Pressure on marketing to deliver measurable growth has never been higher, and expectations are shifting rapidly. Boards and executive teams are asking where GenAI fits into the strategy. Customers expect more relevance, faster responses, and seamless experiences. Marketing teams are being asked to move faster, operate leaner, and perform at a higher level.
At the same time, GenAI is no longer a future concept. It is already being used to personalise customer journeys, scale content production, and deliver more intelligent customer engagement. For CMOs, the question is not whether to use GenAI, but how to deploy it in ways that create value today.
This blog outlines five GenAI plays that marketing leaders can activate immediately. Each one is designed to accelerate performance, increase customer impact, and build a more agile marketing function without the need for a complete transformation.
Play 1: Hyper-Personalized Campaigns at Scale
Relevance drives results, and GenAI makes one-to-one personalisation not just possible, but scalable. By combining real-time behavioural, transactional, and contextual data, GenAI tools can automatically generate messages, offers, and creative tailored to individual customer profiles. What once required a full team and weeks of production time can now be achieved in minutes.
This kind of personalisation is already delivering measurable impact. 87% of organisations using AI-powered personalisation have boosted customer engagement¹.
Whether adjusting language to match tone preferences, offering the right product at the right time, or surfacing tailored content on the fly, GenAI creates experiences that feel personal and timely. For CMOs, this means higher engagement, better conversion rates, and a significant step toward always-on marketing that adapts with each interaction.
Play 2: Accelerated Content Operations
Content remains the engine of modern marketing, but traditional production processes are slow, resource-heavy, and difficult to scale. GenAI changes that. It can generate emails, blog posts, social copy, product descriptions, and even video scripts in a fraction of the time it would take a full creative team.
Content can also be adapted and localised instantly, making it easier to tailor messaging across regions, channels, and audience segments without bottlenecks. This reduces creative fatigue, shortens review cycles, and improves brand consistency across the board.
86% of senior executives expect GenAI to significantly increase both the speed and volume of content production this year². With the ability to test more ideas and respond to market changes faster, marketing teams can stay ahead without overextending resources.
Play 3: Conversational Marketing with Intelligent Agents
Customers expect immediate answers and seamless support. GenAI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants make that possible by engaging in real-time, two-way conversations that feel natural and helpful. These agents can guide users through product discovery, answer complex questions, and support transactions without human intervention.
They also learn and adapt based on customer behaviour, which makes each interaction more relevant over time. Always available and always responsive, these tools reduce bounce rates, improve satisfaction, and drive higher conversion.
AI chatbots are lifting conversion rates by 23% while resolving issues 18% faster³. Intelligent, always-on conversations are no longer a customer service feature. They are a revenue driver.
Play 4: Predictive Customer Journey Mapping
Understanding customer intent in real time is no longer a guessing game. GenAI can analyse both historical and live data to predict what a customer is likely to do next, whether that is making a purchase, dropping off, or needing a nudge.
With these predictive insights, marketing teams can move from reactive to proactive. Campaigns become more timely and targeted. Resources can be allocated more effectively. And opportunities for engagement are identified before they are missed.
For CMOs, this creates a shift in strategy. Instead of responding to lagging indicators, marketing can anticipate customer needs and act with precision. The result is a more fluid, responsive customer journey and a more efficient path to revenue.
Play 5: Agile Market Research and Creative Testing
Traditional research cycles are slow, expensive, and often out of date by the time insights are ready. GenAI enables a more agile approach by simulating feedback loops using virtual personas and rapid digital testing environments.
Dozens or even hundreds of ad or content variations can be generated and evaluated in minutes. This allows marketers to test messaging, creative, and formats quickly before committing budget to full-scale production.
The benefit is speed to insight. Campaigns get smarter faster, and creative decisions become data-informed rather than instinct-driven. For CMOs, this means higher-performing campaigns and a more responsive go-to-market strategy that can pivot with confidence.
Make GenAI Your Competitive Advantage
GenAI is no longer a future investment. It is a foundational capability that is already reshaping how marketing teams work. The five plays outlined here offer practical ways to improve speed, personalisation, and customer engagement starting today. CMOs who act now will create real competitive advantage, while those still waiting risk falling behind.
7Rivers helps marketing leaders move from AI ambition to execution by identifying high-impact use cases, building scalable workflows, and training teams to adopt GenAI where it drives the most value. Whether the goal is to run a focused pilot or transform how marketing operates, 7Rivers brings the strategy, tools, and support to deliver results with speed and confidence.
Sources
- https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/2025-digital-trends-customer-experience
- https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/2025-content-trends
- https://www.sobot.com/blog/best-ai-chatbots-customer-support-2025/
