Tim Armstrong, the founder and CEO of Flowcode and a veteran of Google and AOL, sat down with Forbes to lay out a blunt assessment of where marketing and technology are headed — and his résumé gives weight to what he says. Americans should pay attention when someone who helped build the modern internet warns that the next wave will be different but no less human. His track record in digital media means his prescriptions for business deserve more scrutiny than the usual Silicon Valley hot takes.
Flowcode calls itself the bridge between offline moments and online engagement, and it has the kind of backers and brand partners that make Washington and Wall Street take notice. The company boasts relationships with major sports leagues and a long list of corporate customers, and investors ranging from institutional funds to industry insiders have poured capital into its growth. That kind of traction shows there is real money behind the argument that technology must serve commerce, not replace it.
Armstrong didn’t mince words about artificial intelligence: it’s arriving faster than many expected and it’s already reshaping marketing playbooks. He’s enforcing company-wide AI adoption days and insists leaders treat the technology as a tool for creativity and performance — not an excuse to gut human judgment. Conservatives who worry about centralized tech power should welcome a message that emphasizes human oversight alongside innovation.
At Flowcode, Armstrong talks about AI powering what he calls “connected creative,” and he’s right to push back against an industry obsessed with metrics at the expense of big ideas. Advertising has become back-end heavy, and that’s why hardworking entrepreneurs and small businesses rarely get a fair shot against slick, data-driven campaigns from entrenched incumbents. If AI is going to be useful, it should level the playing field for Main Street businesses rather than consolidate audiences for coastal elites.
The company’s product roadmap is practical: tools that let brands measure and optimize offline-to-online conversions, because most transactions and decisions still begin in the real world. Flowcode’s focus on offline conversion optimization proves Armstrong’s point — you can have the best algorithm in the world, but if your campaign doesn’t convert where people actually live and work, it’s smoke and mirrors. Policymakers and investors who idolize purely digital metrics would do well to remember that jobs and revenue are earned in store aisles, on factory floors, and at local events.
What bothered many of us listening to this conversation was the implicit warning: don’t let technological fetishism blind us to the realities of economic life. Armstrong’s experience shows that the future will reward those who combine bold creative thinking with accountable technology, not the bureaucrats in either Silicon Valley or Washington who want to centralize control. That’s a message conservatives should amplify — defend private enterprise, demand transparency, and insist technology serve citizens, not the other way around.
Americans who love freedom and prosperity should welcome practical tools that help small businesses compete and protect consumer privacy while remaining skeptical of any one company or government getting unchecked power in the name of progress. We should cheer innovations that restore personal responsibility, local commerce, and creative risk-taking, and we should push back hard when elites try to sell us the myth that algorithms alone can run our economy. Tim Armstrong’s talk is a timely reminder: technology is a lever, not a destiny — and we must keep the lever in the hands of the many, not the few.
