This article was written for Forbes Agency Council by Greg Kihlström. Read the full article here.

As an advisor to organizations navigating the incorporation of AI into their marketing teams, I'd like to emphasize the critical need to establish a strategy promptly. Ignoring the potential of AI and clinging to conventional methods can result in missed opportunities and a loss of competitiveness in today's market.

To achieve greater success in AI-driven marketing, there are key factors that must be in place. Let's explore these essential elements together.

Clear standards and guidelines are needed.

To fully harness the power of AI in marketing, it is of utmost importance to establish well-defined guidelines. These guidelines should act as a compass, directing businesses on when and how to deploy AI tools, where to integrate them, and why they should be utilized.

For instance, I often work with clients to determine where AI-based tools are going to enhance versus disrupt the process. So, in one case, you could utilize AI tools to brainstorm or come up with ideas, then the human team could take those ideas, polish them and make them better and more strategically aligned. A set of guidelines would stipulate that there needs to be human "checks and balances" so that AI-created content never goes directly to a customer without a person reviewing it first.

But it doesn't stop there. Ensuring the success of AI-driven campaigns means prioritizing data privacy and security, safeguarding customers' information, and aligning every AI-powered initiative with the brand's core values and objectives. One critical way to look at this is to better understand what customer data is actually being fed into your AI tools and why. This is often referred to as "transparency," and for any systems that utilize customer data and AI processing, it is highly recommended that you work with a system that has visibility into what is being done with the customer information and why.

By adhering to these robust standards, companies can tap into the boundless potential that AI brings to the table, revolutionizing their marketing efforts and continuously driving business growth.

This article was written for Forbes Agency Council by Greg Kihlström. Read the full article here.