the size of your craft beverage organization, assessed what we’ll call a ‘human factor’ (1 = more easily replaced, 10 = more difficult to replace), and our reasoning. You may disagree and that’s okay! The point is to have the discussion BEFORE it’s needed, proactively looking for ways to streamline operations using AI and getting the most out of your human capital in this competitive selling environment.

Small Craft Beverage Producer (<20 people)

Role/Responsibility	Human Factor	Reasoning
Founder/Owner Oversees all brand and business operations, including marketing.	10	Intuition, leadership, and vision aren’t programmed into AI just yet.
Taproom Manager Coordinates events, in-person promotions, and community engagement.	6	Pouring drinks can be automated (think RFID wristbands and self-service kiosks), but physical presence and hospitality are uniquely human.
Graphic Designer Creates labels, signage, and digital content.	6	If you’re looking for brand-right imagery and photos, best to use AI to generate drafts, not final artwork.
Sales & Merch Lead Manages local wholesale and direct merchandising efforts.	5	Tough to play hard-ball with a t-shirt vendor if you’re a computer. But some sales channel management could be automated.
Marketing Generalist Manages social media, events, basic design, and email marketing.	4	AI can test, learn, and execute digitally but lacks adaptability and experience with traditional media (like formatting for print applications).

Mid-Sized Producer (21–50 people)

Role/Responsibility	Human Factor	Reasoning
Marketing Manager Leads marketing calendar, promotions, digital campaigns.	6	AI can help automate repetitive tasks, but asking it to provide strategy and team leadership is a stretch.
Brand Designer Manages brand assets, packaging, and visual standards.	6	AI can’t grasp intent, or the driving force behind creative works, and lacks storytelling finesse.
Trade Marketing Lead Supports sales with materials and incentives for distributors/retail.	5	AI can help generate materials, but can’t adapt to fast-changing field marketing conditions.
Events Coordinator Plans tastings, festivals, and partnerships.	4	AI would struggle with there being no single template for event success and logistics management.
Content Creator Develops social, photo, video, and blog content.	3	We’re already seeing AI-created influencers that are highly convincing…so draft written and visual content is more passable every day.

Regional Producer (51–100 people)

Role/Responsibility	Human Factor	Reasoning
Director of Marketing Sets marketing strategy and team priorities.	8	AI doesn’t think cross-functionally to make strategic decisions that are best for brand growth.
PR & Partnerships Lead Manages media outreach and local collaborations.	6	Public relations and partnering with the local community both depend on relationships and are more contextual, not formulaic.
Field Marketing Rep Executes sampling, activations, and distributor ride-withs.	5	Can you imagine AI sampling a chain grocery store? Yeah, neither can we…
Digital Marketing Manager Manages paid media, CRM, and digital KPIs.	4	While AI excels at analytics and optimization, it lacks the natural ability to creatively problem solve.
Ecommerce Manager Runs DTC shop, fulfillment coordination, and email campaigns.	3	AI can automate most ecommerce functions but has a hard time troubleshooting complex issues (like missing shipments).

National Producer (>101 people)

Role/Responsibility	Human Factor	Reasoning
Chief Marketing Officer Owns brand architecture, national strategy, and innovation pipeline.	10	Similar to the Founder/Owner, AI misses the boat on vision, innovation, leadership, and other executive-level skills.
Creative Director Leads creative vision and agency/vendor relationships.	8	The creative direction, including brand book and guidelines for creative teams, should come from a human.
Brand Manager Oversees core product lines and promotional planning.	6	AI can support the process with data, but lifecycle ownership and emotional insight are missing.
Consumer Insights Manager Analyzes trends, segmentation, and performance data.	4	AI is strong at analysis but weak at interpretation and cultural context.
Media Buyer/Planner Manages large-scale paid media budgets and placements.	3	AI performs well in predictive bidding, audience targeting, and automation.

Additional roles (any size business)

Role/Responsibility	Human Factor	Reasoning
Video Producer Oversees production of video content from scripting to editing.	5	While generative AI can create amazing imagery, brand-right photos and video still originate with an in-house producer.
Social Media Manager Plans, creates, and manages social content and engagement.	3	AI already creates full content calendars with enough speed for marketers to accept it being slightly off-brand or exaggerated. Plus, AI stands a better chance of designing messaging to beat the algorithms.
Paid Media Specialist Manages and optimizes paid digital ad campaigns (e.g. Google Ads, Meta).	2	AI is great at optimizing media buys, campaign delivery, and reporting. And much faster and more accurately than humans.

Brands aren’t created in a laboratory. They’re not a series of mathematical equations. There’s no template for ‘going viral.’ And if you build it, they may not come. Unless of course you’re part of a fabricated pop band.

Point being, businesses don’t build brands, consumers do, for all you students of Simon Sinek out there. Consumers are real flesh-and-bones humans, so it would stand to reason that the brands they create reflect some aspects of humanity. Businesses then are shepherds of those brands, and if they’re listening to their consumers they’re creating products with meaning and value. And our jobs as Marketers of those products is to identify the stories that matter, introducing our brands to larger audiences.

Artificial Intelligence will make certain functions within craft production facilities easier, but by no means less important. There may even be solid justification to combine or eliminate roles entirely. But AI doesn’t have to replace people if we think more creatively about how and where to deploy human capital. If you have passionate, intelligent, hardworking individuals working for you, try to find a way to better utilize their skills in an area where they can clearly help grow the business. On the flip side, if you’re in a tough position where for BUDGET reasons you need to downsize, please own what’s happening and lead your people through it in a way that allows them to transition with grace. AI is not to blame for challenges facing the beverage industry at large. And the sooner we acknowledge the opportunity and utility for AI to assist in storytelling craft beverage, the greater our ability to address those challenges head-on.

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