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Now is the Time to Move from Testing AI to Nesting AI in Marketing

  • Writer: Jon Snyder
    Jon Snyder
  • Dec 4, 2025
  • 4 min read


Interim CMO, Fractional CMO, Advisor, Coach, Investor/ Prior Salesforce, Sitecore, Talkdesk, Dassault Systemes

September 30, 2025



When I brought AI into my last company, I knew I didn’t want siloed pilots scattered across the org. Instead, I wanted AI nested into our marketing strategy, plans, and operating rhythm.

In this approach, AI isn’t an add-on. It’s woven through every layer of strategy, operations, culture, and metrics so that impact becomes inevitable. Since then, I've refined the Nesting AI Approach I used through feedback from CMOs like Claire Darling, Bill Hobbib , and Liza Adams. 

To join the conversation on Nesting AI, join Claire, Bill, Erin Olsen, and me this Wednesday, Oct 1 at 4pm PT for the Stage 2 Capital’s virtual CMO roundtable, “Moving from AI Testing to AI Nesting.” Below are the 6 layers of the Nesting AI approach that we'll dig into on the call. If you're not an LP, reach out to Erin Olsen to get an invite.

The Six Nesting AI Layers

1. Business Alignment


  • AI should not just be a marketing initiative, but the CMO can lead from the front and be a champion for it company-wide. Build AI into your company objectives and talk about AI investments and accomplishment in all of your communications. Determine board-critical KPIs and establish a reporting cadence. And every company should establish AI governance with cross-functional representation.


Questions to consider: Do we have an AI-first mindset at the C-suite? Which metrics will the board expect to see quarter after quarter? Have you built AI into your company-wide commitments and communications?

2. Marketing Strategy & Plans

AI must be a pillar of GTM strategy, not a side project. At one company, I launched Project30 which required every L3 leader to have a plan, and report against that plan, to deliver a 30% improvement in pipeline, efficiency, and/or cost reduction through AI.

Questions to consider: How do you align AI goals with company priorities? How do you make AI tangible and accountable across every function in your organization? Do you want to create a named initiative?

3. Team

Enablement isn’t “one and done.” We brought in Liza Adams to kick off the learning journey then embedded AI learning into our marketing monthly learning sessions, and launched AI recognition awards to celebrate individual and team progress. We also redesigned our organization—determining which JTBD (jobs to be done) could be accomplished by agents. We had an objective back in January 2025 to build an organization of 80 humans and 40 agents. If I were to start this initiative today, the number of agents would be even higher. Visually showing this organization to my team helped minimize any fears that we might be looking to replace people with agents, and instead it emphasized that we were looking to augment our team.

Questions to consider: Where is my team today in AI skills? How do I jumpstart their learning and then how do I instill a culture of learning? What JBTDs could AI agents own? Have I built awards and recognition tied to our AI initiative?

4. Operating Cadence

AI can’t sit outside your rhythm—it needs to show up in weekly updates, monthly all-hands, and QBRs. I shared AI learnings in my weekly Top of Mind note that I sent each week to the team; each L3 reported in our QBRs their AI progress as part of Project30; we showed our progress with ROI results in the monthly AI update to the board.

Questions to consider: How will you embed AI into your existing cadences? Does your team understand their targets? Are you keeping the board updated on progress and ROI achievements from AI?

5. Execution & Workflows

AI touched everything we did from campaigns to battlecards to creative to research and to content. There are so many use cases out there today to learn from and so many marketers are using AI to execute, to build workflows, and to build agents. The key for us was cross-team sharing so wins in one area benefited everyone.

Questions to consider: Who are your early adopters? Which areas of marketing are you augmenting with GenAI today, which should be next, and then which should be later? Which workflows can be augmented with AI? How do you connect siloed use cases into an integrated story of impact? 

6. Culture

This is the hardest layer. Some feared AI would replace them; others feared they couldn’t learn fast enough. We built a culture of learning and sharing and I visually showed the organization I envisioned which showed agents supporting humans, and not replacing them. As the CMO, you need to have your hands in AI as well. We were also in the Martech space so it was important that we led from the front and had an AI-centric approach. 

Questions to consider: What culture do you want? How can you model AI-centric behavior as a leader? Where do you need to augment your own learning? How are you supporting your team members who are afraid? How can you show and not just tell your vision?

From Testing to Nesting

To truly unlock value, AI must be nested into how you function in marketing: your strategy, team, cadence, and execution, and all of this needs to be sandwiched between your business alignment and your culture.

That’s how we move from experiments to measurable impact, from testing to nesting AI into everything we do with accountability, visibility, and connectedness across marketing.


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