Why marketing leaders should treat AI enablement as change management problem
I've spent most of my career working with marketing teams as part of digital transformation initiatives in consulting and training roles. One thing I've learned is that the hardest part of these initiatives is never the technology, but managing the change around it. I see this same dynamic unfolding as marketing teams try to transform with AI, but it's even more complicated.
If you're a marketing leader trying to navigate AI enablement, try taking a more deliberate change management approach. Focusing on the fundamentals below can help you drive more effective use of AI with your team. They build on ADKAR, the change management framework developed by Prosci, adapted for the realities of AI enablement.
1. Awareness: Do people understand why changing their AI use is needed now?
Everyone is aware of AI today. You can't avoid it. Every business article and CMO interview focuses on investing more in AI. But when it comes to teams understanding the "why" driving adoption, it is unclear at best. It often feels like the reason is that everyone else is doing it, so we must too.
Marketing leaders can move past the hype by grounding any AI discussion in the context of what the marketing team needs and wants to achieve. Frame AI as a powerful new tool that can help the team. Be specific, and think in terms of "AI is now here, so finally we can..."
2. Alignment: Is leadership aligned on a direction for how to use AI?
In the early days of social media, marketing leaders needed to be part of cross-departmental teams setting up governance and guidelines for engaging in this new medium. This same horizontal collaboration is required to establish guidelines for AI that balance benefits and risks.
Marketing leaders need to advocate for AI priorities, use cases, and guardrails that will benefit their team. Establishing these guidelines becomes the foundation for what change looks like, as they describe how AI is to be used (and not used).
3. Desire: Are people motivated to change how they use AI?
This is the big one. Studies consistently rank marketing among the functions most exposed to AI, leading to credible concerns about job loss and the elimination of work that people find meaningful. How can someone be expected to support something that appears to be working against them?
Marketing leaders need to meet this head on. After all, these are concerns you may have yourself. Here it can be helpful to establish ways for people to have agency in how AI will be used. When it comes to exploring efficiency gains, have people find ways to automate busy work they do not enjoy. Better still, focus on innovation: things that couldn't have been done before. You need a compelling and credible answer to "what's in it for me?"
4. Knowledge: Do people understand how to change their use of AI?
Most marketing teams have received a mix of foundational AI training and access to online tutorials for using AI tools, with a few impressive AI demos mixed in. The challenge is that most marketing teams have not invested beyond this general training, when research shows that role-specific, hands-on training is what actually builds capability.
Marketing leaders need to sponsor the development and delivery of training that is heavily customized to their team: the tools they use, the guidelines that have been defined, and the tasks they perform. Part of this training needs to focus on ways they can find AI opportunities in their own workflows, so they are capable and confident enough to experiment independently.
5. Ability: Are people able to put changes in AI use into practice?
Even if people are motivated and trained up on AI use, marketing teams are so stretched that finding the time and space to experiment feels impossible. In these cases, teams revert to existing ways of working and basic AI use. Some marketers feel like they are not doing their jobs when they take time out to try something new or experiment with AI.
Marketing leaders need to remove these blockers and cultivate a culture where AI experimentation is expected and supported. A big part of this is coaching teams to be open to changing workflows to incorporate AI and the advantages it might present, to rethink how work gets done. Teams need permission to challenge ways of working, plus coaching support to do it effectively.
6. Reinforcement: How will people sustain these new ways of working with AI?
A big part of reinforcement is measurement: are people putting training into action? It can be tempting to measure AI usage through logins, prompts, or tokens consumed per person. Focusing on driving these usage metrics can give the impression of progress, but not necessarily improvement.
Marketing leaders need to remember that the goal should not be getting more people to use AI, but to improve outcomes using AI. Focus on measuring outcomes the marketing team is responsible for, such as brand health, lead generation, and attributed revenue. Work with teams to cultivate ways to share lessons from AI use, to support each other, and build capability collectively.
7. Evolution: How will we change our use of AI as AI evolves?
Most change management approaches assume a stable future state that everyone is working towards. AI doesn't work that way. The pace of innovation is so rapid that marketing teams cannot treat AI enablement as a change management project with an end date.
Marketing leaders need to have governance in place, along with other leaders within their organization, to regularly review performance, ideas from the team, and technical advances. Teams need to keep understanding new ways to scale and how guidelines may need to adjust. In many ways marketers are well suited for this ongoing work, responsive to constant changes in the market and media landscape.
If you are a marketing leader struggling with driving AI enablement, understand that while the technology is new, the processes around change management are well defined. Don't get distracted by the technology. Approach it in a more grounded way through the lens of change management. None of us knows exactly what the future holds, but this approach can provide you with useful tools to navigate it.