Advertising and marketing companies are the largest adopters of AI; and it’s not stunning.
The IAB’s State of Data 2025 discovered twice as many companies and publishers have absolutely scaled AI in comparison with manufacturers. And Forrester’s 2024 report discovered 91% of U.S. promoting companies are both utilizing or exploring generative AI.
This isn’t stunning as a result of AI is nice at:
Automating tedious duties that include working an company
Leveling up shopper technique and deliverables
Saving time and sources
Nonetheless, regardless of the momentum, most companies nonetheless haven’t absolutely built-in AI into their operations. Actually, the identical IAB report discovered that solely 34% of companies have adopted AI at scale. The remainder are nonetheless figuring it out.
Primarily based on our talks with company leaders, three key points are holding groups again:
- Too many instruments, not sufficient technique. With over 30,000 AI instruments in the marketplace, most companies solely use a fraction, and even then, not with a transparent strategic roadmap.
- Information chaos. Fragmented sources, safety issues, and inconsistent inputs make it onerous to belief the outputs.
- Worry of breaking shopper belief. Many companies are nonetheless uncertain of how one can be clear about AI use with out making shoppers uncomfortable.
That will help you overcome these challenges and implement AI efficiently, we talked to company leaders who’ve been via the method and compiled their high AI finest practices on this article.
1. Be clear together with your shoppers
That is the #1 rule. Should you’re utilizing AI in any a part of your workflow, your shoppers have to know.
“Many companies don’t inform, promote to, or are clear about their use of AI in client-facing work. This causes a bunch of issues,” says Ryan Anderson, President at Markiserv, a inventive company. “We’ve had shoppers change to us as a result of their earlier companies used AI with out disclosing it.”
These shoppers usually really feel misled after they uncover that work they assumed was human-crafted had, actually, been generated or supported by AI. This type of breach of belief is extraordinarily expensive to restore.
“Purchasers may simply use AI themselves totally free,” Ryan says, “however they rent companies for the added technique, creativity, and high quality that human oversight gives.”
Past belief, compliance is one other main concern. “Many organizations have strict guidelines in opposition to utilizing AI-produced work of their advertising and marketing campaigns or inventive belongings,” Ryan factors out.
Given AI’s murky copyright historical past, failing to reveal AI utilization can result in authorized problems.
The answer is to be upfront. Clarify the place AI is used, reminiscent of in analysis or ideation, and emphasize that human experience nonetheless drives the ultimate deliverables. Transparency strengthens belief and retains shoppers with you.
2. Examine your shoppers’ AI coverage
Talking of compliance, figuring out your shopper’s AI coverage upfront is non-negotiable.
As Robin Emiliani, Founder and CEO at Catalyst Advertising and marketing explains, “My largest recommendation to companies is to search out out their AI instruments, rules, and protocols first.”
Totally different shoppers can have totally different mindsets and insurance policies in the direction of AI and never clarifying this prematurely can result in awkward conditions, churn, and even authorized battles.
“Out of the library of 25 or 30 shoppers, we have now most likely 1 / 4 of them that say, ‘you can not use AI with us’. After which one other section that claims, ‘Okay, you should use AI however solely these particular instruments, and you must vpn into our workspace to have the ability to use it,’” she shares.
For instance, considered one of Robin’s shoppers approves the utilization of Jasper, whereas one other one will approve Gemini. And it’s essential to search out out which instruments your shoppers would give the inexperienced gentle earlier than you begin utilizing them.
One of the simplest ways to do that is to bake the AI-question into your onboarding course of. For example, you possibly can add these inquiries to your shopper onboarding doc:
- Do you permit AI in our workflow?
- If sure, which instruments are accredited?
- Are there any safety restrictions we have to observe?
Then, undergo this on an onboarding name to ensure each you and your shopper are aligned on AI. Robin advises, “Actually get a transparent understanding from the shoppers, what you’re allowed to do and what you’re not allowed to do earlier than going all in.”
3. Consider your processes earlier than automating
AI can automate just about any course of but it surely’s necessary to ensure that course of is definitely obligatory and price automating first.
“A nasty course of, when automated, simply turns into a quicker dangerous course of,” says Peter Lewis, Founder & CEO at Strategic Pete, a advertising and marketing consultancy company.
“I’ve seen companies soar into AI for lead era with no good system in place to observe up on the leads. The leads began flowing in, however the gross sales didn’t as a result of the group had no good workflow to deal with the load.”
Earlier than automating something, audit your processes. Ask your self:
- Is that this course of precious and truly obligatory?
- What inefficiencies can we remove?
- Is there a better strategy to obtain the identical purpose?
When you’ve recognized {that a} particular course of is important and precious, you possibly can got down to automate it with AI.
Advertising and marketing company leaders are bombarded with AI product launches, new options, and competing claims from tech giants.
The result’s what Jeff Su, Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor at Google, calls an “AI instruments paralysis”—the overwhelming feeling of not figuring out which instruments are literally value utilizing.
He warns that the majority AI device discussions deal with hype somewhat than real-world productiveness. “New options and spectacular benchmark scores imply nothing in the event that they don’t translate to real-world influence,” he explains.
Relatively than chasing each new AI device, Jeff recommends constructing a minimal viable toolkit: a small, targeted set of instruments that deal with important enterprise wants.
