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Part 3: Assess AI Capabilities

The Problem

A vendor promises: “Our AI will write all your social media content, personalize it for each audience segment, and automatically post at optimal times.”

Sounds great. But can AI actually do that? Or are they selling you theater?

The AI Capability Ladder

AI can do some things brilliantly. Some things poorly. And some things not at all. Here's what's real today:

Level 5

AI Does This Better Than Humans

Examples:

  • •Data pattern recognition across millions of records
  • •Image classification at scale
  • •Transcription and translation
  • •Generating variations of existing content

Real Marketing Use:

  • Analyzing 50,000 customer support tickets to find top complaint themes
  • A/B testing 100 ad variations simultaneously
  • Transcribing sales calls for analysis

Can't Do:

  • Understand WHY the pattern exists
  • Make strategic decisions about what to do with the insights
Level 4

AI Does This Well (With Human Oversight)

Examples:

  • •Drafting content from prompts
  • •Summarizing long documents
  • •Generating initial creative concepts
  • •Answering customer questions from knowledge bases

Real Marketing Use:

  • First draft of blog posts (human edits for brand voice)
  • Email subject line variations (human picks winners)
  • Chatbot responses for FAQs (human reviews monthly)

Can't Do:

  • Understand your brand voice without training
  • Know what NOT to say (brand risks, legal issues)
  • Adapt to context it hasn't seen before
Level 3

AI Does This Inconsistently

Examples:

  • •Long-form strategic content
  • •Creative concepts that feel original
  • •Predicting customer behavior in new markets
  • •Maintaining consistent brand voice across channels

Real Marketing Use:

  • Campaign strategy docs (hit or miss)
  • Thought leadership articles (often generic)
  • Predicting next quarter's trends (sometimes right)

Why it's inconsistent:

Depends heavily on prompt quality. Requires significant human editing. Results vary wildly between attempts.

Can't Do:

  • Replace a senior strategist
  • Understand unwritten brand rules
Level 2

AI Does This Poorly

Examples:

  • •Understanding company politics or culture
  • •Reading between the lines in stakeholder feedback
  • •Knowing when to break brand rules for impact
  • •Generating truly novel ideas (vs remixing existing concepts)

Real Marketing Use:

  • Navigating exec disagreement on messaging
  • Pitching a controversial campaign internally
  • Deciding which trend to ignore vs adopt

Why it's inconsistent:

No access to implicit context. Can't read the room. No intuition for organizational dynamics.

Can't Do:

  • Access implicit context
  • Read the room
  • Develop intuition for organizational dynamics
Level 1

AI Can't Do This At All

Examples:

  • •Building relationships with stakeholders
  • •Negotiating budgets and timelines
  • •Defending creative decisions in tense meetings
  • •Knowing when to kill a project before it launches

Real Marketing Use:

  • Convincing your CEO to take a brand risk
  • Managing a team through reorganization
  • Presenting to the board

Why it's inconsistent:

Requires human judgment, empathy, and political capital. No amount of AI advancement will replace this.

Can't Do:

  • Replace human judgment, empathy, and political capital
  • No amount of AI advancement will change this

Test Your Vendor's Claims

Apply the capability ladder to real vendor promises:

Vendor Claim #1

“Our AI will fully automate your content calendar—no human input needed after setup.”

Reality Check:

Writing content = Level 4 (needs human oversight)
Strategic calendar decisions = Level 2-3 (AI does poorly)

Verdict:

Overselling. You'll still need humans for strategy, editing, and approval.

Vendor Claim #2

“AI analyzes all your customer data and tells you exactly which segments to target next quarter.”

Reality Check:

Pattern recognition = Level 5 (AI does well)
Strategic prioritization = Level 2 (AI does poorly)

Verdict:

Half true. AI can find patterns. You still decide what to do with them.

Vendor Claim #3

“Our AI writes email campaigns that match your brand voice perfectly.”

Reality Check:

Content drafting = Level 4 (needs oversight)
Brand voice consistency = Level 3 (inconsistent)

Verdict:

Possible, but requires training data, prompt refinement, and human editing. Not "perfect" out of the box.

What You Just Learned

  • You now know the 5 levels of AI capability
  • You can map vendor claims to realistic expectations
  • You won't approve budgets for AI features that can't deliver

Next: Learn how to challenge vendor promises with the right questions.

Part 2: Translate ClaimsPart 4: Challenge Vendors

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