A CMO’s Playbook: Reframing AI from Cost-Cutting to Strategic Growth

The marketing world isn’t quietly evolving, it’s transforming in real time.

Large Language Models (LLMs) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are reshaping how audiences discover, evaluate, and connect with brands. Customers now arrive on your site more informed than ever, but their path to conversion has never been less predictable.

For CMOs, the message is clear: AI is no longer a side project or a budget-trimming tool. It’s a strategic growth engine that demands board-level attention.

At Acquia, we’re seeing it firsthand: while SEO traffic dipped 13% last quarter, LLM-driven traffic grew 22% and converts at nearly four times the rate of traditional sources. The opportunity is obvious. The question is whether marketing leaders will seize it.

The Boardroom Is Asking the Wrong Question

When AI enters the boardroom, the question is too often, “How much money will it save?”

That’s the wrong conversation.

The right question is: “How much growth will it create?”

As I often tell peers, “A 10 percent gain in growth beats a 20 percent cut in cost every time.” The best CMOs are shifting from cost-reduction narratives to productivity and growth discussions, using AI to amplify creativity and accelerate customer impact.

Every hour saved on manual work must translate to something measurable: new content launched, better-optimized experiences, higher conversion rates, and expanded pipeline. That’s how you prove AI’s value as a growth multiplier, not a cost lever.

If your AI story can’t be told in revenue terms, you’re not telling the right story.

The Funnel Is Dead — But the Journey Is Alive

The traditional marketing funnel is gone. Today’s customers move fluidly across channels, influenced by AI-powered research long before they reach your site.

Our data shows that LLM-referred visitors convert twice as fast and in half as many sessions as other traffic. They’re highly informed, highly engaged, and they expect a seamless, personalized experience the moment they arrive.

What’s most surprising is where those conversions happen. At Acquia, traffic from LLMs to our video hub, Acquia TV, converts at twice the rate of our main site. These visitors aren’t just looking for specs, they’re looking for trust. They’ve done the research inside the LLM; now they want to validate the brand, hear its voice, and feel its authority.

If your website still serves as a static catalog, you’re invisible to this new audience. The modern website must act as an adaptive, intelligent experience hub that responds dynamically to both human and machine discovery.

Integration, Accessibility, and the New Marketing Superpower

The next frontier of marketing isn’t about adopting more tools. It’s about connecting the ones you already have.

A modern strategy unites visibility data, journey analytics, and content performance into one view of what truly drives outcomes. At Acquia, we’ve even dedicated headcount solely to AI initiatives, auditing KPIs, training teams, and connecting systems across the martech stack.

Here’s what defines leaders in this new era:

1. They measure the full journey. They know which content drives movement and which “corrosive content” merely attracts traffic without converting.
2. They make thought leadership perform. High-authority, research-based content is what LLMs cite and customers trust. That visibility translates directly into pipeline.
3. They optimize for everyone, humans and robots alike. Accessibility isn’t a checkbox. Gartner estimates you lose 17% of traffic when your site isn’t accessible. And the irony? Making content more accessible often improves how LLMs read and rank it.
4. They invest in skills, not just software. The biggest blocker to AI readiness isn’t budget, it’s confidence. When teams are trained and empowered, they become the engine of innovation.

The CMOs who connect these dots, from data to delivery, will define the next decade of growth.

The Leadership Imperative

AI isn’t an efficiency project. It’s a leadership test.

Boards are watching. Customers are already there. Your teams are eager to learn.

CMOs who treat AI as a C-suite initiative, and can clearly show how it drives growth, improves conversion, and proves marketing’s value, will own the narrative.

Those who don’t will find their budgets, and their influence, quietly shrinking.

The next chapter of marketing will be written by leaders who see AI not as a disruptor, but as a multiplier of talent, creativity, and growth.