SERVICE

AI Strategy for Marketing and Communications

Identify opportunities and build a transformation path that is purpose-built for your marketing and communications teams

AI changes how customers discover and engage with content. It expands marketers’ capabilities and allows teams to do more with less. But simply adding new tools to your marketing and communications teams rarely works. Effective AI adoption targets clear opportunities and adapts workflows and decision-making processes to take advantage of new technology. It also establishes a change management plan from square one.

New Markets Advisors helps marketing and communications leaders design and implement AI-native organizational models. We map how work gets done today, identify where AI genuinely creates value, and build a phased rollout plan.

5 books

published on innovation and AI strategy, including AI and the Octopus Organization

30+

of the Fortune 500 advised on growth and organizational strategy

From Today's Workflows to an AI-Native Marketing Team

Know Where AI Changes the Job

Map How Work Happens Today

Design a Structure Built for AI

Manage the Transformation

What Our Clients Say About Us

"New Markets has strategic and entrepreneurial thinkers who understand the challenges that large, established companies have in executing innovation to drive growth. They bring great insight and clear thinking to their work with clients, along with very relevant work experience."

Deborah Arcoleo

"New Markets’ approach to innovation is both insightful and resourceful. They uncovered insights that led to unique and relevant concepts. Leveraging experience in entrepreneurship and disruption, they crafted business models that could be explored quickly and with relatively low investment, which is a departure from most consultancies.”

Nate Hill

Trusted by

Our Approach to AI Integration in Marketing and Communications

Getting from “piloting AI” to “AI-native marketing team” is a sequencing problem as much as a strategy problem. Our approach moves through four phases, each building on the last.

Phase 1 — Define Goals and External Factors: Priorities and Expected Impacts of AI

Not every marketing activity changes equally under AI, and teams use the same tools in different ways. We separate where AI drives efficiency from where it expands what your team can do.

Clarify your AI goals: drive efficiency, expand capabilities, or both
Map the audience and content opportunities AI opens up for your team
Interview leadership and run a workshop to align on priorities

Phase 2 — Map Existing Practices: How Work Is Done Today

How your teams, tools, and approval processes actually function differs from what’s on the org chart. We map how work is really done, then find where AI fits in.

Document real workflows: tools, processes, and skills by function
Assess AI’s impact on each workflow, including skill and tech gaps
Pull in outside lessons from peer institutions and adjacent industries

Phase 3 — Build the Organizational Model: An AI-Ready Vision for Change

Working together, we clarify the roles, responsibilities, and skills your future model needs.

Map roles, responsibilities, and skills for your future model
Chart how workflows and approvals should change under the new model
Specify the AI capabilities and technologies that underpin it
Estimate potential reductions, and which are easiest to pursue

Phase 4 — Establish a Transformation Plan: Align on the Path from Here to There

A phased rollout plan sequences the transition by workstream and role.

Build a step-by-step transition plan by workstream and role
Pair it with tailored communications for every affected role
Stress-test the timeline against risks like a shrinking budget
Review the plan with leadership to surface concerns and adjust

Phase 1 — Define Goals and External Factors: Priorities and Expected Impacts of AI

Not every marketing activity changes equally under AI, and teams use the same tools in different ways. We separate where AI drives efficiency from where it expands what your team can do.

Clarify your AI goals: drive efficiency, expand capabilities, or both
Map the audience and content opportunities AI opens up for your team
Interview leadership and run a workshop to align on priorities

Phase 2 — Map Existing Practices: How Work Is Done Today

How your teams, tools, and approval processes actually function differs from what’s on the org chart. We map how work is really done, then find where AI fits in.

Document real workflows: tools, processes, and skills by function
Assess AI’s impact on each workflow, including skill and tech gaps
Pull in outside lessons from peer institutions and adjacent industries

Phase 3 — Build the Organizational Model: An AI-Ready Vision for Change

Working together, we clarify the roles, responsibilities, and skills your future model needs.

Map roles, responsibilities, and skills for your future model
Chart how workflows and approvals should change under the new model
Specify the AI capabilities and technologies that underpin it
Estimate potential reductions, and which are easiest to pursue

Phase 4 — Establish a Transformation Plan: Align on the Path from Here to There

A phased rollout plan sequences the transition by workstream and role.

