AI is everywhere right now—and it’s tempting to jump in headfirst. But before you start experimenting with AI tools or revamping your tech stack, pause for a moment. There’s a better starting point:
👉 Start with the pain.
Before you look for AI solutions, take the time to uncover your marketing team’s real pain points. Only then can you find meaningful, efficiency-boosting opportunities to integrate AI in ways that actually solve problems, not just add more tools to manage.
In this post, we’ll walk through how to identify those pain points and how to think about AI as a supportive tool that enhances your existing marketing operations.
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype. AI can do everything from generating copy and segmenting audiences to forecasting campaign performance. But just because it can do something doesn’t mean it should—at least not right away.
Jumping into AI without a clear understanding of your current inefficiencies can lead to:
Instead, the smartest approach is this: let the pain guide your priorities.
Start by taking a close look at your marketing operations. Where are the breakdowns happening?
Ask your team:
This can include areas like:
Once you've surfaced pain points, group them into categories. This makes it easier to match them with potential AI tools later.
| Category | Example Pain Point |
|---|---|
| Repetition | Manually tagging leads or updating spreadsheets |
| Speed & Bottlenecks | Waiting for data reports or approvals |
| Scale Challenges | Personalizing emails at scale |
| Lack of Insight | Unclear which campaigns are actually driving results |
| Inconsistency | Inconsistent brand voice across content or channels |
Now that you’ve identified what’s not working, the next step is asking whether AI can solve it—or support it.
Here’s how to frame the question:
“Can AI automate, accelerate, or improve this specific pain point?”
Some examples:
Remember, the goal is not to replace your team, but to remove friction so they can focus on high-value work.
Instead of launching AI across your whole department, choose one pain point and pilot a tool that targets it.
For example:
Track the results. Did it save time? Improve accuracy? Free up your team to be more creative?
Use this pilot to build a case for further adoption—and keep your team involved in evaluating what works.
Once you've introduced an AI tool to solve a specific pain point, the next step is tracking how well it’s working. This helps you measure ROI and make data-driven decisions.
Even a simple before-and-after snapshot can be enough to justify the value of your pilot:
| Metric | Before AI | After AI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to build report | 4 hours | 30 minutes | Used AI-powered analytics summary |
| Blog posts/month | 4 | 7 | Used AI for ideation and outlines |
| Team satisfaction | 3.1/5 | 4.4/5 | Reduced repetitive tasks |
Too many teams adopt AI for AI’s sake. The real wins happen when you take a pain-first approach:
By treating AI as a problem-solving tool—not a shiny object—you’ll create a more efficient, empowered marketing team that’s ready for the future.
Looking for help identifying pain points in your marketing operations?
Let’s chat! We can help you map out your current workflows and pinpoint where AI can save the most time and effort.