AI for CMOs: What to Delegate, What to Own, and What to Rethink

Your marketing budget shrank 30% but your growth targets didn't. Your team is drowning in tool purgatory while competitors ship campaigns faster than ever.

Did we nail it?

Welcome to the new reality of marketing leadership—where 78% of organizations now use AI in at least one business function, but only 26% have developed the capabilities to generate tangible value.

The question isn't whether CMOs need AI. It's how to deploy it strategically—without losing what makes marketing truly effective.

The CMO Squeeze: More Pressure, Fewer Resources

Let's start with the brutal math.

Marketing budgets decreased from 11.0% of company revenues in 2020 to 7.7% in 2024, while CMO tenure averages just 3.1 years among top US advertisers. Meanwhile, 88% of marketing leaders are responsible for meeting a revenue goal—up from 79% the previous year.

Translation: you're expected to deliver more growth with less money, less time, and higher stakes.

The old playbook of "hire more people" or "buy more tools" is dead. 94% of marketers invested in AI tools in 2024, and 75% plan to increase their investments in 2025, but most are still struggling to see meaningful returns.

Why? Because they're treating AI like another vendor instead of a strategic transformation.

The smartest CMOs aren't just using AI. They're thinking like AI architects.

What to Delegate: The High-Impact, Low-Touch Work

The first principle of effective AI delegation is simple: automate what drains you, amplify what makes you exceptional.

1. Data Analysis and Reporting

Delegate this: Teams that use AI report 8.6% improvement in sales productivity and 10.8% reduction in marketing overhead costs. Let AI handle the number crunching, pattern recognition, and initial insights generation.

Keep this: Strategic interpretation of what the data means for your business, competitive positioning, and growth strategy.

2. Content Creation and Adaptation

Delegate this: First drafts, variations, social media posts, email sequences, and content repurposing. AI integration in marketing has doubled since 2022, now powering 17.2% of marketing efforts.

Keep this: Brand voice definition, creative strategy, messaging frameworks, and quality control that ensures content actually resonates with humans.

3. Campaign Optimization and Testing

Delegate this: A/B testing setup, real-time bid optimization, audience segmentation, and performance monitoring.

Keep this: Test design, hypothesis formation, and strategic decisions about what to optimize and why.

4. Operational Workflow Management

Delegate this: Routine operational tasks such as social media management, content creation, and data analysis are prime candidates for delegation, freeing up valuable time for strategic initiatives.

Keep this: Team leadership, creative direction, and the human relationship-building that drives organizational success.

What to Own: The Irreplaceable Strategic Core

Some responsibilities can't and shouldn't be delegated—even to the smartest AI systems.

1. Strategic Vision and Brand Architecture

Why you own this: Humans define the purpose, principles, and architecture of the marketing ecosystem. AI can suggest tactics, but it can't create the strategic vision that differentiates your brand.

What this looks like: Setting long-term brand positioning, defining your unique value proposition, and making the hard strategic choices about what markets to enter or exit.

2. Ethical Oversight and Governance

Why you own this: Jennifer Chase, EVP and CMO at SAS, emphasizes that "biased data and biased models mean biased results and mitigating that falls squarely on the shoulders of the marketing team".

What this looks like: Establishing AI governance frameworks, ensuring responsible AI usage, and maintaining brand values in an increasingly automated world.

3. Cross-Functional Leadership and Culture

Why you own this: CMOs now intersect with all different business aspects such as finance and technology and operations, requiring human judgment, relationship-building, and organizational navigation that AI can't replicate.

What this looks like: Building alignment with the C-suite, championing customer-centricity across the organization, and fostering a culture of innovation and experimentation.

4. Customer Experience Strategy

Why you own this: Michael Park, CMO at ServiceNow, notes that AI is "arriving just in time" to accelerate enterprise marketing's evolution from sales enablement to buyer enablement, but the strategic direction requires human insight.

What this looks like: Defining customer journey principles, establishing experience standards, and making trade-offs between short-term performance and long-term relationship building.

What to Rethink: The Fundamental Shifts

The biggest opportunity—and challenge—for CMOs isn't just about using AI better. It's about rethinking fundamental assumptions about how marketing works.

1. From Campaign Thinking to Ecosystem Thinking

The old way: Quarterly campaigns with clear start and stop dates. The new way: Always-on systems that learn, adapt, and optimize continuously.

Why this matters: AI enables dynamic segmentation and real-time journey orchestration, making traditional campaign cycles too slow and rigid.

