The top marketing leaders aren’t just thinking about AI; they’re building the future of their organizations right now. We recently gathered over 100 of the industry’s most cutting-edge chief marketing officers for our CMO AI Labs in Los Angeles on October 17 and New York on September 9, critical convenings where the timing couldn’t have been better. CMOs are deep in planning, under pressure to deliver clear AI road maps to their CEOs and boards, and actively working to transform their teams for growth. The common ground? They’re all grappling with how to accelerate change management and translate ambitious AI marketing strategies into concrete, competitive advantage.
The takeaways from these sessions provide a clear consensus on the five biggest levers for success.
1. Become the chief change management officer
The largest hurdle to AI success isn’t necessarily the technology, it’s the organization. A modern CMO must first be a chief change management officer, leading the cultural and operational shift required to capture AI’s benefits.
- Champion a clear vision. Don’t talk about tools; talk about transformation. Articulate a compelling vision that shows your teams and stakeholders how AI agents will elevate their work, not eliminate it. The goal is to shift from reactive execution to proactive strategy.
- Build an airtight business case. Secure long-term buy-in by anchoring every AI investment to a clear business outcome, such as reducing time-to-market for creative assets, increasing customer lifetime value, or boosting marketing efficiency.
- Relentlessly communicate wins. Celebrate early, measurable successes, even small ones, to build momentum and prove the value of the new way of working. This keeps teams motivated and demonstrates a clear ROI trajectory to the C-suite.
2. Prove AI’s business value and move from buzzword to bottom line
AI is not a shiny new tool; it is a fundamental accelerator of revenue growth. The CMO’s job is to stop asking, “What can AI do?” and start proving, “How can AI drive growth?”
- The growth dividend is real. Leading marketers who are strategically leveraging AI are achieving an estimated 60% greater revenue growth than their peers (BCG, 2025). This payoff is driven by unprecedented personalization and optimization across the marketing lifecycle, from planning and creative to media and measurement.
- Meet the customer in motion. AI accelerates the entire marketing process, allowing you to fluidly meet customers exactly where they are, whether they are searching, streaming, scrolling, or shopping - and guide them to a decision, fast. This is done by dynamically matching creative, bid strategy, and channel in real-time. AI adoption is ready out-of-the-box. Drive performance on Search and YouTube by using the Power Pack — AI Max for Search, Performance Max, and Demand Gen.
3. Lay the groundwork by prioritizing data and goals over tools
You can’t build a house without a solid foundation, and you can’t scale AI without one either. Before adopting any new AI solution, CMOs must look inward and prioritize the basics.
- Align AI with business goals. Define clear business priorities before you deploy the tech. AI for its own sake is a costly distraction. Ensure every AI initiative is mapped to a specific goal, like improving customer loyalty or expanding market share.
- Clean up your data (the essential fuel). AI systems are only as good as the information they are fed. You must treat your first-party data as your most valuable asset. This means collecting, cleaning, governing, and making it instantly usable and accessible. First-party data is the essential fuel for creating personalized assets and running efficient campaigns at scale.
4. Crawl, walk, and run with AI agents and partnering principles
AI agents are the next frontier. They are intelligent extensions of your team, capable of autonomously performing high-value tasks. The most effective way to integrate them is with a phased approach.
- The phased rollout. Implement a “crawl, walk, run” strategy. Start by automating simple, high-frequency tasks (crawl); move methodically to intelligent, multistep systems (walk); and, finally, execute a fully autonomous, end-to-end campaign (run).
- KPIs for the agentic era. Update your key performance indicators to focus on real impact over activity. Stop measuring creative volume, and start measuring the speed of iteration or the efficiency gains per agent deployment.
- Upskill your team to partner. AI agents are not replacements; they are partners. You must provide your teams with the necessary tools, and, more importantly, the training to shift their focus from execution to strategic oversight, critical thinking, and prompt engineering.
5. Win over the C-suite: Reposition marketing as a strategic growth engine
For too many companies, marketing is seen as an expendable cost center. AI gives the CMO the ironclad evidence needed to reposition the function as the company’s most vital growth engine.
- Forge the CTO-CMO alliance. AI transformation is fundamentally a technology transformation. Build an ironclad alliance with your chief technology officer to ensure marketing has the necessary data infrastructure, governance, and seamless integration for AI systems to thrive.
- Speak the language of the board. Show your CEO and board exactly how AI drives customer engagement and contributes directly to high-impact business goals.
- Manage risk proactively. To secure executive buy-in and sustained investment, present a robust, clear plan for managing the risks associated with AI, including data privacy, brand safety, and compliance. Risk management is nonnegotiable for trust.
In summary, it’s never been a more exciting time to be a marketer. The pace will never be slower than it is today. So dive in and get started.
Check out our CMO AI Labs playlist on YouTube to hear from CMOs on AI transformation.
