Master AI in marketing: Your guide to the CMA's mastery playbook series

Marketers navigating AI need more than concepts; they need clear actions that prompt them in the right direction. The CMA’s AI Mastery Series, a comprehensive collection of playbooks developed with guidance by the CMA AI Committee provide exactly that: comprehensive playbooks developed by marketers, for marketers, to understand and apply AI.

The building blocks for AI success

Getting to know the fundamentals of AI is essential. The CMA’s Guide on AI for Marketers, developed in collaboration with the globally renowned Vector Institute, outlines regulatory expectations, offers practical insights and suggests best practices to help marketers leverage AI effectively and ethically. Included in the Guide are a set of core AI principles to guide the responsible use of AI in marketing which are incorporated into the Canadian Marketing Code of Ethics and Standards.

The AI Mastery Series' first three playbooks share essential building blocks that every marketer needs.

• Foundations of AI in Marketing introduces core concepts and the AI ecosystem you’ll navigate daily.
• Building Trust with AI in Marketing addresses transparency, consumer confidence, and ethical implementation.
• Implementing AI in Marketing provides your first practical steps, transforming theoretical knowledge into actionable strategies you and your team can execute immediately.

This foundational framework powers all playbooks in the series, ensuring consistent, ethical and effective AI implementation across every aspect of your marketing operations.

Driving efficiency and impact

Once you've built your foundation, the series tackles the operational challenges of keeping marketing teams reactive. Whether you're struggling with research timelines that can't keep pace with market changes, drowning in manual tasks that prevent strategic thinking, or navigating the creative and legal complexities of AI-generated content, the playbooks provide practical solutions by marketing leaders who’ve worked through these problems.

• Enhancing Market Research with AI outlines how to accelerate research processes through digital twins and simulations while addressing bias mitigation and privacy compliance.
• AI Data Readiness provides assessment tools, data cleaning techniques, and a 90-day implementation sprint with ROI measurement frameworks.
• AI Agents in Marketing offers a practical adoption pathway that elevates marketers from tactical execution to strategic orchestration.

Managing risk and maintaining compliance

As AI becomes central to your marketing mix, the series is your go-to in order to address the governance challenges that affect your organization. These playbooks provide the risk management frameworks you need including checklists, and decision metrics to deploy AI confidently while protecting your brand reputation.

The 3 Guardrails to Manage AI risks playbook specifically outlines practical risk thresholds, decision authority matrices, and ethical guidelines that teams can implement immediately while the AI Transparency Framework helps you build trust through disclosure with templates for common scenarios (AI-assisted customer service, AI-generated content, and AI-powered personalization).

Future-proofing your career and organization

The AI Mastery series not only provides marketers with actional insights to implement now, they also help to prepare marketers for emerging AI capabilities. The playbooks help you position yourself, your team and organization to lead rather than react to AI's continuing rapid evolution.

Ready to move from AI observer to practitioner? The CMA’s AI Mastery Series is the go-to comprehensive resource available to marketing professionals in Canada to help navigate and lead AI adoption. Access the complete CMA AI Mastery Series.

The AI Mastery Series exists thanks to the dedicated expertise and collaborative efforts of our AI Committee members. To learn more about CMA’s Committees and Councils and to find out how you can join, check out our thought leadership groups!

Authors:
Florentina Stancu-Soare | Director, Public and Regulatory Affairs | CMA
Melanie Slimming | Public Policy Coordinator | CMA