Right here’s how one can apply it:
- Establish your recurring challenges. What repetitive duties in your company take too lengthy? Instance: researching digital promoting traits.
- Discover one device that solves the issue. Jeff examined a number of AI analysis instruments and located that Perplexity outperformed others in pace and accuracy.
- Grasp it earlier than including something new. He dedicated to utilizing Perplexity completely till it grew to become second nature.
This methodology ensures you don’t waste time switching between instruments that overpromise however underdeliver.
5. Embed AI prompts into workflows
Even in the event you’ve recognized particular instruments that may be nice on your company, you or your group may nonetheless not be utilizing them constantly due to one thing referred to as “dying by prompts”.
This implies you recognize {that a} particular AI device can assist (e.g. Claude) however you’re not utilizing it constantly as a result of it seems like an excessive amount of effort to craft the correct immediate each time. Jeff shares an instance:
“I’ve this unbelievable immediate that transforms my writing into clear and concise copy. However there’s completely no method I’d be utilizing this 20 occasions a day if I needed to sort it out each single time.”
His answer is to? Cut back friction. Right here’s how:
- Use a textual content expander. As a substitute of retyping prolonged prompts, set up a textual content expander device like Raycast (Mac) or Beeftext (Home windows). Jeff demonstrates how a easy shortcut (e.g., ::chptconcise) immediately hundreds his favourite immediate into ChatGPT.
- Embed prompts straight into workflows. As a substitute of preserving prompts in scattered notes, Jeff advises making a database of prompts in your favourite challenge administration device, like Notion.
Then, he advises including a hyperlink to the related immediate straight the place you want it.
For instance, when you have a activity in your Google calendar to “Write a webinar promotion e-mail”, you possibly can add the hyperlink to the immediate that may allow you to write or edit the e-mail on to the duty.
This reduces the psychological overload of remembering the place to search out your prompts and helps you get to outcomes quicker.
6. Centralize and clear your knowledge
You possibly can’t construct sensible AI workflows on messy knowledge. In case your group is plugging AI into siloed spreadsheets, inconsistent naming conventions, or outdated experiences, you’re simply automating confusion.
“Information readiness and cleanliness are actually necessary,” says Artūras. “Should you consolidate cross-channel knowledge and ask AI to generate summaries, your thoughts will probably be blown by how nicely AI can detect every little thing.”
That is the place a advertising and marketing intelligence platform like Whatagraph is available in. With it, you possibly can:
- Centralize your knowledge from 55+ advertising and marketing platforms into one house
- Arrange the info to make sure knowledge high quality. Repair naming inconsistencies, remove duplicates, and standardize codecs.
- Mix knowledge from totally different sources collectively to get a extra holistic view of selling efficiency
As soon as your knowledge is clear and centralized, any insights AI provides you about that knowledge is extra related, correct, and truly actionable.
For example, on Whatagraph, you possibly can ask our AI chatbot any questions on your advertising and marketing efficiency like:
- Which advert campaigns introduced within the highest conversions?
- How a lot cash did we spend on X marketing campaign final quarter?
- Which advertisements transformed essentially the most?
The AI offers you succinct solutions primarily based on the particular knowledge supply and timeframe you need to analyze. And you may absolutely belief the solutions as a result of once more, it’s primarily based on centralized and cleaned knowledge.
Primarily based on these correct insights, you possibly can take the correct actions like:
- Adjusting bids in your advertisements
- Turning campaigns on/off
- Optimizing creatives to spice up conversions
7. Construct a behavior of studying AI repeatedly
AI isn’t a one-time implementation—it’s an ongoing functionality. Instruments evolve shortly, new use circumstances emerge always, and staying forward requires extra than simply preliminary adoption.
Companies that make AI studying a part of their routine are those capable of adapt, scale, and lead with confidence.
Jeff Su, Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor at Google, refers to this because the Influence Loop Technique:
“Even in the event you can solely spare half-hour per week, taking motion and implementing one thing you’ve realized is infinitely extra highly effective than passively consuming one thing.”
Right here’s how one can embed common AI studying into your operations:
- Select one or two trusted newsletters like The Rundown AI, Advertising and marketing AI Institute to remain knowledgeable with out getting overwhelmed.
- Put aside 30–60 minutes per week to check instruments, refine prompts, or discover new workflows, and doc what works.
- Encourage inner data sharing by making a central place to log AI use circumstances, prompts, and classes realized.
The Backside Line
AI is not a buzzword for advertising and marketing companies. It’s turning into a core a part of how work will get finished.
However implementing AI efficiently isn’t nearly choosing the right instruments. You want the correct methods, clear communication, and a willingness to study and adapt.
To recap, listed here are the AI finest practices we’ve mentioned on this article:
Be clear with shoppers about how and the place AI is used
Examine your shoppers’ AI insurance policies throughout onboarding to keep away from compliance dangers
Consider inner processes earlier than automating (solely automate what works)
Construct a Minimal Viable AI Toolkit and grasp it first
Embed AI prompts into present workflows to cut back friction
Use a advertising and marketing intelligence platform like Whatagraph to centralize, clear, and put together your knowledge for AI
Make AI studying a weekly behavior—check, share, and doc what works
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Discover extra sensible methods and AI device suggestions from company leaders in this AI playbook. Download our AI Playbook for Agencies in 2025.
Justas Malinauskas
