A lot of excitement around AI for Marketing centers on spiffy new features. I can understand that; after all, who doesn't like new features? And anyway, in many cases those features are just showing up willy-nilly in the platforms you already license.

A MarTech leader, however, has to juggle multiple dimensions around AI, including ROI, organizational support, business alignment, governance + privacy, and more. AI is quickly becoming a stack challenge.

So I'm happy to announce Real Story Group's latest reference model: MarTech AI. Current RSG clients and subscribers can access the full report straightaway (🔒). If your firm does not yet subscribe, I'll still share the basic outlines here and invite you to engage a bit further.

An AI Reference Model

Reference models help us make actionable sense out of complexity, by organizing seemingly chaotic environments into enough semblance of order so that teams can make and communicate good decisions.

Source: RSG

Let's examine main parts of this model, starting on the right and moving counter-clockwise:

• Responsible AI: essential enterprise considerations -- "guardrails" -- that allow you to apply AI safely and ethically
• Engagement Services: applications that deliver experiences to customers, aligning here to RSG's MarTech Stack reference model.
• Four categories of AI Use Cases: Agents, Insights, Decisioning, and Generative; this is the fun stuff, when you can scale it...
• Foundational Platforms: core MarTech environments that will play a huge role in your AI effectiveness going forward
• Foundational Capabilities: advanced enterprise services that underpin almost any serious AI initiative

Some Take-Aways

A good reference model is also an argument, and RSG is making some points here:

1. Primacy of use cases: they are essential to organizing services in your stack, and also central to evaluating solution fit. RSG's Apoorv Durga just detailed how RSG has updated our reviews of eighteen AI vendor offerings
2. Layered approach: AI services may be appearing from vendors across your stack, but savvy leaders looking for coherent customer experiences will define channel-independent AI services
3. Key dependencies: Foundational platforms and capabilities are emerging as essential underpinnings of robust AI strategies for MarTech. Underinvest here at your peril

How to Leverage the Model

At RSG we've been helping clients leverage the model to baseline their efforts, conduct stoplight analysis, and evaluate vendors, among other goodies. If your enterprise is looking to accelerate its AI strategy and decision-making, feel free to reach out to us here, for a free 30-minute consultation.