Stop Piloting, Start Scaling: What CMOs Actually Need to Know About AI

Heidi Schwende
Oct 17
5 min read

We're drowning in AI hype. Every week brings another "revolutionary" tool, another consultant promising transformation, another board meeting asking why we're not moving faster.

But here's the dirty secret: most marketing organizations are running in circles. They launch pilots that go nowhere. They test tools that never scale. They waste money proving concepts that never touch actual customers.

I've written before about why CMOs are getting sidelined and how AI is redefining our entire playbook. But after diving into insights from Torrence Boone at Google—someone who works directly with Fortune 500 CMOs navigating this exact challenge—I've realized the problem isn't the technology. It's how we're thinking about the problem.

You're Solving the Wrong Problem First

Stop me if you've heard this: "We need an AI strategy."

No, you don't. Not yet, anyway.

What you actually need, as Boone frames it, is "AI to support your business strategy." That's not wordplay—it's the difference between success and failure.

Most marketing leaders are trying to figure out what to do with AI before they've identified which business problems actually matter. That's why pilots never scale. You're optimizing for experimentation instead of outcomes.

Three Questions Before You Spend Another Dollar

Get brutally honest with yourself about three things:

What are your make-or-break priorities?

Not your entire marketing plan. Not every initiative someone mentioned in a meeting. Your top handful of challenges—the ones your CEO actually cares about, the ones that connect to company-wide goals.

Why does executive support matter so much? McKinsey found that companies with C-suite sponsorship see 1.5X better results from AI investments. That's not marginal—that's the difference between justifying your budget and explaining why you wasted it.

Can your organization actually handle this?

Most teams lie to themselves here. Is your data clean enough? Can your systems integrate new tools? Do your people have the skills?

Boone's warning should keep you up at night: "Without the right foundation in place, you'll be limited in what you can achieve, and risk wasting time and money."

I've watched companies try to leapfrog this step. It never works.

Who's really on board?

You need your CEO, CFO, and CIO genuinely invested—not just nodding in meetings. Marketing transformation doesn't happen in a silo. If your finance team sees AI as a cost problem or your IT team sees it as a security risk, you're dead before you start.

(This alignment issue is exactly what I covered in CMOs Are Getting Benched—and the data shows companies that get this right see 2.3x growth. The solution starts here.)

Skip the Custom Build (At Least at First)

Here's how to actually move fast: stop trying to build something unique on day one.

Use what already exists. Integrate tools that work with your current setup. Get results you can measure in weeks, not quarters.

For paid media, that might mean using existing AI-powered campaign tools. For creative, look at optimization platforms that plug into what you're already using. The specifics matter less than the principle: deploy first, customize later.

(Want the technical breakdown on how to actually build this? I covered the complete framework in From Rules to Intelligence: How AI is Redefining Marketing Decisioning, including the exact tech stack you need.)

Boone sees this pattern constantly: "Even for major global brands, very few creative assets are leveraging scaled personalization. However, when they are implemented, these tools can immediately drive meaningful increases in campaign ROI."

Translation: most companies haven't even captured the low-hanging fruit. You don't need cutting-edge innovation to get ahead—you need to implement tools that already exist.

The Cultural Shift Nobody Talks About

Here's what actually separates winners from losers: changing how your team thinks, not just what tools they use.

Google's internal marketing team had to completely rewire their approach. They moved from asking backward-looking questions ("How did our campaign perform?") to forward-looking ones ("What are the thousands of scenarios where our campaign could succeed, and which variables matter most?").

That's not a software upgrade. That's a fundamental change in how people approach their work—from historians to strategists.

(I've written about this leadership evolution before in AI Changed the CMO Playbook—it's not just about tools, it's about rebuilding how marketing leadership actually functions.)

Where the Real Value Lives

Let's cut through the noise about where AI actually drives business results:

Mining Insights That Shape Products

Stop thinking of customer data as just targeting fuel. Smart CMOs are using AI analysis to uncover needs that inform what the company builds, not just how it sells.

Predicting Demand Across Operations

Better forecasting doesn't just help marketing—it optimizes inventory, improves logistics, and makes you invaluable to operations teams. That's how you shift from cost center to growth partner.

Proving Marketing's Revenue Impact

Use AI's analytical power to demonstrate incrementality and true contribution to growth. When you can prove ROI with data, budget conversations get a lot easier.

Cutting Waste, Improving Margins

Not glamorous, but powerful: identifying where spend isn't working and redirecting it to what drives results. Your CFO will love you.

As Boone observes: "By owning the customer relationship through data and insights, we are seeing CMOs firmly establish themselves as a growth driver for the company, rather than a cost center."

That repositioning—from expense to engine—is the real prize.

When Custom Solutions Actually Make Sense

Custom-built tools are tempting. They're also dangerous if you're not ready.

Build custom only when all of these are true:

Off-the-shelf solutions genuinely can't solve your specific challenge
Your data infrastructure is solid (not "we're working on it"—actually solid)
Your CTO is a partner, not just a vendor to your initiatives
You've proven you can execute and scale simpler implementations

Rush this and you'll join the graveyard of expensive pilots that delivered nothing. Boone's blunt about it: "Without this alignment, we see lots of expensive pilots that don't deliver ROI."

Two Examples Worth Your Attention

Iams' Personalized Pet Campaign*

They built a tool letting people create custom video trailers to convince family members to get a pet. Developed with Veo 2, it went from concept to launch in months—not years. The key insight: create infinite variations without building sets or hiring production crews.

Moncler's Experimental Brand Film*

Using generative video tools, they produced a visually stunning film that traditional production would have made cost-prohibitive. The process even pushed their agency to develop new workflow tools for global collaboration.

These aren't futuristic case studies. They're happening right now, at scale.

What You Should Do Monday Morning

AI is reshaping how businesses connect with customers. But that doesn't mean you need to transform everything simultaneously.

Here's your actual playbook:

Start focused. Start simple. Scale what proves out.

Identify a few critical problems. Deploy existing solutions. Get your leadership aligned. Measure ruthlessly. Double down on what works.

Stop getting paralyzed by what's possible. Stop launching pilots that go nowhere. Stop waiting for permission to move.

The companies winning right now aren't the ones with the most sophisticated custom models or the biggest AI teams. They're the ones who picked clear priorities, implemented practical solutions, and had the discipline to scale success instead of chasing novelty.

The window is open. But it won't stay open forever.

Source: Torrence Boone, VP of global client and agency solutions at Google*