{"id":10522,"date":"2025-10-30T15:58:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10522"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:58:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T21:58:23","slug":"7-steps-to-build-real-ai-readiness-in-your-crm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10522","title":{"rendered":"7 steps to build real AI readiness in your CRM"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Building AI readiness concept\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Marketing means constant reinvention. We launch, measure, tweak and sometimes scrap entire systems when new insights surface. I\u2019ve managed more than a dozen platforms, rebuilt the same lifecycle journeys hundreds of times and relaunched campaigns in new forms.<\/p>\n<p>That same iterative discipline now defines how we approach AI. The question isn\u2019t how to bolt it on \u2014 it\u2019s which jobs actually need to be done and how they should be done now.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/ai-readiness-checklist-7-key-steps-to-a-successful-integration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AI readiness<\/a> in marketing, especially in CRM, demands a closer look at the processes and roles behind every output. Instead of asking whether AI can write an email, ask whether that step still needs to exist \u2014 and who or what should own it.<\/p>\n<p>The goal is simple: expose the bottlenecks, redundancies and misalignments that AI can finally fix so humans can focus on the work that truly needs them.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step zero: The real win comes before the AI<\/h2>\n<p>More than automation, the biggest impact of AI is alignment. Before any model, prompt or workflow touches your CRM, your first job is to force the conversations that have been quietly avoided for years:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why do we do it this way?<\/li>\n<li>What is the actual outcome we\u2019re trying to achieve?<\/li>\n<li>Who owns that outcome?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most marketing inefficiency lives in the translation between teams. AI surfaces errors immediately because machines require precision where humans can tolerate ambiguity. That\u2019s why your step zero has nothing to do with AI. It\u2019s about separating jobs from tasks:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Job:<\/strong> The outcome that must happen (e.g., secure legal approval for campaign messaging).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Task:<\/strong> The steps or rituals we currently perform to make that job happen (e.g., write draft \u2192 email legal \u2192 wait for edits \u2192 update doc \u2192 resend \u2192 upload to platform).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you examine the job, you find flexibility. Maybe legal guidance could live inside a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system trained on your company\u2019s approved language and claims. Maybe a <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/what-is-an-mcp-server-and-how-can-marketers-use-one\/\">model context protocol (MCP)<\/a> client could house current T&amp;Cs and automatically flag outdated phrasing before it ever hits a legal\u2019s inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Agents helped reveal where workflows were unclear, overlapping or outdated. Humans are great at navigating messy middle grounds \u2014 but when you try to codify that mess for AI, you finally see where your process actually breaks.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Define jobs to be done<\/h2>\n<p>This is about separating the <strong>what<\/strong> from the <strong>how<\/strong> \u2014 the immutable results your process must achieve versus the ways you currently get there. Once you strip away who does what and how it\u2019s done, you start seeing opportunities for simplification and automation.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Identify the core jobs:<\/strong> The non-negotiable outcomes every campaign or workflow must deliver (e.g., secure legal approval, personalize content, validate data accuracy).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Avoid naming steps or roles:<\/strong> Focus only on the end conditions that signal done.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Anchor AI discussions in outcomes:<\/strong> Ask \u201cwhat must be accomplished for this process to move forward, regardless of who or how?\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/4-marketing-jobs-to-be-done-being-transformed-by-genai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">4 marketing \u2018jobs to be done\u2019 being transformed by genAI<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Capture stakeholder perspectives at scale<\/h2>\n<p>AI readiness starts with people, not data models. Your CRM processes are lived experiences. Every marketer, analyst and copywriter interacts with them differently. Before you can automate or redesign anything, you need to understand those realities at scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The goal is to collect real, unfiltered insights on how work actually gets done. Uncover the friction points and the emotional cues \u2014 what frustrates people, what energizes them and where they\u2019ve built personal workarounds that hide systemic gaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Engage ~10% of your process stakeholders<\/strong>: Enough coverage to capture variance without bogging down.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Skip surveys and group workshops:<\/strong> Instead, have them record voice notes answering structured prompts. This captures context and emotion and avoids meeting fatigue. Grab the transcript and put it through an AI tool to give you a first draft of the process, gaps and pain points.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ask the right questions:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Walk me through the steps you take to get X done.<\/li>\n<li>What outcomes must you validate along the way?<\/li>\n<li>Which steps feel most manual, repetitive or frustrating?<\/li>\n<li>Which steps do you actually enjoy or see value in doing yourself?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/is-your-marketing-team-ai-ready-8-steps-to-strategic-ai-adoption\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Is your marketing team AI-ready? 8 steps to strategic AI adoption<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3: Map the end-to-end CRM process<\/h2>\n<p>Most teams think they know their process until they have to draw it. When you force every task into a single visual or spreadsheet, blind spots emerge: duplicate steps, outdated checks, unnecessary dependencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Document every distinct step:<\/strong> Global CRM orgs can easily hit 80\u2013100 steps from brief to activation. These should fall into core jobs (defining strategy, legal approval, content creation, audience creation, UAT\/QA, etc.). If a step changes hands or tools, then you need to write it down.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Capture<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Purpose (job to be done).<\/li>\n<li>Current owner.<\/li>\n<li>Human desire\/enjoyment of the step.<\/li>\n<li>Resource intensity.<\/li>\n<li>Repetitiveness.<\/li>\n<li>Difficulty.<\/li>\n<li>Current state (manual\/semi-automated\/automated).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Build this into a living spreadsheet, which becomes your baseline for understanding AI use cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 4: Score and prioritize for AI fit<\/h2>\n<p>Once the process is visible, patterns start talking back to you. Scoring forces objectivity. Not every pain point deserves AI and not every beloved ritual should stay manual. This step quantifies human sentiment and operational strain so you can focus on impact, not novelty. Think of it as triage for your automation roadmap \u2014 where effort meets opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>Apply a scoring system across three lenses:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Human desire<\/strong>: Do people want to do this?