Chapter 02 / The tool tax

Too many AI tools leave people doing the connecting.

The campaign team has AI built into five or six applications. Each one helps with a step. A person still carries the brief from one to the next, types the same instructions again and sorts out which version is current.

A renewal can keep a useful tool and an expensive workaround alive at the same time.

02.1

The hidden cost is the handoff between tools.

A usage report shows which tools get opened. It cannot show how much hand-carrying a campaign needs to get from one tool to the next.

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02.2

Changing AI should not mean rebuilding your campaign process.

Which accounts to prioritize, what counts as proof and who approves what belong to your company. They should survive a change of AI provider.

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02.3

Buy the one step you need instead of another seat.

Needing details added to an account list or a batch of keyword data once a month does not justify another application the team has to learn, log into and keep current.

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02.4

Your next renewal should include an exit test.

The real test of flexibility is whether your team can take its rules and working methods with it when it leaves a tool.

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The numbers behind this chapter

First, how leaders rate this area overall. Then four specific ways of working, each asked separately.

How leaders rate this area overall · Q1

The one-line self-assessment, asked before the detailed questions.

13%Starting. No consistent approach yet.

35%Experimenting. Individual teams are trying their own approaches.

34%Repeatable. Everyday work follows an agreed approach.

15%Established. One shared approach, improved regularly.

2%Don’t know

581 people were asked; blank answers are left out. This is how leaders rated their own company overall. The four specific ways of working below were asked separately. Nobody checked either answer against the actual work.

What is actually in place · Q6

Four ways of keeping your methods when the tools change, each rated on its own.

One person can see AI spending and overlapping features across all of marketing’s tools.

15%48%22%13%

Not happening 15%A few one-off trials 48%Used in several recurring jobs 22%The normal way of working, reviewed regularly 13%Don’t know 2%

Company knowledge and workflow instructions can be reused outside the tool they were written in.

31%38%14%9%8%

Not happening 31%A few one-off trials 38%Used in several recurring jobs 14%The normal way of working, reviewed regularly 9%Don’t know 8%

A replacement AI model is tested on the same marketing examples before it is used.

31%47%11%

Not happening 31%A few one-off trials 47%Used in several recurring jobs 11%The normal way of working, reviewed regularly 4%Don’t know 7%

One tool can be swapped without rewriting the whole workflow.

23%44%26%

Not happening 23%A few one-off trials 44%Used in several recurring jobs 26%The normal way of working, reviewed regularly 3%Don’t know 4%

581 people were asked; each row counts only the people who answered that row. Each row adds to 100% before rounding. “Used in several recurring jobs” and “the normal way of working” are shown as separate answers, not added together. Answer wording is shortened here; the questionnaire and explorer carry the full text. Explore every response ↗

Put the findings to work

Before the next renewal, follow one campaign from brief to launch, count every time a person carries work between tools, and check which of your rules would leave with you if you dropped the tool.

Read what to do next ↗

Next chapter / 03

The hidden cost is the handoff between tools.

Changing AI should not mean rebuilding your campaign process.

Buy the one step you need instead of another seat.

Your next renewal should include an exit test.

First, how leaders rate this area overall. Then four specific ways of working, each asked separately.

The one-line self-assessment, asked before the detailed questions.

Four ways of keeping your methods when the tools change, each rated on its own.

One person can see AI spending and overlapping features across all of marketing’s tools.

Company knowledge and workflow instructions can be reused outside the tool they were written in.

A replacement AI model is tested on the same marketing examples before it is used.

One tool can be swapped without rewriting the whole workflow.

Before the next renewal, follow one campaign from brief to launch, count every time a person carries work between tools, and check which of your rules would leave with you if you dropped the tool.

Approved AI still stops before the job is done. ↗