2. From Channel Optimization to Experience Orchestration

The old way: Optimizing individual channels (email, social, paid) separately. The new way: Orchestrating seamless experiences across all touchpoints with AI connecting the dots.

Why this matters: Customers no longer limit their interactions to a single channel or device. They expect brands to deliver seamless experiences wherever they are.

3. From Attribution Models to Impact Measurement

The old way: Last-click attribution and siloed performance metrics. The new way: AI-powered hyper-personalization and predictive analytics allow marketers to develop alternate attribution models that capture true business impact.

Why this matters: With fewer clicks and direct conversions, traditional attribution models are breaking down in an AI-driven search landscape.

4. From Hiring Specialists to Building Hybrid Teams

The old way: Hiring specialists for each channel or function. The new way: Building hybrid teams where AI enhances performance and human team members apply insight and creativity where it matters most.

Why this matters: The skills premium is shifting toward execution expertise, with social media marketing and collaborative problem-solving ranking as the most in-demand marketing skills.

The AI Maturity Roadmap for CMOs

Most CMOs are stuck in the experimental phase—using AI for one-off tasks without strategic integration. Here's how to evolve:

Phase 1: Task Automation (Where Most CMOs Are )

• Using ChatGPT for content ideas

• Automating social media scheduling

• Basic data analysis and reporting

ROI expectation: 31% of leaders anticipate measuring ROI in six months, but most recognize that productivity and operational efficiency are the key returns from AI in its early stages.

Phase 2: Process Integration (Where You Want to Be )

• AI-powered customer segmentation and personalization

• Automated campaign optimization and testing

• Predictive analytics for strategic planning

ROI reality: Organizations using AI report 15-25% performance improvements when properly integrated into core processes.

Phase 3: Strategic Transformation (The Competitive Advantage )

• AI as your strategic co-pilot for major decisions

• Fully integrated marketing ecosystems that learn and adapt

• AI-human teams that amplify rather than replace human creativity

ROI potential: Leading companies are achieving $10.30 return for every $1 spent on AI when they reach strategic maturity.

The Averi Approach: AI as Strategic Co-Pilot

This is where most AI marketing platforms miss the mark. They're built for task automation, not strategic transformation.

Averi was designed differently—as the AI co-pilot that elevates your strategic thinking while handling the execution complexity.

What Averi delegates for you:

• Campaign planning and brief generation

• Content creation and adaptation across channels

• Performance monitoring and optimization recommendations

• Resource allocation and workflow management

What Averi amplifies for you:

• Strategic decision-making with AI-powered insights

• Creative ideation with data-driven inspiration

• Cross-functional collaboration with unified intelligence

• Executive reporting with business-focused narratives

What Averi helps you rethink:

• Marketing as connected ecosystems, not isolated campaigns

• Teams as hybrid human-AI collaborations

• Success metrics as business impact, not just marketing metrics

• Growth as sustainable systems, not just quarterly performance

The Implementation Framework: Getting Started Right

Week 1-2: Strategic Assessment

• Audit current AI usage across your team

• Identify the highest-impact delegation opportunities

• Define your AI governance principles

Week 3-4: Pilot Integration

• Start with one high-volume, low-risk use case

• Establish success metrics that matter to the business

• Train your team on AI collaboration best practices

Month 2-3: Scale and Optimize

• Expand successful pilots to additional functions

• Begin integrating AI into strategic planning processes

• Develop hybrid workflows that combine AI efficiency with human creativity

Month 4-6: Strategic Transformation

• Use AI insights to inform major strategic decisions

• Redesign team structures around human-AI collaboration

• Establish yourself as an AI-powered growth leader

The Future Belongs to Strategic AI Adopters

In the next three to five years, successful CMOs will act as both integrators and innovators—blending data, automation and human creativity. Those who master this balance will capture competitive advantages that will be difficult to overcome.

The choice is clear:

Stay tactical and watch competitors leverage AI for strategic advantage.

Or become strategic and use AI to transform how your organization thinks about growth, creativity, and customer connection.

AI isn't replacing CMOs. It's creating a new class of marketing leaders who think strategically about human-AI collaboration.

The question isn't whether you'll adopt AI. It's whether you'll use it to become the kind of marketing leader your organization needs for the next decade.

Ready to evolve from AI experimenter to strategic AI leader?

See how Averi serves as your AI co-pilot for marketing transformation →