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Resource load<\/strong>: How costly\/time-consuming is it?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Repetitiveness<\/strong>: How often is it repeated and how similar each time?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Task difficulty<\/strong>: Is it hard to do? Highly technical? Nuanced?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Patterns will then emerge:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>High desire + creative tasks<\/strong>: Candidates for AI enrichment (AI as thinking partner, not replacement).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Low desire + high resource + repetitive:<\/strong> Prime automation and AI workflow candidates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Low desire + manual but not repetitive<\/strong>: Simple automation may be enough \u2014 AI not required.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!-- START INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<div class=\"nl-inline-form border py-2 px-1 my-2\">\n<div class=\"row align-items-center justify-content-center nl-inline-container\">\n<div class=\"col-12 pb-1\">\n<p class=\"inline-form-text text-center mb-0\">Fuel up with free marketing insights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-auto pb-2 pb-lg-0\">\n<p class=\"inline-form-text text-center mb-0\">Email:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-8 pe-lg-0\">\n<div class=\"form-nl-inline\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"col-12 col-lg-auto\">\n<p class=\"text-center mb-0\"><a class=\"nl-terms\" href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/terms-of-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"opens in a new tab\">See terms.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- END INLINE FORM --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 5: Differentiate automation vs. AI vs. agentic AI<\/h2>\n<p>When teams say \u201cwe\u2019ll use AI,\u201d they often mean entirely different things. Some problems need simple scripts. Others need generative reasoning. A few require fully agentic orchestration, which requires tooling, contextual architecture and solid data. Mislabeling these leads to wasted investment and unrealistic expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Automation<\/strong>: Replace repetitive mechanics (e.g., routing briefs, logging approvals).<\/li>\n<li><strong>AI (assistive\/generative)<\/strong>: Enrich, transpose, accelerate creative or analytical work (e.g., draft copy variations, flag anomalies).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Agentic AI (early stage)<\/strong>: Give an AI agent a toolkit and autonomy to decide how to complete multi-step jobs with guardrails. Powerful, but still maturing for enterprise CRM.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Focus less on the grand AI vision and more on matching solutions to the right jobs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/agentic-ai-is-about-to-transform-the-martech-stack-and-the-way-marketers-work\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>Agentic AI is about to transform the martech stack \u2014 and the way marketers work<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 6: Select your top 5 use cases<\/h2>\n<p>You now have data on what\u2019s broken, repetitive or joyless. Instead of declaring an AI transformation, select a small, diverse portfolio of pilots that test automation, enrichment and orchestration in different contexts. The discipline here is restraint: five great use cases teach you far more than fifty half-finished ones.<\/p>\n<p>From your readiness map:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Identify the five most impactful candidates across cost, time and employee sentiment.<\/li>\n<li>Frame them as jobs to be done (not tasks).\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Design pilot initiatives. Some may need simple automation, others AI workflows, a few AI enrichment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 7: Iterate like a marketer, build like an architect<\/h2>\n<p>AI maturity starts with pilots \u2014 and grows by learning not just what works but where each solution belongs. As you learn, start mapping your discoveries to the right layer of ownership.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the problem is narrow \u2014 say, a CRM-specific use case or an agent to speed audience testing \u2014 that might live within your own team\u2019s budget and sandbox. If the challenge touches shared infrastructure, like metadata, asset libraries or localization systems, you\u2019re now talking about a platform problem, not a CRM one.<\/p>\n<p>The discipline here is to match scale to scope:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Local problems \u2192 local tools:<\/strong> Fund and build what\u2019s uniquely yours.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Enterprise problems \u2192 enterprise platforms:<\/strong> Elevate the need to the teams that own content systems, data governance or translation pipelines.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hybrid problems \u2192 partnerships:<\/strong> Co-develop where your use case reveals a gap everyone will eventually face.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>AI isn\u2019t one layer on top of marketing. It\u2019s a web of intelligence built to mirror your business architecture. If you can remap your CRM jobs into outcomes instead of legacy steps, you\u2019ll uncover where AI actually belongs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some jobs will stay human, others will become AI-assisted and a few will disappear into automation entirely. The companies that win won\u2019t be the ones with the most AI. They\u2019ll be the ones with the smartest division of labor between humans, machines and process design.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Dig deeper: <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/how-to-unlock-the-true-potential-of-ai-with-adaptive-structure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to unlock the true potential of AI with adaptive structure<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/7-steps-to-build-real-ai-readiness-in-your-crm\/\">7 steps to build real AI readiness in your CRM<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/martech.org\/\">MarTech<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marketing means constant reinvention. We launch, measure, tweak and sometimes scrap entire systems when new insights surface. I\u2019ve managed more than a dozen platforms, rebuilt the same lifecycle journeys hundreds of times and relaunched campaigns in new forms. That same iterative discipline now defines how we approach AI. The question isn\u2019t how to bolt it &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/?p=10522\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;7 steps to build real AI readiness in your CRM&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"medium":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"large":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-featured-image":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"inspiro-loop@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-masonry@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_cinema":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_portrait@2x":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false],"portfolio_item-thumbnail_square":["https:\/\/martech.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ChatGPT-Image-Building-AI-readiness-concept-800x450.png",0,0,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/attentionmedia.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}