AI is the buzzword dominating boardrooms and water coolers, with leadership eager to integrate the tech and coworkers sharing their latest ChatGPT prompts (or is that just us?). The excitement is palpable: large language models (LLMs) and other “Deep Research” reasoning models can help with faster decision-making, new lines of revenue, and slicker sales motions. The tools exist, the potential is undeniable, but the execution? That’s where the proverbial you-know-what hits the fan.

Strategy stalls, infrastructure gaps emerge, and internal know-how falls short. Fears of AI unreadiness are a growing sentiment, as well. A recent Cisco study surveying 2,503 Global CEOs reveals a striking disconnect between ambition and readiness:

• 97% of CEOs plan to integrate AI into their operations, convinced of its transformative power.
• 80% believe AI will drive process efficiencies and spark breakthrough innovations.

And yet…

• Only 1.7% feel their organizations are fully prepared to implement AI successfully.
• 53% feel they’re already losing ground by not investing enough in the right technologies.
• 70% fear an eroding competitive edge due to insufficient IT infrastructure that can handle AI initiatives

The takeaway? AI isn’t coming. It’s already here. The question is whether your team is adapting to take advantage of this brave new world.

AI Adoption: A Climb, Not a Destination

Let’s take a step back. Is it realistic to expect full AI readiness overnight? We don’t think so.

AI isn’t a departing train that businesses either catch or miss, even if some surveyed CEOs feel as much. We see it like Miley Cyrus in her 2009 Hannah Montana movie mega-anthem: it’s the climb! (and not just because that song is still stuck in our heads). AI adoption requires constant adaptation to new altitudes. Every challenge tackled, every workflow optimized, and every experiment tested prepares your organization for the next step.

As with any major industry shift, AI presents as much opportunity as it does challenge. The key is looking not at the summit, but the next hand- or foothold in front of you. Small AI workflow wins get you that much closer to AI integration mastery.

How AI is B2Being Leveraged Today

The good news is that the tools to bridge the AI readiness gap are already here. It’s not about if you should integrate AI into your marketing strategy. It’s about how. Check out some of the ways ROI·DNA is leveraging AI’s power.

Streamlining Research? Tap into Reasoning Models

Some of the most time-consuming marketing tasks involve sifting through massive amounts of data — finding the right journalists for outreach, identifying high-value PPC targets, or pinpointing competitive content gaps.

Reasoning models like OpenAI’s o1 can step in to:

✅ Analyze past coverage, social profiles, and interest areas to surface the best journalists or influencers for your pitch

✅ Generate a curated list of the most relevant YouTube channels, websites, or publishers to maximize reach and results

✅ Pinpoint content and keyword gaps you can exploit to outmaneuver competitors

We’ve used o1 to identify keyword use, topic coverage, and even tone of voice of dozens of competitor pages. Those insights help us determine where a client can stand out and swing big to capture attention on their own site.

Too Many Recurring Tasks? Try AI-driven Workflows

From industry news tracking to competitor monitoring, AI can turn your endless task list into automated intelligence.

OpenAI’s “Scheduled Tasks” function can:

✅ Set up a daily news summary so you never have to visit five different blogs before 9 AM

✅ Flag newly published content from your key competitors, eliminating the need to manually check their blogs and press releases

Our Senior Manager of Content Strategy, Blake Calamas says, “There’s a lot of great publications talking about content and GenAI these days, and a few digital watering holes I usually return to. Setting up a daily summary means I can catch the highlights on a busier morning, or click through to read more when I have time.”

Want to Supercharge AI marketing? Enter Custom GPTs

If the journey to AI mastery is like a certain Disney Kid-turned-Grammy winner’s summer song, think of AI tools themselves as super-powerful Swiss army knives you can bring on the climb. What’s more: we can customize them in seriously creative ways (not to brag, but we’ve done it).

Custom GPTs can:

✅ Offer UX feedback in real-time, helping marketers refine their approach without formal UX expertise (like Intellimind’s Roast My Landing Page custom GPT)

✅ Act as a training tool, guiding new and existing employees through product knowledge, FAQs, and best practices

For instance, if you wanted to ‘quiz’ your sales team on their understanding of a competitor’s offering, provide just a handful of inputs (like solution page URLs) and you’re good to go.

Fuel for thought 🚀 The real AI advantage isn’t just about automation. It’s about knowledge enablement. Teams that harness AI for internal learning accelerate their growth curve exponentially.

And, it’s worth noting that the GenAI tools we love using are just that: tools. They don’t replace the expertise or professional intuition that comes only from (in our case) 15 years of marketing wins. Like all tools, AI can only do what it was designed to do. And that means, sometimes, what AI provides is like a loose handhold that crumbles…you probably should have tested it before using it. It’s why we rely on human-in-the-loop QA to make sure that AI’s output conforms to what we know is true.

AI in B2B Marketing: The Tipping Point is Here

The findings from the Cisco study make at least one thing clear: nearly every CEO sees AI as a game-changer, but only a small fraction are ready to make it work. Those who move beyond the hype to leverage AI-powered reasoning models, automation, and custom GPTs one step at a time? They’re setting the foundation for mountain-climbing and ballad-belting success.