Back to Newsletters
The most advanced CMOs are not merely prompt curious. They are using GenAI to improve content workflows, creative reviews, campaign automation, sales enablement, internal knowledge access, executive alignment, and customer insight analysis. This post captures real Huddler examples while reinforcing the guardrails that keep AI useful, governed, measurable, accountable, practical, strategic, and human-led for CMOs.
CMOs are doing genuinely useful things with GenAI now. The smartest ones are not merely prompt curious, although points for the phrase. They are orchestrating workflows, setting boundaries, and asking the question that separates strategy from software tourism: What work should AI actually improve?
Like any powerful tool, AI performs better with a plan. The Huddlers making real progress are as clear about what they will not use GenAI for as what they will. That discipline matters when every demo promises transformation and every team has at least one person trying to automate the weekly meeting into a sentient spreadsheet.
“I told my team—if you're asking for more headcount, show me what AI could replace first.”
Another CMO challenged their marketers to replace three manual workflows with AI-powered ones. That is the difference between adoption and dabbling. One has a business case. The other has screenshots.
Huddlers are using GenAI for first drafts of emails, blogs, social copy, and campaign structures. Fine. Useful. Expected. But no serious CMO is letting the machine go live without a human holding a sharp metaphoric pencil.
“We run the content through one GPT to write, then another to scrub it, removing everything from emojis to overused buzzwords. It’s our AI editor.”
“AI gives us speed, but it’s our judgment that delivers quality.”
That second sentence should be stitched onto every AI content workflow. The point is not to produce more sludge faster. The point is to move from blank page to useful draft, then apply taste, context, and actual accountability.
Tools like ChatGPT, Jasper, and Zapier can help teams draft, refine, and automate. They do not replace the CMO’s responsibility to protect the brand from sounding like everyone else’s chatbot.
Visual creativity is no longer standing outside the AI party holding a cheese plate. Huddlers are using MidJourney and ChatGPT to generate concept art, draft layouts, and directional imagery before designers start polishing pixels.
One marketer uses rough AI visuals to align with designers earlier. That is not a threat to design talent. It is a way to make the brief less vague than “more premium, but warmer, with energy.”
“Just having MidJourney in the mix has accelerated our creative reviews.”
“It’s not about final assets. It’s about faster alignment.”
Exactly. AI is not replacing designers. It is replacing the blank page, the muddled prompt, and the 14-message thread that starts with “Can you make it pop?”
Webinars, campaigns, and email flows are famous for consuming time with the quiet determination of a budget meeting. One Huddler used Replit and HubSpot to build a tool that creates entire campaign workflows, including emails, landing pages, and social ads, from one input and one click.
The result: Work that once took three hours and multiple people now takes five minutes.
“It’s not just faster. The quality’s more consistent.”
This is not magic. It is a CMO with a clear workflow problem, enough curiosity to build, and the good sense to use AI where repeatability matters.
Static battle cards have their place, usually buried three folders deep where no rep can find them. Huddlers are now building custom GPTs trained on competitive intel, sales process, objection handling, and persona-specific messaging.
When a salesperson says, “I have a call with a frustrated IT buyer at 2 pm,” AI can serve up relevant prep before panic-Slacking the product team becomes the plan.
“We created a GPT that talks like our CRO because it saves us three meetings.”
That is sales enablement at the speed of conversation. Done well, it gives reps faster access to the thinking already trapped inside the organization.
From support tickets to sales notes to product docs, Huddlers are using tools like Glean to unify fragmented internal knowledge. This is less glamorous than generating a brand manifesto in 11 seconds, but probably more valuable.
“Before Glean, we’d spend hours trying to piece together what happened with a customer. Now, it’s all there: Context, history, pain points.”
“We’re not adding tools. We’re replacing chaos with clarity.”
That may be one of the better AI outcomes: Fewer people playing Slack-tag for answers that should have been findable in the first place.
Some Huddlers are building internal GPTs trained on CEO, CFO, and CRO communications. These are not for public consumption. They help test messaging, prepare board materials, and anticipate executive reactions before the meeting turns into a live-fire exercise.
“We don’t have to wait a week for feedback. We can ask, ‘How would our CEO say this?’ and get a decent answer in 10 seconds.”
“It’s not perfect, but it beats going into a board meeting with crossed fingers.”
The caveat is important. These tools can sharpen preparation. They cannot replace actual executive feedback, nor should they create synthetic confidence where human alignment is still missing.
One of the most promising use cases is aggregating customer conversations from Gong, support tickets, and win/loss interviews, then using GenAI to analyze themes at scale.
One Huddler called it their “customer truth engine.”
“It’s like talking to 1,000 customers at once without leaving your desk.”
This is more than qualitative data with a productivity halo. It is a way to hear patterns across the market faster, assuming the inputs are strong and humans still interpret what the patterns mean.
The best CMOs are not chasing AI for novelty. They are shaping it into a strategic advantage by improving workflows, speeding alignment, surfacing customer truth, and making teams more effective.
The practical test is simple: If AI does not improve a real workflow, decision, or customer understanding, it is probably theater. Pleasant theater, perhaps. Still theater.
The best use case is the one tied to a real bottleneck. Strong candidates include content editing, campaign workflow automation, sales prep, internal knowledge search, and customer conversation analysis.
No. GenAI can accelerate drafting, synthesis, and repeatable workflows, but humans still own quality, context, brand judgment, and accountability.
Custom GPTs can be trained on competitive intel, objection handling, sales process, and persona messaging to help reps prepare faster and respond more consistently.
They are internal GPTs trained on executive communications to help teams anticipate CEO, CFO, or CRO reactions. They are useful for preparation, not a substitute for real alignment.