When AI Becomes a CEO Mandate: How Marketing Leaders Can Turn It Into Adopted Workflows Fast

Your CEO just made AI “a top priority.” Now it is landing in every department, including marketing and GTM teams.

BCG recently found that 72% of CEOs are now the main decision maker on AI. That's why it's turning into a mandate. For most companies, it's no longer a grassroots project.

But here’s where GTM teams get burned. They start with a tool or a pilot to show progress, then try to justify it later. Adoption keeps stalling because the real work never changed. The messy inputs, handoffs, approvals, compliance rules, habits -- those are still the same.

Sound familiar?

If you’re a marketing leader and you need to comply without wasting a quarter, try this:

• Start with the work: where is content getting stuck, slow, or expensive?

  
  

• Pick 1–2 workflows with clear owners (briefing, first draft, repurposing, approvals, updating pages).

  
  

• Set guardrails early: what data is off-limits, what needs review, what “done” means.

  
  

• Stick to simple measurements. Things like cycle time, revision rounds, throughput, cost per asset.

If you want help turning the mandate into real wins your team will actually use, message me. I've spent the past 13 years working with marketers on habits and change management. Plus the past 2+ years teaching AI workflows that actually get adopted.

Let’s chat about what adoption would look like in your team, and what has to change for it to stick.