Start by understanding where AI already participates

Before governance can be designed, the organisation needs visibility.

AI participation in marketing is broader than the obvious writing assistant. It may sit inside research, content creation, paid media, customer relationship management, personalisation, analytics, social platforms, agency workflows, localisation, campaign automation and recommendation systems.

That matters because risk does not only emerge from the tool someone has officially approved. It also emerges from the cumulative decisions made across the wider marketing environment.

A CMO therefore needs to know not simply which AI platforms are being used, but what role each system is playing. Is it generating ideas? Making recommendations? Rewriting claims? Adapting content for another market? Prioritising customers? Producing assets that can move directly towards publication?

Those are very different levels of influence.

The first governance question is not “Which AI tools do we have?”

It is “Where is AI making decisions about how our brand reaches the market?”