Build a step-by-step transition plan by workstream and role
Pair it with tailored communications for every affected role
Stress-test the timeline against risks
Review the plan with leadership to surface concerns and adjust

What You'll Receive from Our AI in Marketing and Communications Consulting

Across a typical engagement, you'll get:

Goals & Priorities Assessment: a clear set of goals to inform your updated marketing organizational model
Current-State Role & Workflow Maps: a detailed map of how critical teams and roles work today, and how they're likely to change through the AI transition
Roadblock Diagnostic: identification of the key technological and talent roadblocks standing in the way
Future Organizational Model: a model that clarifies roles, responsibilities, and skills; charts workflow and approval changes; and specifies the AI/tech capabilities you'll need
Phased Rollout & Communications Plan: a timeline by workstream and role, a communications approach tailored to each role, and scenario planning for developments that could shift the timeline

Together, these give you a marketing organization that's ready to operate, not just experiment, in the AI Age.

FEATURED BOOK

AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm

Our latest book (2025, co-authored with Jonathan Brill) argues that AI Age organizations need to work like an octopus, pushing everyday decisions to the edges while staying coordinated through shared data rather than hierarchy.

FEATURED Book

AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm

Steve Wunker's latest book (2025, co-authored with Jonathan Brill) argues that AI-age organizations need to work like an octopus, pushing everyday decisions to the edges while staying coordinated through shared data rather than hierarchy.

FEATURED Book

AI and the Octopus Organization: Building the Superintelligent Firm

Our Approach: From Jobs to be Done to a Prioritized Product Roadmap

At New Markets Advisors, we help organizations move from customer understanding to product decisions. Our approach starts with the Jobs to be Done framework and ends with a clear, prioritized roadmap aligned to your competitive position and capabilities. This approach reduces uncertainty, shortens time to market, and aligns teams around shared goals.

Phase 1 — Define Goals and External Factors: Priorities and Expected Impacts of AI

Not every marketing activity changes equally under AI, and teams use the same tools in different ways. We separate where AI drives efficiency from where it expands what your team can do.

Clarify your AI goals: drive efficiency, expand capabilities, or both
Map the audience and content opportunities AI opens up for your team
Interview leadership and run a workshop to align on priorities

Phase 2 — Map Existing Practices: How Work Is Done Today

Working together, we clarify the roles, responsibilities, and skills your future model needs.

Map roles, responsibilities, and skills for your future model
Chart how workflows and approvals should change under the new model
Specify the AI capabilities and technologies that underpin it
Estimate potential reductions, and which are easiest to pursue

Phase 3 — Build the Organizational Model: An AI-Ready Vision for Change

Working together, we clarify the roles, responsibilities, and skills your future model needs.

Map roles, responsibilities, and skills for your future model
Chart how workflows and approvals should change under the new model
Specify the AI capabilities and technologies that underpin it
Estimate potential reductions, and which are easiest to pursue

Phase 4 — Establish a Transformation Plan: Align on the Path from Here to There

A phased rollout plan sequences the transition by workstream and role.

Build a step-by-step transition plan by workstream and role
Pair it with tailored communications for every affected role
Stress-test the timeline against risks like a shrinking budget
Review the plan with leadership to surface concerns and adjust

How We Compare

Most large consulting firms will sell you an AI marketing "readiness assessment." Few will help you actually redesign the org chart, workflows, and decision rights underneath it. That's where the real value, and the real difficulty, sits.

