AI is transforming the roles of CMOs and CROs, not by replacing them, but by amplifying their ability to drive growth, enhance personalization, and adapt strategies in real time.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining how businesses create pipeline, drive revenue, make decisions, and engage with customers. For Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Revenue Officers (CROs), AI represents a powerful ally—not a replacement. And it’s for these two functions that we focus on below.
In two previous articles, we covered how AI isn’t just about content generation. Leading companies are using it beyond article writing. And for those companies that are using it for revenue, workflow, and experience enhancement, it requires oversight, not a complete outsourcing of the work. It’s a tool.
Just as marketing automation tools, CRMs, and even CMS platforms transformed how teams worked without eliminating jobs, AI enhances human capability, helping marketers and revenue leaders deliver better results with more precision.
At BrownRobinson, we’ve seen how organizations can strategically integrate AI to unlock growth, streamline operations, and maintain agility. But AI success isn’t about using every shiny new tool—it’s about applying it thoughtfully to solve real business challenges and amplify human creativity.
Four Ways AI is Driving Transformation for CMOs and CROs
AI is the buzzword. But there is steak with the sizzle. AI is transforming how marketing and sales teams operate by improving efficiency, scaling personalization, and enabling better decision-making. For revenue and growth leaders, these shifts fall into four core areas:
1. Smarter Operations:
AI reduces the human time spent on repetitive tasks, allowing teams to focus on strategy and execution. From automating email workflows to optimizing ad targeting and lead qualification, AI streamlines workflows so teams can direct their energy where it matters most.
2. Sharper Insights:
AI thrives on analyzing large datasets quickly, providing actionable insights that were once buried in complexity. This means better marketing experimentation, audience segmentation, more accurate sales forecasting, and clearer visibility into campaign performance, enabling marketers and sales leaders to make decisions and future plans with confidence.
3. Scalable Personalization:
Today’s buyers (both B2B and B2C) expect tailored experiences across every channel. AI enables companies to deliver that personalization at scale—crafting messaging, recommendations, and engagement strategies that resonate with individuals while increasing efficiency for the team.
4. Real-Time Adaptability:
The ability to pivot quickly in response to changing markets, customer behaviors, or campaign performance is a competitive advantage. Don’t keep chasing good money after bad, but how do you know which path is actually working and not working? AI empowers teams to analyze outcomes in real time, refine strategies on the fly, and stay ahead of the curve.
These four areas aren’t just about working faster—they’re about working smarter, making sure every effort aligns with revenue goals and customer expectations.
AI as a Partner, Not a Replacement
There’s a notion (or worry) that AI threatens to replace human roles, especially in marketing and sales. But history tells a different story. Tools like CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and AI-based or enabled platforms like Metadata, Mutiny, and even (every marketer's friend) Google AdWords didn’t eliminate the need for marketers or salespeople—they empowered them to focus on higher-value activities. AI complements human creativity and strategic thinking, enabling teams to craft campaigns and experiments more smartly and deliver better, measurable results.
For CMOs and CROs, AI doesn’t replace decision-making—it sharpens it. AI generates insights, but it’s the people who turn those insights into strategies. AI optimizes campaigns, but it’s the teams who set the vision and craft the narratives. The result? A more effective, relevant, and impactful approach to marketing and revenue generation.
Making AI Work for Your Business
To use AI effectively, CMOs and CROs need to prioritize strategy over tools. Here are three critical steps to start:
1. Align AI with Your Goals:
Define the outcomes you want AI to support, such as increasing revenue predictability, improving customer retention, or scaling content production. Let these goals guide your AI adoption strategy, not the other way around. Don’t craft the strategy around the tool.
2. Get Your Data in Order:
AI is only as good as the data it’s trained on. Focus on cleaning, centralizing, and organizing your data to ensure it reflects real-world buyer behaviors and business dynamics. Bad data creates a multiplier effect for bad results.
3. Start Small, Then Scale:
Begin with manageable AI projects, like enhancing segmentation, single campaign personalization, or even mass content creation to various audience types and personas (to get past the blank page and always with a human edit). Once you see results, expand to more complex initiatives like predictive analytics or AI-driven mass campaign personalization.
Redefining Success with AI
AI is not just about technology—it’s about transforming how businesses approach growth. For CMOs and CROs, this means focusing less on tasks and more on outcomes: driving revenue, building customer loyalty, and optimizing strategies in real time.
At BrownRobinson, we believe in a balanced approach to AI: one where AI amplifies what teams can do, empowering them to achieve better results faster and with greater precision. It’s the human element—creativity, judgment, and strategy—that turns AI from a tool into a true growth driver.
Looking Ahead: The Future of AI-Driven Growth
As AI continues to evolve, it will become an indispensable part of marketing and sales strategies. It’s already table stakes for leading orgs. But AI’s role will always be as an enhancer, not a replacement. The future belongs to organizations that use AI to work smarter, align teams more effectively, and adapt to market changes with agility.
For CMOs and CROs ready to embrace this shift, the opportunities are endless. By starting with a clear strategy, leveraging clean data, and embracing collaboration with AI, you can transform your organization into a growth-focused powerhouse.
Let’s discuss how BrownRobinson can help you navigate this transformation and achieve measurable, sustainable growth.