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Here's the good news about becoming an AI marketing expert: you don't actually have to be an expert. According to our recent survey of 500 marketers, 85% have ramped up their AI usage since early 2024—and most of them are figuring it out as they go.
The marketers pulling ahead aren't the ones with unlimited budgets or dedicated AI teams. They're the ones who picked one annoying workflow, automated it with AI, and then moved on to the next one. They started small, got comfortable with the tools, and now they're using AI to handle the busywork so they can focus on strategy, creativity, and actually talking to customers.
The "Join the Robots" webinar panel shared exactly how they're doing this. Here are seven workflows you can start testing today—pick one that makes you think "ugh, I hate doing that" and you'll free up brain space for the work you’re excited to do.
1. AI-powered go-to-market templates
The problem: Product marketers often get stuck recreating similar documents from scratch for every feature launch. Customer.io's Naomi found herself hesitant to dig into project outlines and go-to-market briefs—not because she couldn't do them, but because starting from zero every time felt overwhelming.
The solution: Naomi created an evolving Notion template with expandable sections that feeds directly into Claude. She starts each project by filling in basic details like the feature overview and customer value, then lets AI handle the heavy lifting of structuring her go-to-market materials.
What makes it work:
- The template includes specific character limits and formatting requirements (like "55-60 character subject lines")
- She provides detailed context about Customer.io's voice and target audiences
- Each section has clear instructions for the type of output needed
The result: Naomi now has a systematic five-phase process for every feature launch, with AI handling the heavy lifting in phase three (messaging strategy). Instead of staring at blank documents, she fills in basic context and lets Claude generate structured go-to-market materials that she can then refine and customize.
Tools needed:
2. Hyper-personalized welcome emails at scale
The problem: Most welcome emails are generic and miss the opportunity to immediately provide value based on what you know about each new user.
The solution: Giorgio from Customer.io demonstrated how to capture form data (role, company, goals) and use AI to generate personalized onboarding messages that speak directly to each user's specific pain points.
How it works:
- Form submissions trigger a webhook to an automation platform (like n8n, Zapier, or Make)
- User data gets processed by an AI agent with specific instructions about your product features
- AI generates a tailored recommendation based on the user's role and stated goals
- The personalized message gets sent back to your email platform
Real example: Instead of "Welcome to our platform," users get messages like "Start by exploring our campaign templates to create tailored campaigns for first-time shoppers and engage return customers effectively"—specifically crafted for their eCommerce role and abandoned cart goals.
Tools needed:
3. Automated prospect research and personalized outreach
The problem: Sales teams spend hours researching prospects and crafting personalized messages, often with inconsistent results.
The solution: RevenueHero's Co-Founder, Charanyan built a system that automatically researches prospects and generates hyper-relevant cold emails using a combination of CRM data, web scraping, and AI analysis.
The process:
- Clay or similar tools enrich CRM data with recent company hires, tech stack info, and website content
- All data gets stored with a unique identifier (like HubSpot company ID)
- AI agents analyze the company's website, recent news, and pain points
- Generated emails reference specific details like "your request a firebox demo page" and connect it to relevant product benefits
The results: 58% open rates and consistent meeting bookings because every email feels personally researched and relevant.
Key insight: "AI does not create expertise. It only helps you scale it," Chara noted. You need to provide examples of good outreach and clear instructions for the AI to follow.
Tools needed:
- CRM
- Clay (for enrichment)
- OpenAI/Claude
- Vector database for content storage
4. Dynamic image personalization for campaigns
The problem: Creating unique visuals for different customer segments or preferences typically requires design resources for every variation.
The solution: Jan, Founder of 9x, showed how to automatically generate personalized images using AI, triggered directly from your campaign workflows.
His demo: For a fictional food delivery app, he created a system that:
- Takes a user's avatar image and favorite food preference from Customer.io
- Sends both to OpenAI's image generation API with instructions to "create an image of this avatar eating [favorite food]"
- Automatically uploads the generated image and includes it in a personalized email
The bigger picture: This same approach works for product mockups, personalized infographics, or any visual content that benefits from customization.
Tools needed:
Getting started with marketing AI
You don't need to be an AI expert to start automating your marketing workflows. These tools are evolving so quickly that everyone is learning together.
Our panelists' advice for getting started:
Start simple
Pick the use case that solves your biggest daily frustration. If you spend 30 minutes every day doing something repetitive, that's your first AI experiment.
Context is everything
The quality of your AI output depends entirely on the context you provide. Include examples, brand guidelines, character limits, and specific instructions.
Plan for hallucination
AI will sometimes make things up. Build review processes into your workflows, especially for customer-facing content.
Share your learnings
The most successful teams actively share what works (and what doesn't) to build collective knowledge.
Use the tools you already have
Many platforms, like Customer.io, are building AI features directly into their interfaces. Start there before adding new tools to your stack.
The real AI opportunity
The marketers who will benefit most from AI aren't the ones trying to replace human creativity and strategy. They're the ones using it to eliminate busy work so they can focus on what humans do best: understanding customers, building relationships, and creating experiences that actually matter.
As Giorgio put it: "With generative AI, now the chances for you to deliver the best possible message at the best possible time are way beyond what the tools allowed us to do before."
Want to see these AI use cases in action? Watch the full "Join the Robots" webinar recording here for live demos and detailed implementation walkthroughs, or explore our State of the AI marketer report for more ways marketers are using AI.
