Unlocking AI: Top 4 Priorities for Marketing Leaders in 2025.

Exponential Opportunities in 2025

Next year will be unlike anything we’ve seen, not because of politics but due to AI’s exponential growth. For marketing leaders, success will come from organizational readiness and the ability to pivot. Empowering teams with unprecedented tools and rethinking our own roles as leaders will be essential.

Top 4 AI Priorities for Marketing Leaders in 2025

1. Upskilling Your Team:
   This tech revolution puts marketers in the spotlight…or the crosshairs, depending upon where the organization is at. AI is reshaping day-to-day digital work, handling zeros and ones faster and often better than humans. Your team will have varied reactions—from excitement to apprehension. Lead with empathy and focus on the opportunities this tech offers to those who embrace upskilling their talents. Not prioritizing AI may make your top performers nervous. Addressing the elephant in the room with confidence, curiosity and hopefulness will inspire the type of change you desire and need from your team. You don’t have to have it all figured out. But together, you will.

2. Prioritize Your Owned Data:
   One of AI’s out-of-the-box powers lies in capturing and analyzing your owned data first, then integrating external sources. But data can be scattered about an organization. Work with IT (or Ciceron???) on setting up a clean room for data integrity, connect your data sources, and apply AI to gain valuable insights already within your reach. The magic of AI is most likely right under your purview within the data you already own. To me, this is the simple, no-brainer in front of us. Plus, doing this work now prepares you for what’s next. It’s not easy work but definitely not as heavy a lift as you may think.

3. Don’t Overlook Unstructured Data:
   Unstructured data—like sales call logs and CSR transcripts, sales decks and purchased research—holds invaluable insights. AI thrives on these raw human interactions, giving you intelligence beyond structured datasets, even without heavy IT involvement. To me, this data is the most important data to infuse into an AI strategy.

4. Generative AI for Creative—Proceed with Caution:
   I’m not a creative agency, so no bias here: Generative AI creative is advancing, but it’s still subjective. I notice that marketers are far too focused on the quality of AI creative over the clear advantages AI offers for intelligence gathering. Prioritize data-driven insights before diving into AI-generated creative. Without these building blocks, the creative output won’t truly align with audience needs whether you have AI or not. Start with true audience insights, then scale creative with AI where it genuinely enhances performance by being incredibly accurate. (I do believe generative creative will hit its tipping point in 2025!)

If you’re ready to talk about your own AI roadmap and 2025 marketing performance, let’s connect. We’d be happy to help bring some AI discipline to your strategy.