Making AI Work for Every Marketing Role with Real Use Cases for Their Jobs

Hello go-to-market leaders, strategists, and innovators! ?? Thank you for dropping by to learn practical AI applications and gain strategic insights to help you grow your business, elevate your and your team's strategic value as marketers, use business as a force for good, and help advance your career.

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AI has the power to change the game, but to use it fully, we need to shift our mindset, learn together, and build new habits.?It’s about creating an environment that encourages creativity, trying new things, and being open to what AI can do. Let’s look at practical examples, expert tips, and steps to help you start using AI in your team.

Here are three big ideas to guide your AI journey.

1. Changing How We Think About AI

Many teams use AI for basic tasks like summarizing reports and writing blogs, but we can't reach the $1.4 to $2.6 trillion in added business value predicted by McKinsey with simple tasks alone.

To unlock AI’s potential, we need to go beyond those basic applications. AI should be leveraged for content creation, collaboration and ideation, automation, research and analytics for decision-making, and personalization.

The real challenge isn’t the tech—it’s changing how we work with AI every day. This is a mindset and behavior shift that leaders need to encourage and support actively.

A number of AI-forward CMOs and marketing leaders are advocates of this thinking, including Tamir Hardof , CMO of Nucleus Security.

"Push AI beyond just productivity tasks into real innovation. Challenge your team to use AI not just for making things faster, but as a partner to generate new ideas and solve big problems. This way, we turn AI from a tool into a co-creator for our strategies."

We want our teams to see AI as an important part of our creative and strategic work.?This means including AI in brainstorming, campaign planning, and personalizing customer experiences. It’s a mindset change, and we need to lead our teams through it.

Leaders should create a space where experimenting with AI is encouraged. It’s not about being perfect, but about exploring how AI can help us. This shift starts with leaders using AI themselves, inspiring others, and guiding their teams.

Sometimes, this also means recognizing when external expertise, like advisors, applied AI workshops, or courses, can provide the structure and insights needed to support the team effectively.

Sharing real examples of AI success makes AI feel less like an abstract tech tool and more like a core part of our marketing work. Show not just the wins but also the challenges and how they were overcome. I shared some early AI successes and quantified impact here .

2. Practical AI Applications for Specific Marketing Roles

Adopting AI goes beyond learning how to prompt and use different AI features and capabilities effectively like:

• Creating and editing images
• Analyzing screenshots
• Interacting with AI in voice mode
• Writing and editing
• Visually representing data, and
• Automating tasks

It’s about seeing what AI can do in our own jobs.

Think of AI capabilities like a bunch of powerful Lego pieces. Each piece is amazing on its own, but without a clear picture or instructions, it’s hard to know what to build.

It's difficult to shift from seeing AI as just a fancy search engine or question-answer tool to using it as a real business and thought partner. I get it. We are given a simple conversation box and prompts like "Ask me anything", "Message ChatGPT", and "How can I help you?". Then we're supposed to just start typing something!

We need to show AI use cases for each role. What works for a Creative Director might not fit a Product Marketing Manager.

It's like using a smartphone: a small business owner might use it to manage inventory, process transactions, and connect with customers, while a fitness enthusiast might leverage it for creating personalized workout plans, tracking nutrition, and even connecting with virtual coaching for motivation.?

The table below shows just a small sample of AI use cases by marketing function. When people see how AI can help their work, it inspires them to try it. Here's some information about applied AI workshops designed to do just that.

Here are some examples of inspiring what's possible with applied AI use cases, showing the actual process and conversations with AI to solve real-world problems:

• CMO/Head of Marketing and Product Marketing - Here's a use case for selecting top market segments and aligning exec teams. I explain it in the video below, from 30:47-43:55 in Drew Neisser 's CMO Huddles podcast and in this edition of my newsletter .

• Digital, Content, Brand, Demand Gen, Customer Marketing - Here's how we can make our brands, products, and content relevant in Zero-Click/AI search. Click here to see the full process.
• Product Marketing - Analyzing customer perceptions and competitive position can be done faster and more effectively with AI. I walked through the process from 6:28-24:22 in Isar Meitis 's Leveraging AI podcast below.

Alice Hansen , CMO of Absolute Security, and her team are using this approach in their AI adoption journey.

"Effective AI in marketing goes beyond understanding its capabilities. The key is showing teams how to apply AI responsibly in their specific roles. When we combine AI's power with our industry expertise and unique data, while prioritizing ethical use, we unlock real value in our daily work. We amplify and expand value created by marketers to grow revenue, brand value, and customer success."

By linking AI to daily tasks, we inspire team members to see it as a powerful partner.

Beyond inspiring individuals, think about the bigger picture: how AI can be used across roles to solve team problems. The more specific examples we give, the more people will understand how AI can work for them.

3. Think Big, Start Small, Grow Strategically

You don’t have to become an AI expert or scale adoption overnight. Start by focusing on a few high-impact AI use cases and align them with strategic initiatives. Connecting AI to high-priority business goals increases its support and likelihood of success.

These initiatives already have resources, budget, timelines, and visibility—this makes AI projects tied to them more impactful. Here's a template that you can use to map use cases or combination of use cases to top priorities.

Encourage experimentation, celebrate early wins, and build from there. Small wins lead to larger changes as others see the results and want to join in.

Judy Ash , VP of Digital CX Marketing at SiTime, is strategically leading her team, starting with having a handful of meaningful AI wins under their belt.

"To thrive with AI in marketing, foster curiosity and encourage experimentation. Start small, have fun, and?think big. Pilot with radical ideas for AI leverage and allow your teams access to learn new technologies. Take a practical approach managing risks with data & security issues. Create spaces for joint learning and sharing of AI experiences across teams. As you see early wins, success breeds success. Build from there to expand AI's impact."

The big AI companies are racing to advance AI technology, but it’s on us to learn, share, and use AI responsibly. Hold team meetings, conduct workshops, and engage in Slack to discuss what’s working and what's not. There are no best practices yet in AI. We're all figuring things out and if we go together, we'll go far.

Start Your AI Journey Now

AI is more than a tool, it's a partner. To make AI work for us, we need to shift our mindset and behavior, integrate it into daily tasks, and leverage our unique strengths. Start small, connect AI initiatives to high-priority goals, and build momentum with early wins.

Make AI relevant to each role. Like tools that meet different needs for different people, AI's true power lies in serving specific marketing functions. Our domain expertise, unique knowledge, and data are critical in guiding AI responsibly and ensuring it creates real value.

Share your journey, recognize those who lead the way, and encourage shared learning. Together, we can make AI a core part of how we plan, create, and succeed.

Where are you on your AI journey? Which AI use cases have been most impactful in your role? How do you see your domain expertise driving AI's success??

The Practical AI in Marketing newsletter is designed to share practical learnings and insights in using AI responsibly for go-to-market strategy, product, brand, demand, content, and digital, and growth marketing. Subscribe today and let's learn together on this AI journey!

For those who prefer more interactive learning, explore our?applied AI workshops , designed to inspire teams with real-life use cases tailored to specific marketing functions.

Or, if audio-visual content is your style, click here to access recorded sessions on a variety of topics I've covered. You'll also find information about my past and upcoming in-person speaking events. Whether through the newsletter, multimedia content, or in-person events, I hope to connect with you soon.