What does it mean to operationalize AI in marketing?

Operationalizing AI means moving from ad hoc tool usage to a formal program with clear strategy, governance, ownership, and repeatable workflows embedded into day-to-day marketing operations.

Who typically sponsors an enterprise marketing AI initiative?

These programs are commonly sponsored by the CMO or marketing VPs, with partnership across experience, operations, analytics, and technology leadership to ensure alignment and accountability.

How does a structured AI program support multiple brands or business units?

A formal program provides shared standards, visibility, and coordination while allowing each team to apply AI in ways that reflect their specific goals, audiences, and workflows.

How are AI use cases prioritized within marketing?

Use cases are evaluated based on business impact, feasibility, and readiness, helping teams focus investment on areas such as content operations, media, analytics, and creative where AI can deliver measurable value.

How does enablement and training fit into operational AI adoption?

Enterprise-level training builds baseline understanding across teams, while role-based and platform-specific support helps marketers confidently apply AI within their day-to-day responsibilities.

Turning marketing AI experimentation into enterprise impact

Colibri partnered with Spark Novus to move from fragmented experimentation to a coordinated marketing AI program enabling formal, scalable adoption across marketing teams across the enterprise.

Colibri Group is building the future of professional education.

Colibri Group is building the future of professional education. Millions of licensed professionals start and advance their careers through the company’s engaging online and in-person learning solutions for licensing, continuing education, test preparation, and professional development. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri,

Colibri Group provides a holistic learning experience for learners and professionals to achieve more, adapt, and thrive throughout their careers in accounting, financial services, healthcare, real estate, valuation and property services, and teacher education.

Today, Colibri supports over 50 professions across more than 30 leading brands, with a team of nearly 1,500 employees located in 47 states and internationally, with AI-enabled learning as a core strategic priority.

The Situation

Colibri is an innovative organization that has been actively embracing AI across the enterprise to drive customer outcomes, efficiency, scale, and competitive advantage. As part of this broader effort, Colibri partnered with Spark Novus to bring structure and focus to how AI is applied within the marketing function.

Spark Novus worked closely with Colibri’s Chief Experience Officer, Brian Betts, who served as the executive sponsor for the initiative.

While AI usage and innovative approaches existed across marketing, adoption varied widely across Colibri’s six distinct business units and lacked a unifying structure across teams. The objective was to move from isolated experimentation to a coordinated marketing AI program that enables formal, scalable adoption and supports an AI-driven approach across all marketing teams.

The Work

Spark Novus worked with Colibri to establish a formal Marketing AI program built on five core pillars: AI strategy, pilot programs to test and validate value before scaling, program management, governance, and enablement and training.

From a strategy standpoint, teams identified a wide range of AI use cases they wanted to pursue. Through a structured exercise that mapped initiatives to business value, clear priorities emerged across content, paid media, analytics, and creative operations.
These priorities informed a focused set of pilots, enabling disciplined evaluation of more than 20 AI martech platforms.
A formal Marketing AI Council was established and met twice monthly, providing a consistent forum for program management and governance. The Council created shared visibility, aligned priorities, and supported cross-business collaboration.
Program management added structure and continuity, helping ensure strategy translated into coordinated execution.
Enablement and training were delivered at the enterprise level for all employees, with additional platform-specific support provided as teams evaluated and piloted individual tools.

Interior wall with a red background featuring the phrase 'Lead people to achieve more, adapt and thrive in their careers' in colorful 3D lettering, with black and white photos of diverse people working and interacting

A group of nine people standing in a room, holding copies of a book titled 'Marketing Artificial Intelligence.' They are smiling and appear to be celebrating or promoting the book.

Group of eight people in a conference room, some with laptops and notebooks, smiling and posing for a photo, with a large display screen behind them showing a virtual participant.

The OUTCOMES

The work moved marketing at Colibri from informal, fragmented activity to a coordinated program aligned with enterprise direction. AI was embedded into core content operations at scale across business units, while paid media and creative initiatives were successfully piloted and are progressing toward broader rollout.

Overall, the program established a clearer operating foundation across Colibri’s priority use cases, positioning the organization to continue advancing AI in marketing in a deliberate and scalable way as priorities evolve.

Brian Betts
Chief Experience Officer
Colibri Group

“Spark Novus partnered with us throughout our marketing AI journey, from establishing program structure to evaluating AI technologies and supporting execution. Their involvement helped us move forward with greater clarity and coordination as we introduced AI across marketing.”

Ready to operationalize AI across your marketing organization?

AI creates impact when embedded into how your marketing works

Spark Novus helps marketing leaders move beyond isolated AI experiments and build structured, scalable programs that align with enterprise priorities. From strategy and pilots to governance, enablement, and execution, the focus stays on real adoption, measurable impact, and long-term sustainability across teams.

If this resonates, it may be time to have a conversation with Spark Novus.

Schedule a 15-Minute Consultation

Operationalizing AI means moving from ad hoc tool usage to a formal program with clear strategy, governance, ownership, and repeatable workflows embedded into day-to-day marketing operations.
These programs are commonly sponsored by the CMO or marketing VPs, with partnership across experience, operations, analytics, and technology leadership to ensure alignment and accountability.
A formal program provides shared standards, visibility, and coordination while allowing each team to apply AI in ways that reflect their specific goals, audiences, and workflows.
Use cases are evaluated based on business impact, feasibility, and readiness, helping teams focus investment on areas such as content operations, media, analytics, and creative where AI can deliver measurable value.
Enterprise-level training builds baseline understanding across teams, while role-based and platform-specific support helps marketers confidently apply AI within their day-to-day responsibilities.