AI in Marketing: The Curiosity is There But Strategy is Missing

Over the past month, we ran our AI Readiness Test to understand how marketers and business owners are really engaging with AI. The findings were eye-opening, confirming what we see daily at Disruptor: curiosity is high, but strategic execution is scarce.

Brands are dabbling with AI, experimenting with different tools and platforms, yet very few are building coherent strategies around them. The energy is there. The experimentation is there. What’s missing is the roadmap.

Curiosity Without a Compass

When we asked participants to describe their current AI usage, only a fifth had a clear strategy in place. One in three use AI occasionally, but without direction. And nearly 30% haven’t begun using it at all.

This tells us that most teams are exploring AI with no defined destination. They're adopting tools in isolation, not as part of an integrated marketing system. Without a strategy, AI becomes a distraction. With the right framework, though, it becomes a force multiplier.

This is where our AI Marketing Strategy Roadmap comes in. It transforms sporadic experimentation into measurable momentum, helping you identify where AI fits into your funnel and how it can support your wider business goals.

Overwhelmed, Underperforming

The most common challenge reported in our survey? "Too many tools, not enough direction."

That was followed closely by lack of confidence, limited time, and uncertainty around what’s actually worth using. The AI landscape is evolving faster than most teams can absorb, with new platforms launching every day and no definitive guide to follow.

Our advice: you don’t need to keep up with all of it. You need to keep up with what matters to your business.

That could be using AI to automate customer support, generate on-brand content, or optimise your ad performance.

Strategy is the Missing Link

When we asked if respondents had an AI strategy aligned with their marketing goals, over 80% said either no or not really. Only 16.7% had a clear plan.

So what does that mean? Time, effort, and sometimes budget are being spent on AI without any sense of what success should look like. It's like launching a campaign with no KPIs.

That’s where our AI Readiness & Strategy Program makes a difference. We help you define your audience and value proposition, identify which marketing tasks can be automated effectively, and set success metrics that matter.

Because AI should accelerate your efforts, not add more chaos to the mix.

ROI? What ROI?

When it came to tracking the return on AI investments, the picture was even starker.

Two-thirds of respondents admitted they weren't tracking ROI at all. A quarter were tracking it roughly. Fewer than one in ten were measuring outcomes consistently.

Imagine spending money on advertising without ever checking performance. That’s what most teams are doing with AI right now.

Start small. Set up a simple dashboard that tracks efficiency gains, engagement lifts, or campaign outputs linked to AI tools. Or lean on platforms that offer built-in reporting and analytics.

From Dabbling to Doing

Our survey revealed that most teams want to make the shift. Their top priorities are understanding AI’s full potential, building scalable strategies, and automating the right tasks to save time.

Yet only 20.8% are regularly using automation to improve campaigns. Nearly half are still doing everything manually.

This is the gap Disruptor Training was built to close. We work with marketers and business owners to bridge that space between knowledge and action.

Whether you need a complete AI-powered strategy, support to automate your workflows, or a done-for-you content system powered by tools like ChatGPT, Opus Clip, ElevenLabs, or Make, we can help you get moving.

Final Thought

AI isn’t here to replace marketers. It’s here to multiply what they can achieve. But only when it’s approached with intention, structure, and a clear sense of purpose.

Without strategy, AI becomes another source of noise in already cluttered workflows. With the right strategy, it becomes your marketing accelerator — freeing up time, sharpening your messaging, and delivering results you can actually measure. This isn’t about jumping on every new trend or tool. It’s about aligning AI to your unique goals, audience, and capacity so it works for you, not the other way around.

The gap between dabbling and doing is where most businesses lose momentum. At Disruptor Training, we exist to close that gap. We help you move from experimentation to execution, with a clear plan, tailored support, and the confidence to scale your efforts sustainably.

So let’s stop winging it. Let’s build something that works together.

Book your Free AI Strategy Review and start turning curiosity into competitive advantage.

Want to take the AI Readiness Test? Click here.