In this episode of Future Proofed, Ryane Bohm and Nathan Thompson break down the stages of AI adoption in marketing, exploring how companies move from basic chat tools to full-scale AI integration, and what it really takes to operationalize AI for messaging, workflows, and strategy. They share hands-on advice, candid pitfalls, and a future vision for AI as the marketer’s ultimate assistant.

Key Themes & Takeaways:

1. AI Marketing Maturity: From Crawl to Run

• Companies typically move from using basic chat tools (“crawl”), to building workflows and agents (“walk”), to aiming for near-full automation (“run”).
• Most teams are still in the early “chat tool” stage, with few reaching advanced integration.
• “I thought it would be a little bit further along by now… I think we're still seeing people in figuring out how to do things with tools like chat.”

2. The Documentation Dilemma

• Implementing AI reveals how many workflows are undocumented or based on intuition.
• Codifying processes is essential before scaling with AI.
• “People have been doing their jobs a lot more intuitively than they've understood or admitted, and now they have to put all that on paper.”

3. Small vs. Large Companies: Speed and Scale

• Small companies can rapidly design new AI processes without red tape, gaining agility.
• Larger organizations benefit from resources and formal documentation but move slower.
• “You have so much more freedom in designing the pipes… If it doesn't work, do it different next time.”

4. Automation Needs a Human Touch

• Full automation is not the goal—humans must own strategy, final decisions, and quality control.
• AI should augment, not replace, human judgment.
• “I don't think there should ever be full automation on strategy… AI is not the one pushing publish. The poor content problem is a human problem.”

5. Messaging & Brand Consistency Risks

• AI can scale the right message—or misinformation—very quickly.
• Unified messaging and oversight are critical as teams scale AI-generated content.
• “Then you're scaling either misinformation or incorrect positioning 10 times faster.”

6. The Future: AI as Proactive Assistant

• Envision AI dashboards that proactively deliver insights, competitive research, and content ideas—before marketers even ask.
• “I have this dream… AI has synthesized everything the competition is doing and suggested next best content.”
• AI as an “invisible assistant with a photographic memory that makes me look awesome.”