What should a CMO actually do in response to AI-driven search and agentic marketing?

The right response scales by time horizon. Immediate actions (this week) are about reassessing tooling and dashboards. The next 90 days are about connecting systems and shifting planning logic. The next 12 months are about evolving talent and building a long-term measurement and vision framework. Treating all three as one undifferentiated “AI strategy” project is the most common mistake — they require different decisions, different stakeholders, and different timeframes.

​

This week

 

• Reassess SEO tool spend for AEO coverage — most tool stacks were built for traditional search visibility, not for being the source an AI assistant cites or summarises

• Identify AI-assistant opportunities in campaign execution — the repetitive execution layer is where AI assistance has the clearest near-term payoff

• Refresh dashboards toward outcome-centric metrics tied to customer lifecycle stage

 

Next 90 days

 

• Investigate martech barriers and connect core systems — most AI initiatives stall because systems don't talk to each other, not because the technology fails

• Deploy AI assistants across channel workflows, not as isolated single-channel pilots

• Plan around journeys, not channels — the same planning-logic shift underlying converged, omnichannel advertising

• Launch incrementality testing and reallocate budget by marginal ROAS

 

Next 12 months

 

• Evolve talent strategy toward strategists and AI orchestrators

• Enable semi-autonomous campaign optimisation — once data foundations and incrementality testing are in place

• Build a value-centric measurement framework, replacing fragmented platform-reported metrics

• Develop a five-year vision for marketing — the direction stays stable even as the specific tools change

 

Why the sequencing matters

Each horizon depends on the one before it. Deploying AI assistants without first connecting systems just automates fragmentation faster. Building a five-year vision without 90 days of incrementality testing means the vision has no evidence behind it.

​

​