EVP, Global Analytics & Client Operations
McKinsey recently found that while nearly 90% of organizations are experimenting with AI, only a small fraction is seeing scaled impact.
Most enterprise marketing teams don’t have an AI problem – they have a workflow and change management problem. Agencies that understand AI operationalization, AI workflow automation, and marketing operations strategy are becoming more valuable, not less. The winners won’t have the most AI tools — they’ll have the clearest operations.
It’s a challenging time to be a marketer. You’re being asked to transform how you work while the work keeps coming. You’re being handed “efficiency” mandates while being held to the same quality standards, the same deadlines, and the same expectations.
A lot of marketers aren’t just trying to learn AI right now. They’re quietly trying to understand what their value looks like in a world where production work changes. That tension is real.
The teams best navigating this tension best aren’t pretending it’s easy. They’re building healthier operations that make room for both technology and people. Because the goal was never to remove marketers from marketing. It was to give great marketers more space to do great work.
If you’re feeling the weight of this right now, you’re not behind. You’re just in it. So is everyone else. Let’s unpack.
The real problem isn’t AI adoption. It’s the AI operationalization gap.
Nearly every enterprise marketing organization is experimenting with AI. But experimenting isn’t the same thing as operationalizing.
Getting people to try ChatGPT or Claude is easy. But have you ever tried getting 20-100+ marketers to upend the way they work at the same time? Now add quarterly goals, disconnected mar-tech stacks, AI governance concerns, regional workflows, new AI agents launching weekly, and constant pressure to move faster. Not to mention the goals of internal teams, many of which may be unaligned. That’s where things get hard.
The Faster Chaos Problem
Lately, I have been focused on AI operationalization inside real marketing workflows. I want to know where AI workflow automation meaningfully removes friction, what still requires human judgment, where systems break down, and how teams adapt to all of this while still delivering results every quarter.
One thing has become very clear: automation alone shouldn’t be the goal.
Automation without human intelligence creates the faster chaos problem. Speed without direction just creates faster chaos.
The real opportunity is using AI to create more room for strategic thinking. But to understand how, you must understand where marketers spend their time.
The Goal is Getting to the Artifact Faster
Here’s the part most people miss when they talk about AI in marketing operations.
The goal isn’t to automate the output, but rather to get to the artifact faster. Accelerating the path to the QBR draft, the reporting summary, the pacing analysis, or the creative brief allows human intelligence to do what it does best: ask better questions, pressure test assumptions, connect performance to business outcomes, and lead strategic conversations.
When agents handle that production layer, something shifts. Teams arrive at the artifact earlier. And that’s where the real work begins.
This is the model: speed up the build, protect the thinking.
AI gets teams to the starting line faster. Human intelligence takes it from there.
Where Agencies Fit In
I was talking to Paul Deraval, CEO of NinjaCat this week and he said something that stopped me in my tracks:
“Agencies are becoming the escape hatch for brands trying to navigate AI transformation while being expected to deliver better results with fewer people.”
Agencies are contributing different value right now, not because clients can’t figure this out themselves, but because everyone is trying to figure it out at the same time.
The agencies getting this right aren’t just using AI for faster emails, briefs, and decks. The ones getting it right are helping clients operationalize AI across real workflows – planning, activation, analytics, reporting, operations, and client collaboration.
The most robust AI tool stack won’t win out in the end. The winning formula entails building clearer workflows, healthier operations, connected systems, stronger governance, and more room for strategic thinking.
This is a much more hopeful future for marketing than the one people keep trying to sell us.
No, but it is changing what agencies need to be good at. The agencies gaining ground right now aren’t the ones automating the most. They’re the ones helping clients operationalize AI across real workflows, where the complexity really lives.
Adoption is getting people to use a tool. Operationalization is redesigning how work flows — what AI handles, what humans own, where the handoffs are, and how systems connect. Most organizations are early in adoption and barely started on operationalization.
Because change doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Campaigns still launch. Reporting still runs. Approvals still move through legal. You’re asking hundreds of people to change how they work in real time, inside systems that weren’t built for AI, while leadership expects faster results with fewer people. That’s a hard problem.
Every marketer has foundational work that must exist before real thinking can start. Right now, too much cognitive energy is dedicated to producing that artifact. When AI agents handle that production layer, teams arrive at the artifact earlier and with more energy. Then, the strategic conversation — the part that actually changes decisions — gets more time and attention.
Adding automation without adding intelligence into the process. Speed without direction just creates faster chaos. The goal isn’t to automate more — it’s to create more room for the strategic thinking that drives outcomes.
Workflow clarity before tool selection. Understand where your team spends time on low-value work, where human judgment is irreplaceable, and where AI can create breathing room. Build from there — don’t start with the tools.
Start by being honest about where you dedicate most of your time. Most teams find that a significant portion of their week is consumed by production work: assembling, formatting, pulling, compiling. That’s where AI creates the most immediate relief. You don’t have to transform everything at once. Find one workflow where the production burden is highest and start there. Small wins build the confidence — and the proof — to go further.
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Just Global | Trilliad and NinjaCat are partnering to scale responsible AI across B2B marketing. Together, the teams have built more than 150 AI agents to streamline workflows, unlock efficiency, and help marketers focus on strategy, optimization, and client impact.
Just Global | Trilliad is now a LinkedIn Ads Certified Agency, with certified specialists across LinkedIn Ads Fundamentals, Marketing Strategy, Measurement, and Content and Creative Design. For B2B brands, that means sharper audience planning, stronger campaign execution, and clearer reporting tied to business impact.