If your marketing team isn’t using AI, you’re already behind
A CMO’s guide to turning AI into a competitive advantage across the marketing function
The efficiency mandate for modern marketing
Every CMO today is being asked to deliver more with less. More channels. More content. More reporting. And usually, with less budget, fewer people and shorter timelines.
The pressure to perform hasn’t gone away – but the tools available to us have completely changed. AI is now a strategic advantage. Yet too many marketing teams are still treating it as a novelty, or worse, a threat.
The truth is this: if you’re not integrating AI into your marketing workflows right now, you’re already behind.
The real waste – not using AI where it’s already better than us
There’s a lot of excitement about AI, but the most practical reason to use it is simple – in some areas, it’s just faster, smarter and more reliable than doing things manually.
Not every task, of course. But there are clear use cases in every team across marketing.
- Marketing ops teams can use AI for campaign diagnostics, reporting, and budget insights
- Comms and PR teams can use it to track sentiment, summarise media coverage, and prepare executive-ready insights
- Product marketers can use it to adapt messaging for different personas or markets
- Social teams can use it to time content, analyse performance, and identify emerging trends
And here’s the simple truth – every role in marketing should and can use AI in some form. If AI can do it faster or better, why are we still doing it manually?
What a well-oiled, AI-enabled marketing team looks like
Let’s be clear – this isn’t about replacing people with machines. It’s about helping your team focus on the work that matters most.
In high-functioning marketing teams, AI is used just like any other tool – built into workflows, embedded in processes, and trusted to accelerate the jobs that slow people down.
These teams use AI to:
- unlock creative thinking
- move faster from brief to execution
- spot trends and optimise campaigns
- generate campaign reporting and understand what’s working
- support budget allocation and spend optimisation
- and much, much more
Most importantly, they know when not to use it. Brand tone, human judgement and creative instincts still matter. AI is a co-pilot, not the pilot.
Content creation and repurposing – still the biggest quick win
Content still eats up time. There’s often a mindset – especially in B2B – that every piece of content must be painstakingly handcrafted. There’s a lingering sense that if AI has touched it, it’s somehow less valuable or less authentic.
That’s an outdated view.
AI won’t replace your copywriters – but it will give them the freedom to do more of their best work. It can:
- build outlines
- draft initial versions
- tailor content to different audiences or formats
- Proofreading against brand guidelines
And when it comes to repurposing – the part of marketing everyone talks about but rarely does properly – AI becomes even more useful.
How many brilliant blogs get published and forgotten? Or white papers that never make it into sales enablement decks, LinkedIn posts or thought leadership?
AI can help turn one core idea into dozens of formats – without draining your team’s time.
Global consistency, local speed – why AI is the connector
If you work in a global or matrixed business, you know the challenge of keeping everything on-brand, on-message and on-time.
Never has translation been easier. Tools like GPTs can now learn your brand’s voice, understand when to retain product names or global phrases, and when to translate for local nuance. It’s no longer a case of copy and paste into Google Translate – AI can deliver tone, context, and consistency across markets.
This isn’t just about translation – it’s about consistency with flexibility. Making sure your brand sounds like your brand, everywhere.
If CMOs don’t lead on AI, someone else will
Here’s the thing – AI is coming, whether you lead the charge or not. If marketing doesn’t define how it wants to use it, someone else in the business will. And their version of AI probably won’t fit your strategy.
We’re already seeing it. AI initiatives being driven by IT. By data. And soon – by newly created roles like the Chief AI Officer. That may sound futuristic, but it’s only a matter of time.
CMOs need to take control – set the boundaries, define the opportunities, and ensure AI delivers value where it matters most.
Conclusion – AI is not a project, it’s a capability
This isn’t about experimentation anymore. AI is here. And it needs to be embedded in how marketing works, not bolted on as a side project.
Used properly, AI helps teams move faster, work smarter and think bigger. It unlocks scale, builds consistency, and frees up time for the kind of creative and strategic work that truly drives growth.
The time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now.
Footnote – full transparency: how this blog was created in under 30 minutes
We practise what we preach. This blog wasn’t typed up over a long afternoon – it was co-created with AI in real time. Here’s how it came together:
- We outlined the business need and our core point of view
- ChatGPT helped us generate 10 blog ideas aimed at CMOs
- We shortlisted five, and received more detailed abstracts. And picked one
- Our CEO was interviewed by our CustomGTP via voice, sharing thoughts off the cuff
- An outline was created, which we interrogated and reshaped
- We confirmed out CustomGPT remembered our writing style and tone
- A draft was created
- We iterated until it reflected our CEOs views and our brand
- The final version was reviewed and proofread (by humans and ChatGPT) – with a critical eye for structure, clarity and credibility
- The finished blog was exported as clean ‘Markdown’ code – ready to drop straight into a Google doc with no extra formatting required.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that a lot of work has gone in to build and train our CustomGPT, but that’s a one-time investment and after that it just keeps learning and getting better.
