AI in marketing has moved beyond the theoretical to real-world applications that deliver on business outcomes. But companies that have successfully exited the AI pilot phase and achieved hard ROI share certain commonalities, according to a panel of AI experts and practitioners speaking at CES on Jan. 6. They are data-centric at their core, enable insights collaboration among multiple departments and view AI application as a force multiplier rather than just a cost-savings exercise.
Agentic AI at Scale Requires Data-Centricity
In order to achieve scale with agentic AI workflows, your organization’s various data systems need to be properly communicating with one another, said Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer at e.l.f. Beauty. “The fundamental thing that I think still needs to be solved for is if you’re not a data-centric organization … where your data is talking to each other … then AI doesn’t give you the full scale,” she said. “As a practitioner in this space, the thing that I’ve learned over the last few years or so with testing and learning is without that plumbing, no matter what you do, you don’t solve for the real business value from an enterprise perspective.”
An AI-Enabled Workforce Is Paramount
e.l.f. Beauty’s journey to becoming an AI-powered organization is challenging from a security perspective, Chopra said. But it’s also difficult to rally an entire organization to adopt the technology. The directive has to be delivered from the top down, in her view. “It’s uncharted territory. We know we’re going to test and learn. But one clear deliverable is that everyone in the organization has to be able to talk, learn, and speak and work with AI,” she said. “Because it’s not an enemy per se, but it’s something that’s going to help you.”
Focus on Change Management
Jason Ing, CMO at AI marketing platform Typeface, agreed that a top-down mandate for AI upskilling a workforce is crucial. “When we deal with a lot of our customers, many of which are Fortune 100 companies, what we hear the most is it’s a cultural change. It’s an issue of change management,” he said.
In addition to the top-down directive, you also need people from the bottom up willing to embrace the change — and be willing to fail at it. “Sometimes with AI, you’re not going to get it right the first time you’re learning a new skill. It’s not a tool so much as it is a system that you need to adopt to in order to change how you work to get the right outcomes … It could be a step back, it could be two steps back, but it is 10 steps forward in terms of what you will eventually be able to do when you use it,” he said.
Cross-Department Collaboration Is the Differentiator
For Mark Wagman, Managing Director at MediaLink and partner at UTA, AI use cases that move from a single department to multiple departments — “from a little pet project to a real thing” — are the ones that prove their worth. “You get out of the silo and have one email team over there say, hey, we use this cool tool, we did this, to now that email team working with the point-of-sale team, working with the backend data team to actually put something together across the board,” he said.
Chopra agreed, emphasizing that e.l.f. Beauty intends to focus on leveraging agentic AI to “provide true end-to-end business value” this year. “Individually people are using AI, but when you start using it [through] cross-collaboration, that’s where the value comes.” And tied to that are specific financial metrics the company wants to achieve. “Can we get to a 40% autonomous month-end close? Can we have our content supply chain deliver 3x volume using end-to-end? There are real KPIs tied to what we want to do now,” she said.
Force Multiplier Wins Over Cost Savings
Companies that graduate from the test and learn phase use AI’s efficiencies to spend more time on human-centric activities, according to Wagman. When considering what sets the most successful companies apart, “the biggest thing is they’re looking at this as a force multiplier, not a cost-savings thing,” he said. “The brands that are actually realizing ROI are the ones who are not afraid to realize that every AI implementation isn’t necessarily the sexiest thing that they’re doing … AI should be the tool that gives you the right and ability to leapfrog your competition, not just run a more efficient business.”
