The Marketing Organization of the Future: Structuring for Success in the Age of AI

Marketing has evolved more in the past five years than in the previous fifty. With rapid advancements in technology, particularly in Artificial Intelligence (AI), enterprise marketing organizations are undergoing a dramatic transformation. As the Prodigy team has learned from our close engagement and high integration with enterprise marketing teams, the marketing organization of the future doesn’t just operate on creative instinct- it’s powered by data, supported by technology and designed for outcomes.

This August during the US Open, the Prodigy team had the opportunity to sit down with some of the world’s leading marketers in a roundtable discussion to debunk any misconceptions around the modern marketing org, especially around AI usage. We learned what really works - and doesn’t work - when it comes to AI in a marketing stack, and where enterprises and partners can do better to equip marketers with the tools they need to future proof their strategies and create winning campaigns.

Ultimately, what we found when looking at how forward-thinking enterprises are structuring their marketing departments today is that a new blueprint is emerging: one that blends human creativity with machine precision. The new marketing org is meant to run as a well-oiled machine that scales alongside the business, but is that always the reality? 

In this article, we’ll explore how leading organizations are building modern marketing teams, the role technology, especially AI, plays in their operations, potential pitfalls and best practices for integrating AI into marketing workflows.

The New Marketing Org Chart: A Hybrid Model

In the traditional model, marketing teams were siloed: creative, analytics, media buying, PR, etc. In the marketing organization of the future, silos are collapsing in favor of fully integrated teams with agility as the cornerstone of their operating manual. More and more, teams today are focused on driving outcomes - higher reach, increased leads and more revenue, for example, versus simply producing campaigns.

While expectations have increased, budgets and resources have not necessarily increased in parallel, leaving marketers with a need to get scrappy - meaning hyper efficient and hyper effective - with optimally designed org structures, top-notch technology infrastructure, lean processes and supportive partners that are willing to do what it takes to grow their brand and their business. 

Five years ago when we were building the Prodigy platform, we did our best to read the tea leaves on what a modern marketing org would look like. We bet on technology and AI even before it was at the top of everyone’s newsfeed because we knew it would eventually be a Swiss Army knife for the modern marketer. Now, given the evolved scope and higher expectations of the modern marketer, our platform has become like a member of the team- safely storing important data, managing the budget and making the marketing dollar go further.

From an organizational structure standpoint, what we have observed is that teams are becoming flatter, more interdisciplinary, and more data-literate. Everyone in the marketing org is expected to not only understand how data and AI influence their role, but leverage both on a day-to-day basis. The lines between Marketing and IT are increasingly blurred, and we imagine that by now every marketer has found their best friend in IT that helps them navigate the complexities of technology in their marketing stack.

AI’s Role in the Modern Marketing Organization

We cannot overinflate how often AI comes up in discussions with enterprise marketers, nor can we overstate how useful it can actually be when deployed correctly. The crux of what we have seen as it pertains to AI is that it’s no longer viewed as just a tool, but almost as an embedded team member. A leading marketer actually compared AI to an intern in that the work quality improves with explicit instructions and an upfront and ongoing investment of time and training. It can help with many important, time-consuming tasks that a more senior marketer may no longer be able to support.

More enterprises have built their own homegrown AI-based tools that marketers are expected to utilize. The challenge that marketers face with this is that despite having tools, in many cases they don’t receive guidance on how to properly use them and maximize the benefits. We actually heard from a marketer, “we have all this AI, and don’t know what to do with it.” 

It appears that AI-focused trainings are oftentimes generic and actually irrelevant to a modern marketer. Rather than a tick the box exercise, enterprises should consider the practical applications of how AI can be leveraged to make marketers’ lives easier and their campaigns more effective at delivering the outcomes the business expects. 

Best Practices for Integrating AI into Marketing Teams

As AI becomes deeply embedded in marketing functions, successful teams are adopting a set of best practices to ensure alignment, efficiency, and ethical use.

Here are some ways they are doing that:

• Establishing AI governance such as an AI committee that tackles appropriate, compliant usage as well as ethics. Marketers themselves attest to the need for “AI guardrails” that keep AI outputs compliant with organizational standards as well as consistent across teams

  
  

• Investing in AI literacy across teams, including ongoing practical training, such as "prompt engineering" fluency so team members can get optimal outputs from AI

  
  

• Establishing Data Architectures that focus on clean and secure sources, narrowly focused on the use cases for the targeted outcomes. 

• Combining human creativity and hands-on support with AI efficiency where AI is a co-pilot, not a replacement. Use it to free up time for creative and strategic thinking.

  
  

• Leveraging a variety of complementary AI-based tools, both homegrown and licensed from external partners. Ensure that you are maximizing their usage. With the right internal and external partners, like a Prodigy, invested in their AI journeys, marketers can 10x their success.

  
  

• Piloting, scaling, and optimizing once learnings have been gleaned and success has been realized

We encourage modern marketers and organizational leaders to apply the best practices that are most relevant to their business in order to realize the promise of AI in a modern organization. 

The Benefits of a Future-Ready Marketing Org

While some organizations are still unsure about AI, most have taken the leap, restructuring their teams and integrating technology, especially AI, into as many touchpoints as possible so that they can produce more on-brand, results-driven outputs. While marketers are experiencing growing pains as they transition into a more steady future state, they are starting to reap the benefits such as:

• Reduced content production time

  
  

• Increased budget savings and campaign ROI

  
  

• More personalized experiences, at scale

  
  

• Emerging trends and customer needs addressed in real time

  
  

• Freed up teams to focus on strategy, creativity, and innovation

  
  

Conclusion: Building the Marketing Organization of the Future

The marketing organization of the future isn’t just tech-savvy, it’s tech-integrated. With AI as a strategic tool in the modern marketers’ toolset, when strategically deployed it can supercharge performance, improve agility, and help marketers do what they do best: connect with customers in meaningful ways.

Enterprise leaders should start reshaping their org charts with technology and AI at the center, invest in ongoing technology and AI-focused education, and continue to foster a culture of innovation that seamlessly transitions companies to the next era of consumer engagement. 

Want to future-proof your marketing organization?

Get in touch with our Prodigy team to help you integrate our AI-powered marketing spend management technology into your operations.