Architect with mandate: AI leadership for marketing and sales
AI is inevitable. Five starting points for marketing and sales leaders who want to steer their organization instead of playing catch-up, plus what 'architect with mandate' means in practice.
Every self-respecting brand/company must invest time and energy in the ways AI impacts, and can impact, the short and long term. From how you work to how you coordinate sales, marketing, and product.
The days when sales and marketing were two completely different worlds are also over. Steering these competencies in a well-coordinated way is a challenge with AI too. And requires an architect with mandate.
A leader with a consistent approach and enough vision and perseverance to build a brand machine. Who is flexible enough to adjust every 3 to 6 months. Who dares to experiment, even when there's insufficient evidence it works. Provided it's proportional to a foundation of proven tactics, of course. And where the management team supports it and also takes (coordinated) steps that support this approach.
My tips for marketing and sales leaders:
Define the 'guardrails' for your entire organization and specifically your department
What we use, what we don't (yet)
What we do with data — where you store something and how it's organized
Steer and monitor the development of the right datasets and their interconnections
Stay open to new developments with regular "recalibration" of your policy
Who has access to what (tools, data, agents, etc.)
Prevent "shadow AI" — every employee doing whatever on their own initiative
Pay sufficient attention to the EU AI Act, GDPR, and transparency obligations
Deploying self-built agents can only happen within an acceptance process (sandbox/architect) and on your own stack.
Take your employees along on the journey you're deploying
Inform where you stand, what has been delivered, and what will be worked on in the coming period
Always give every employee the chance to learn
Listen to critical voices — often it's relevant and maps out risks
Upskilling requires policy, budget, and attention/ownership
Quarterly trainings, appropriate to the phase of your roadmap
Make your middle management co-owners
Think of a monthly town hall, drop-in hours, roundtable sessions, and condensed email updates.
Develop a roadmap for your data
Which data can be enriched
What structure it needs to have for optimal AI deployability (timeline)
What fallback strategy exists to prevent data loss
Who needs which data at what frequency
Think of migration projects to make different sources compatible without immediately having to tear down entire (crucial) systems. And stop collecting data without a roadmap — you're only enlarging your problem.
Develop a roadmap for your AI automation
Which tasks can be picked up by agents
Which routines need to be picked up by multiple agents together
How do we place a "human in the loop" for consistent quality
Who is the architect of the whole and how do you document the changeable reality
Which agents are available, in what way, and for whom? Are the people in the process sufficiently familiar with the subject matter and the way of working? Above all, don't shoot down your own initiatives, but ensure a controlled onboarding process (or a controlled rejection).
Define AI success
At individual, team, and company level
For customers, the brand, sales, and marketing
Supported by the entire management team
In your business model
Give sufficient time within the management team to get commitment on a 6/12/24-month roadmap that describes the short term in detail and identifies the point on the horizon. This also gets the marketing and sales leader support from all other departments. That's desperately needed to achieve all goals. And to get the resources that make the difference: in people, hours, budget, and authority to prepare crucial decisions for the management team (and/or make them yourself).
Resources plus authority — that's what I meant at the beginning by an architect with mandate.
I'm not writing this to give an exhaustive picture. Rather to support thinking about — and working on — the changes that AI brings about. And where possible to offer a handle for the necessary changes that every company will have to undergo if it wants to keep operating at the highest level. Whether you're in B2C, B2B, or in a public-private partnership: all of them are impacted by this development. I'll highlight and further develop more components in the coming period.
Yes, developments are moving fast. That doesn't mean they can't be followed. Or that it's impossible to prioritize the components that are relevant to you. I'm happy to help — and have several options for that:
An AI-readiness inventory in 2 to 3 weeks: 3-5 conversations, 1 overview, and a priority plan.
A hands-on trajectory for your product, marketing, or sales team with concrete ways to embrace AI 'tomorrow.'
A management team coaching trajectory: AI knowledge and skills at one level, plus one shared perspective on AI vision and strategy.
External guidance for your own project or challenge.
Not sure where you stand in your own AI development? Or want to examine with your team where your views align or differ? Take the AI assessment here and see the results within 10 minutes.