Why starting small with AI pilots before scaling is a mistake

Many organizations start small with AI pilots before scaling. But what if this cautious approach is slowing you down?

Starting small might feel safe, but it can keep you from achieving your larger goals quickly and effectively. It’s not the best approach for proving the value of AI to senior leaders in your organization.

Ultimately, AI pilots lead to disconnected efforts and fail to meet the urgent demands for ROI that many marketing leaders face. 

The problem with AI pilots

Too slow for the pace of business

AI pilots might sound like a lower-risk way to ease into new technologies, but they often come with a downside — things move too slowly. AI pilots are like dipping your toe into the water when, in reality, you need to jump in if you want to swim with the big players.

• Delays in ROI: AI pilots often fail to deliver significant ROI quickly. Slow or non-existent value delivery can frustrate stakeholders who expect to see quick wins. Quarterly results drive many leaders. They expect AI to drive efficiency and create measurable value immediately. However, many small-scale experiments take too long to prove their worth or don’t address business-critical issues that move the needle.
• Missed opportunities: Taking too long to move beyond experimentation can mean missed opportunities to capitalize on market shifts and opportunities. While your team is cautiously working on a pilot, competitors may be scaling AI across their operations and capturing market share. 

Lack of integration with broader marketing strategy

Another drawback to starting small with AI pilots is that it can lead to a lack of integration with your broader marketing strategy and broader organization. AI pilots often end up isolated from the rest of the organization, which reduces their impact.

• Isolated projects: When AI is tested only in small pilots, it tends to become a siloed project. This makes it difficult to see how AI can fit into the larger marketing organization. These projects may work fine independently, but without integration, they’re not adding up to something greater than the sum of its parts.
• Risk of fragmentation: Isolated pilots can lead to fragmented efforts. Instead of building a cohesive, results-driven marketing strategy, you end up with scattered initiatives that don’t contribute meaningfully to your overall goals. To truly benefit from AI, it needs to be woven into the fabric of your marketing strategy from the beginning.

Dig deeper: 5 ways to jump start AI adoption

Align your AI marketing strategy with your business goals

If starting small isn’t the answer, what is? The key is to be ambitious and create an AI marketing strategy aligned with your business goals right from the start. 

This means thinking bigger about how AI can drive your business forward and collaborating with other departments to achieve impact across the organization.

Start with business goals

Begin by understanding your company’s overarching goals. Whether your focus is revenue growth, customer acquisition, improving customer satisfaction or operational efficiency, these goals should inform your AI marketing efforts.

Identify high-impact AI marketing use cases

Where can AI help your marketing have the most significant impact on your business goals? Prioritize use cases based on impact and feasibility. Start with projects that have the potential for high impact but are also feasible, given your current resources and capabilities. These projects will help you deliver value quickly while laying the foundation for further AI expansion.

Cross-functional collaboration

AI doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Ensure alignment across different departments — marketing, IT and sales must collaborate to help AI initiatives have the most significant long-term impact.

Dig deeper: A marketer’s guide to implementing generative AI

Delivering tangible results quickly

Marketing leaders are under immense pressure to deliver results — and fast. An ambitious AI strategy focuses on delivering tangible results quickly to meet those expectations and prove AI’s value to your organization.

Identify key metrics for success

To know if your AI initiatives are working, set measurable objectives like key performance indicators (KPIs) and objectives and key results (OKRs). These metrics will help track progress, measure success and justify further AI investments to stakeholders.

Quick wins, then scale

Quick wins are essential, but they should be part of a scaling process that shows early success while laying the groundwork for bigger achievements. For example, you might focus on automating a critical marketing workflow to demonstrate immediate time savings while establishing process guidelines for automating all marketing workflows.

Scale through iteration

You may not achieve your business goals on the first try. Iteration should be expected and planned for. Iterate rapidly, looking to improve with each iteration. Where possible, break broader initiatives into manageable phases. This approach reduces the risk of each phase while ensuring that each phase of your AI marketing strategy is aligned with the larger vision.

Case studies: Successful examples of bold AI adoption

The best way to understand the power of scaling AI quickly is to look at companies that have done it successfully. Here are a few examples:

Tomorrow.io

Dan Slagen and his team at Tomorrow.io integrated AI across various marketing functions, including content, video, events, PR, lead generation, product marketing and sales enablement. This boosted productivity by over 30%, increased lead generation by 50% and made their marketing efforts ROI-positive.

Stitch Fix

Stitch Fix successfully scaled AI by integrating data science and AI into its core operations. The company uses AI to personalize customer clothing recommendations, combining algorithms with human stylists to provide a unique, data-driven experience. This holistic AI approach has enabled them to see measurable customer satisfaction and operational efficiency results.

Bayer

In early 2022, Bayer’s Australia team launched a project that combined Google Trends data with weather and climate insights to predict cold and flu season trends across different regions in Australia. By pairing this data with state-specific search trends, they tailored ads to reach the right audiences at optimal times. This approach led to an 85% year-over-year increase in click-through rates and a 33% decrease in cost per click compared to the previous year.

Dig deeper: A people-friendly approach to adopting AI in marketing

Go big or get left behind: Skip AI pilots to see real results

Starting small with AI pilots may seem like a sensible approach. But it might keep your organization from reaching its full potential. By thinking big, you can align your AI efforts with your main business goals right from the start, creating real value and driving growth.

It’s time to rethink AI adoption strategies. Instead of cautious experimentation, aim for a scalable, integrated and iterative approach to deliver quick wins and long-term success. A bold strategy can turn AI from a small experiment into a significant driver of business outcomes.