AI in Marketing Ops: Scary, Exciting, Essential

AI is everywhere in marketing—but without clean, unified data, it’s chaos disguised as innovation. As Darrell Alfonso puts it, the moment we’re in is “scary and exciting at the same time.”

Darrell Alfonso returns to What Gets Measured three years after authoring The Martech Handbook, to unpack how AI is reshaping marketing ops, and why fundamentals matter more than ever. In the AI-era of marketing ops, signal cuts through the noise: good data matters more than ever and the job of the marketer keeps shifting from button-clicking to directing outcomes.

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Marketing leaders are under pressure to “do something with AI.” But as Darrell points out, rushing in without the right foundation is a recipe for failure. This conversation is a wake-up call for ops teams navigating exec mandates, fragmented data stacks, and overhyped tools. 

Reliable Data Quality is Tablestakes

For years, marketing ops pros have been shouting about the importance of accurate and actionable data. Now, with AI in the mix, that drumbeat for reliable data quality has finally broken through.

Darrell puts it bluntly:

“Imagine letting your AI agents loose on a bad data set. That’s a terrible experience for everyone.”

The message is clear. Before you jump into AI pilots, you need a foundation of high-quality, unified data. Companies that invested in this early are already pulling ahead, while others are hitting a wall.

From Clicking to Conversing

Manual configuration is fading fast. Where marketers once spent their days clicking through ad dashboards and campaign builders, AI is beginning to make that obsolete.

“We’re starting to move more into the whole conversational way of executing marketing. ‘I would like to create a webinar. I would like to run performance ads. I would like to target these people.’”

In other words, we’re moving from button-clicking to instruction-giving.

It’s About People, Not Tools

 Even with great data and shiny tools, most failures aren’t technical—they’re human.

“Fifty percent or more of marketing tech challenges are people challenges. It’s not the data, it’s not the technology. It’s sales and marketing not getting along, it’s teams not trusting each other.”

Darrell’s prescription is deceptively simple: aligned goals that cascade from the top down, and marketing ops as the connective tissue. Technology can’t fix trust, but leadership can.

AI Agents: High Bars, Real Use Cases

Darrell has a high bar for AI agents: autonomous decision-making, multi-purpose, self-improving.

He sees real promise in specific use cases—AI SDRs that scale conversations, customer service bots that resolve clear-cut issues, and automation that handles high-volume, rules-based tasks.

The caution Darrell sees from an ops perspective is separating flashy demos from tech that integrates sensibly, really questioning how and why AI is deployed. He points to Amazon’s Rufus AI Agent as an example of something that seems important, but is essentially useless.

“I don’t ever use it. What would you use this for? To ask questions about a product? The details are on the page. This is a perfect example of an AI agent we didn’t ask for.”

Building the AI Muscle

Darrell acknowledged that experimentation matters just as much as skepticism.

He shared one practical tip:

“Ask your team every week, ‘How are you using AI to help achieve your goals?’ Not because AI is the answer to everything, but because building that muscle is critical.”

This reframes AI as a strategic partner, not just a task-doer.

Three Things Every Marketer Should Do Now

Darrell offers three essential tips for marketers to use today:

1. Get your data house in order. Nothing works without accurate, unified data.
2. Lean into strategy. Think about how you serve customers—internal and external—not just how you use tools.
3. Ride the wave of innovation. We’re in a once-in-decades moment. Use it to create real value, not just more noise.

Final Word

Darrell’s optimism is tempered with realism: AI won’t magically make you a better marketer, but it can help sharpen your thinking, expand your perspective, and free up humans to focus on what matters most.

As he put it:

“AI is not going to make your product better or you a better marketer. Fundamentals matter even more. What AI can do is help us better understand customers—and better understand what works.”

That’s the kind of perspective marketing ops needs right now: grounded, practical, and human.

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Listen now: Spotify | YouTube | Apple

Connect with Darrell: LinkedIn | The Martech Handbook

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