Home » Burn The Map: Why Human-First AI Wins w/ Mike Montague

2026

Burn The Map: Why Human-First AI Wins w/ Mike Montague

In This Episode:

We talk to Mike Montague about what it looks like to use AI without becoming lazy, robotic, or completely unbearable. Mike’s the founder of Avenue9, a marketer-who-codes, a broadcaster-turned-podcaster, and one of the few people talking about AI in a way that doesn’t sound like either a doomer spiral or a LinkedIn hallucination. His core bet is simple: AI should make humans better at building trust, not better at faking it.

Mike breaks down why so much “agentic AI” still feels more like a magic trick than true autonomy, why most companies are using personalization in the dumbest possible way, and why the real opportunity is in removing friction—not replacing human judgment. He and Dan also get into cognitive overload, AI burnout, context engineering, the small-business advantage, and why average work is about to have a very hard time hiding.

This is a sharp one for anyone trying to figure out how to use AI to get more human, not less.

What We Cover:

  • Why AGI may be closer than people think—but still isn’t here
  • The difference between Terminator AI and Iron Man AI
  • Why “human-first AI marketing” is really about trust, context, and judgment
  • How fake personalization backfires the second people smell the template
  • Why small businesses may be better positioned than giant brands in the AI shift
  • The three types of work—physical, intellectual, and emotional—and why marketing lives in the messiest category
  • How context engineering helps train AI on what actually makes a company different
  • Why speed alone is not the win if it fries your brain in the process
  • How to think about work, creativity, and finding the thing that makes you come alive

Guest Bio:

Mike Montague is the founder of Avenue9 and the host of the Human First AI Marketing podcast. He’s spent his career at the intersection of sales, marketing, media, and technology—combining broadcaster instincts, systems thinking, and a sharp eye for what actually earns attention. Mike is also the author of Playful Humans, where he explores creativity, emotional work, and how people can build lives and careers around what makes them come alive. His work focuses on helping companies use AI to amplify human connection instead of automating the soul out of the experience.

Enjoy the episode. This show is brought to you by Wrench.ai.

Follow Dan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danbaird/
X: https://x.com/mrdanbaird

Follow Mike:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedmontague/

Follow the Pod:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@burnthemappodcast
Twitter/X: https://x.com/BurnTheMapPod
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burnthemappodcast/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@burnthemappodcast
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/burnthemappodcast.bsky.social

Selected Links From This Episode:

People and Organizations Mentioned:

  • Mike Montague
  • Dan Baird
  • Avenue9
  • Wrench.ai
  • Meta
  • Anthropic
  • Google NotebookLM
  • Netflix
  • Seth Godin
  • Rory Sutherland
  • Lex Fridman
  • Shelley Palmer

ShowNotes & Timestamps:
01:05 — Why AI adoption went from taboo to everywhere to polarizing
02:00 — Is AGI close? Mike’s take on the next 3–4 years
02:28 — Why agentic AI still feels like a magic trick
03:29 — What changed in real workflow: replacing old work vs evolving new work
05:21 — Why Mike trademarked “human-first AI marketing”
07:00 — The three types of work: physical, intellectual, and emotional
09:43 — Information overload, AI burnout, and cognitive fatigue
11:17 — Automating low-value decisions to protect meaningful work
12:07 — Terminator vs Iron Man: two competing visions of AI
14:09 — What most companies are getting wrong with AI
15:21 — Human + AI capability mapping inside an organization
16:18 — Where AI is clearly useful: translation, transcription, scale
17:38 — Where human context still matters most in marketing and service
18:36 — Context engineering and training AI like a new employee
21:15 — Personalization, long-tail products, and what custom experiences could become
23:38 — Why small businesses may have the biggest AI advantage
25:01 — AI-generated outreach, job applications, and the return of human filtering
26:13 — Why people reward real effort with real attention
28:44 — Novelty, emotion, and what actually makes ideas spread
30:10 — Why Mike refuses to chase shortcuts and growth hacks
31:35 — Playful Humans, interviewing 250 people who “play” for a living
34:03 — How to find your “muse” and work that feels natural
37:02 — Why “What do you want to be?” is the wrong question
38:23 — Burn the Map, order vs chaos, and why interesting work lives in between
39:39 — Dan’s take on displacement, productivity, and why average work is vulnerable
41:24 — Why Burn The Map exists: conversations with people who have a fire in their belly
44:22 — Where to find Mike and who should check out his work
45:16 — Mike’s favorite thinkers and voices in marketing and AI

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