How WFA is helping brands navigate AI use

I think we can all agree that there’s a lot happening in AI. It can be hard for marketers to keep up with new developments, test approaches or rollout these tools and skills across an organisation.

To help members stay afloat and ensure AI delivers measurable outcomes, WFA has been providing a rich seam of insight and other content. These provide individual leaders with the right information so they can create their own roadmaps based around what their brands need. 

But which WFA content is most appropriate depends on where you are on the AI journey. This article is a guide to that rich seam of content, helping you find the right guidance for your AI state of mind. This is just a snapshot of the deep insight on AI coming from being a part of WFA's peer to peer senior marketer forums. 

Top CMOs share their views on the impact of AI and its use in their organisations.

We’ve split the content into six common pain points in the AI journey.

Thinking about what to try or not yet getting the most out of AI?

You can start by getting a high-level view of opportunities and challenges with the Generative AI Primer.

A more practical way to start is by building mature prompting skills and practical fluency in how AI tools can be applied in real, day-to-day work. WFA’s recent series of remote, hands-on sessions have helped brands with AI prompting training focused on helping teams extract real value through better prompts, iteration and human oversight.

Another session covered AI training for public affairs professionals, offering practical insights into how AI can support more effective advocacy, comms and policy engagement.

We also helped marketers understand how to unlock efficiencies without compromising creative effectiveness; and a tactical session looking at how AI technologies have evolved and what’s next.

Looking to transform to really go for it, or stuck in the pilot phase of AI?

Your first port of call should be our AI Acceleration Playbook. It provides a clear, actionable checklist to help marketers adopt AI faster and deliver business value, while accelerating innovation without compromising brand reputation or integrity. The actionable checklist helps brands move beyond the pilot phase where 80% of WFA members currently say they are.

Trying to understand how AI is impacting across marketing functions?

Whether your focus is understanding how AI is currently being used in media, how in-house agencies are using AI or the opportunities of AI for marketing procurement professionals, we have specific research in all these areas that could help inform your decisions.

The Impact of GenAI on Media Practices, for example, reveals that over half of brands are using or plan to use agents, but 65% believe they will also increase risk even if 92% believe they could unlock efficiencies.

Looking to get your head around how AI is transforming the media landscape?

The best place to start is to consider how AI could impact search. Recognising how fundamental this shift could be, we’ve gone deep on the topic with a dedicated session with Google, exploring how the company sees AI-powered search evolving and what this means for brands in practice, from visibility and measurement to the changing role of paid, owned and earned media.

Worried about guardrails for AI use?

Our research shows that intellectual property and copyright concerns remain the biggest legal blockers to using AI in content. To address this head-on, we developed a practical, marketer-focused guide to managing IP risk, mapping where IP issues typically surface and setting out concrete steps brands can take to mitigate them – without slowing innovation to a halt.

Risk management goes beyond IP bias, stereotyping and exclusion in AI systems pose real brand, reputational and societal risks. Our Inclusive AI Marketing Framework helps brands address these concerns, important because only 27% of members said their companies are taking measures to mitigate risk, revealing a potential “perception-action gap”.

Thinking about how to manage agencies or partners an their AI use?

One of the most pressing questions is no longer whether agencies are using Generative AI, but how they are using it on brands’ behalf.

WFA has published voluntary guidance on generative AI contract best practice, designed to help marketers navigate contract reviews in a fast-moving environment and set clear expectations around transparency, disclosure, data use, IP, risk allocation and oversight, without stifling innovation or trusted agency relationships. WFA's Global AI Transparency Map also gives brands a view of where and how transparency and labelling obligations are taking shape.

All of WFA’s work on AI is guided by our AI Community as well as the WFA’s network of senior marketer forums and our strategic partners. This expert input is helping us identify the areas that matter most right now and what best practice currently exists.

If none of these content areas addresses your current challenges then please contact the WFA AI Community to help shape the agenda and make sure your issues are being discussed.