Customer-centered: we start with your customers' Jobs, surfacing the unmet needs others miss
Tailored, not templated: your workflow map and organizational model are built from how your teams actually work, not a generic AI-maturity framework
Senior-led throughout: the people who interview your leadership team and design your model are the people who stay on the engagement
Built for speed and focus: a four-phase, tailored engagement model instead of a sprawling multi-workstream program
Cross-industry pattern recognition: insights drawn from clients across consumer, healthcare, financial services, and technology, not one sector's playbook

A Quick Comparison: New Markets Advisors vs Traditional Large Consulting Firms

vs. Large Consulting Firms

Clear priorities (Jobs to be Done) for internal and external customers

Starting point

Technology/tool assessment

Core deliverable: roles, workflows, and tools together

Scope of change

Often out of scope or a separate engagement

Same senior team from interviews to rollout

Team continuity

Analyst rotate in; partners rotate out

Longer-term relationship, less costly overall

Engagement Style

Intense, costlier sprints

vs. Traditional Consultants

Clear priorities (Jobs to be Done) for internal and external customers

Technology/tool assessment

Starting point

Core deliverable: roles, workflows, and tools together

Often out of scope or a separate engagement

Scope of change

Same senior team from interviews to rollout

Analyst rotate in; partners rotate out

Team continuity

Longer-term relationship, less costly overall

Intense, costlier sprints

Engagement

vs. Traditional Consultants

Clear priorities (Jobs to be Done) for internal and external customers

Technology/tool assessment

Starting point

Core deliverable: roles, workflows, and tools together

Often out of scope or a separate engagement

Scope of change

Same senior team from interviews to rollout

Analyst rotate in; partners rotate out

Team continuity

Longer-term relationship, less costly overall

Intense, costlier sprints

Engagement style

Where New Markets Advisors Stands Out

Bottom line: if you need a broad, resource-heavy AI transformation program across every function, a large firm's scale may serve you better. If you need a focused, customer-grounded redesign of how your marketing and communications team works, one your people will actually adopt, that's where we fit.

FEATURED WORKING PAPER

Rethinking Management in the Age of AI

Our practical guide, Rethinking Management in the Age of AI, distills the framework into an actionable playbook, including the "Eight Arms" model for pushing authority to frontline teams and the "Neural Necklace" model for staying coordinated without central bottlenecks.

FEATURED WORKING PAPER

Rethinking Your Management in the Age of AI

Our practical guide, Rethinking Your Management in the Age of AI, distills the framework into an actionable playbook, including the "Eight Arms" model for pushing authority to frontline teams and the "Neural Necklace" model for staying coordinated without central bottlenecks.

FEATURED WORKING PAPER

Rethinking Your Management in the Age of AI

How is this different from generic AI training for our marketing team?

Training teaches people to use tools. This engagement redesigns the roles, workflows, and decision rights around those tools — the part that actually determines whether AI adoption sticks.

Will this tell us which AI tools or vendors to buy?

Do we need a data or AI infrastructure in place before starting?

How do you handle resistance from staff worried AI will replace their roles?

Will middle management roles disappear?

How does this connect to Jobs to be Done?

How is this different from generic AI training for our marketing team?

Training teaches people to use tools. This engagement redesigns the roles, workflows, and decision rights around those tools — the part that actually determines whether AI adoption sticks.

Will this tell us which AI tools or vendors to buy?

What if our marketing budget gets cut partway through the transition?

Do we need a data or AI infrastructure in place before starting?

How do you handle resistance from staff worried AI will replace their roles?

Will middle management roles disappear?

How does this connect to Jobs to be Done?

Connect With Us

Let's Define Your AI Strategy Together

Fill out the form below to start the conversation about working with New Markets Advisors

Connect With Us

Let's Define Your AI Strategy Together

Fill out the form below to start the conversation about working with New Markets Advisors

What You'll Get from Our AI in Marketing and Communications Consulting

Across a typical engagement, you'll get:

Goals & Priorities Assessment: a clear set of goals to inform your updated marketing organizational model
Current-State Role & Workflow Maps: a detailed map of how critical teams and roles work today, and how they're likely to change through the AI transition
Roadblock Diagnostic: identification of the key technological and talent roadblocks standing in the way
Future Organizational Model: a model that clarifies roles, responsibilities, and skills; charts workflow and approval changes; and specifies the AI/tech capabilities you'll need
Phased Rollout & Communications Plan: a timeline by workstream and role, a communications approach tailored to each role, and scenario planning for developments (like a decreased budget) that could shift the timeline

Together, these give you a marketing organization that's ready to operate, not just experiment, in the AI age.