We spoke with Vineet Mehra, Chief Marketing Officer at Chime, about why artificial intelligence isn't an accessory but the new engine of marketing. If you think AI is just for automating tasks, get ready: Chime describes an organizational transformation where AI agents act as extensions of the brand — personalizing in real time and optimizing budget with unprecedented precision.
The era of marketing agentification
You might wonder, what exactly is agentification? Think of AI agents as assistants that operate autonomously within the marketing ecosystem: they tweak messages, redistribute ad spend and test creatives in real time, all while learning from each interaction. This doesn't just speed up tasks; it changes how teams are designed.
Instead of static execution-focused teams, you'll see teams that orchestrate AI systems which learn and improve continuously. Familiar, right? Like swapping repetitive coordination work for overseeing systems that actually get smarter with use.
AI isn't just tactical or for chores; it's horizontal and connects the whole modern marketing ecosystem
The promise is clear: personalization at scale and rapid experimentation driven by reinforcement learning and systems that analyze results live. What used to take months can now happen in days. Does that get your pulse up? It should — speed is the new competitive advantage.
Three practical principles for CMOs
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Lead from the top: AI adoption is a business transformation, not just a tech purchase. The CMO should define the roadmap, communicate the vision and be accountable for ensuring AI fuels creativity and growth.
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Start small, scale fast: Don't try to change everything at once. Begin with projects that have measurable impact: copy refinement, AI-assisted creative production, SEO and real-time media optimization. Quick wins build trust and accelerate adoption.
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Data quality rules: AI only performs if you feed it good inputs. Chime found that personalization and predictive bidding models failed until they polished their data. They built a custom model trained on the company's best content instead of relying solely on generic models.
Three concrete changes Chime is already seeing
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Creativity and content speed: With AI-assisted workflows, storyboards and video generation, Chime reduced external dependencies and increased creative output. The result: more agility in the market and lower costs.
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Real-time optimization: Tools like PMAX and OfferFit, mentioned by the team, automatically adjust spend and messaging using live performance signals. In practice this means fewer static campaigns and more continuous optimization decisions.
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Customer-paced insights: AI-powered voice-of-customer analysis and trend detection let them process large volumes of feedback weekly. Chime even developed a Custom GPT that works as an interactive database to answer questions using synthetic characters representing key segments.
Practical ideas to start today
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Identify a repetitive task with measurable impact and test an AI solution in 30 days. You don't need to transform everything to learn.
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Train models with your own content whenever possible. A custom GPT aligned with your brand voice produces much more consistent results than generic solutions.
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Appoint an executive sponsor. Without leadership from above, projects get lost as isolated initiatives.
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Measure every deployment with clear metrics: production speed, cost per asset, conversion and perceived quality.
Final reflection
Chime's conversation reminds us of something simple and powerful: AI doesn't come to take away valuable work, it comes to transform what we consider valuable. If you're a CMO or lead marketing teams, the relevant question isn't whether to use AI, it's how to move fast without sacrificing coherence or quality.
The advantage will go to whoever combines curiosity with operational discipline.