AI marketing transformation is becoming one of the most urgent conversations in our industry, but Aleisha McCall believes too many organisations are still starting in the wrong place.
That was one of the central themes she explored in Microsoft Advertising’s latest All in on AI Leader Series, where she joined Adam Goodman, Director, AI Acceleration, Microsoft Advertising APAC, to discuss what separates organisations genuinely transforming with AI from those simply adding another layer of technology to the way they already work.
For Aleisha, the distinction is important.
The organisations making the strongest progress are not necessarily those buying the most AI tools. They are the ones prepared to question how their marketing function works before they automate it.
As she told Microsoft Advertising, the real opportunity is not to bolt AI onto fragmented systems and manual processes. It is to use this moment to rethink the systems, workflows and operating models underneath marketing itself.
The real barrier to AI marketing transformation
When Microsoft asked what separates genuine AI transformers from organisations that have simply “bolted it on”, Aleisha’s answer came back to the same issue she sees repeatedly across marketing: fragmentation.
Marketing teams have accumulated layers of platforms, processes, agencies, dashboards and manual work over time.
Media may operate one way. CRM may work another. Creative, analytics, sales and customer service often rely on different data sets, different KPIs and different definitions of success.
That creates a difficult environment for AI to operate within.
Aleisha’s view is straightforward: AI can only automate workflows that already work. If those workflows are unclear, inconsistent or dependent on people constantly improvising, automation does not solve the underlying problem. It can simply make the chaos move faster.
This is why AI marketing transformation needs to begin with the marketing system itself.
It also connects closely with what we have previously explored in AI Marketing Strategy: Why Most CMOs Are Getting It Wrong. The issue is rarely access to AI. The bigger question is whether the organisation has enough visibility, structure and operational clarity to use it well.
Why AI marketing transformation should start with workflows
One of Aleisha’s strongest points in the Microsoft conversation was about where marketers should start.
Before asking:
“Which AI tool should we buy?”
she believes leaders should ask a much more useful question:
“How does work currently flow through our business today and, more importantly, if we were to improve that flow, what would we change?”
That question changes the conversation completely.
Instead of starting with software, the better place to begin is with a clear understanding of how work actually moves through the business. That means looking closely at where briefs get delayed, where data is duplicated, where people are manually connecting systems that do not talk to each other, and where approvals or unclear ownership create unnecessary friction. It also means identifying the processes that rely too heavily on individual knowledge and the places where different teams are working from different versions of the truth.
Aleisha’s point is that these issues need to be understood before AI is scaled across the organisation. The businesses making the strongest progress are already doing that groundwork by documenting workflows, bringing customer data together, improving governance and creating a clearer source of truth across functions.
It may be less visible than launching a new AI tool, but this is the work that gives AI a solid foundation to operate from.
This is also the distinction we explored in From AI Tools to Agentic Marketing: The CMO Shift That Will Define 2026. Moving from isolated AI tools to connected workflows requires stronger foundations around data, governance and the way marketing work actually moves through the organisation.
Aleisha’s view on the new marketing operating model
Microsoft also asked Aleisha how AI is changing roles, skills and organisational structures.
Her answer was not that people simply disappear as more work becomes automated. Instead, she sees the role of people evolving towards higher value work.
As routine execution becomes easier to automate, marketers can spend more time on strategy, commercial judgement, creativity, workflow design and decision-making.
At the same time, the nature of the role itself starts to change.
Aleisha believes marketers will increasingly move from completing every task themselves to orchestrating specialised AI agents that can support areas such as competitive research, audience analysis, media optimisation, reporting and content creation.
That does not make the marketer less important.
It makes judgement more important.
The marketer still needs to decide what good looks like, where automation is appropriate, how outputs are validated, and how each part of the system contributes to the customer experience.
This is where agentic marketing becomes much more than another AI buzzword. It is a shift from isolated task support towards connected workflows where humans, agents, data and systems operate together.
It also fits into a much broader change in the marketing function. In our article on The Future Of Marketing: Key Insights From Marketers Day Sydney 2026, we explored how AI, changing workflows and rising commercial expectations are forcing marketers to rethink how the different parts of marketing connect.
Why AI ambition is ahead of operating reality
There is already a clear gap between how ambitious organisations are about AI and how prepared they are operationally.
According to BCG’s 2026 global CMO survey, 96% of CMOs say AI is driving end to end transformation in marketing, yet only around a third have moved to agent led workflows. Just 8% are running campaigns where multiple AI agents operate autonomously.
That gap reinforces Aleisha’s point. Many organisations are enthusiastic about AI, but enthusiasm is moving faster than operating model change.
That is why much of what is being called transformation today still looks more like productivity improvement.
Generating more content is useful, summarising meetings faster is useful, drafting emails or analysing reports more efficiently is useful, but Aleisha is clear that these are not the same as fundamentally redesigning how marketing operates.
Transformation begins when AI changes the system, not just the speed of individual tasks.
That transition from experimentation to embedded capability is something we have also been tracking in Top Marketing Trends for 2026: What Smart Brands Are Preparing for Now, where AI is increasingly moving from a standalone tool towards part of the underlying marketing infrastructure.
What AI marketing transformation means for people
Another important part of Aleisha’s perspective is that this shift is not simply a technology challenge.
It is also a people challenge.
Organisations need people who understand the workflows well enough to redesign them. They need leadership that can decide where automation creates genuine value. They need governance that allows AI to operate safely and consistently. And they need teams that are confident enough to work alongside AI rather than treating it as a separate tool sitting outside the normal operating model.
This is why Aleisha believes the organisations that get the most value from AI will not be those trying to remove humans from the system.
They will be the ones using AI to free people from low-value execution so they can focus on higher-value work.
The question she puts forward is a useful one:
“What can we automate to empower our people to do the work that creates the most value for our customers?”
That framing matters.
It keeps AI connected to commercial value and customer experience rather than treating automation as an objective in itself.
Building the foundations for AI marketing transformation
When Microsoft asked Aleisha for her key recommendation to organisations exploring AI transformation, her advice was simple: “Don’t start with AI. Start with your marketing system.”
For Aleisha, that means first understanding how work currently flows through the organisation, then documenting the processes behind it, connecting customer data, defining what success looks like and putting the right governance in place. It also means identifying the friction that is already slowing teams down before deciding where automation can genuinely add value.
She sees this as particularly important for marketing and media, where years of fragmented systems, platforms and processes have created a strong opportunity to rethink how the function operates.
For years, the industry has operated with fragmented platforms, multiple agencies, complex dashboards and competing definitions of success. AI has the potential to help clean up that “media mess”, but only if organisations resist the temptation to carry those same problems into a new AI-enabled environment.
The opportunity is not simply to do the same marketing faster.
It is to build a better marketing system.
And for leaders willing to do that work now, the advantage could be significant.
Read Aleisha McCall and Adam Goodman’s full conversation in Microsoft Advertising’s All in on AI Series: The Transformation Shift.
