Last week, I connected with the Head of AI Innovation at an AmLaw 50 firm over Zoom. As his video feed loaded, I could see a sleek, glass-walled conference room behind him, with multiple screens displaying dashboards tracking their various AI initiatives—from document review acceleration to predictive analytics for litigation outcomes.
As we discussed their impressive technical implementation roadmap, I asked what seemed like a straightforward question: "Who's leading the marketing and business development aspects of your AI innovation strategy?"
He paused, coffee cup halfway to his lips. "That's not really in my purview," he replied, his confidence suddenly wavering. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure who—if anyone—is handling that side of things. We've been focused on the practice applications."
That momentary uncertainty crystallized something I've observed repeatedly in my work with law firms navigating AI adoption: the critical disconnect between those implementing AI technology and those responsible for client relationships, market positioning, and revenue growth.
This isn't just a minor oversight. It's a fundamental misalignment that threatens to undermine the very success firms hope to achieve through their AI investments.
The Marketing Blindspot in Legal AI Strategy
While 78% of legal professionals believe generative AI will become central to their workflow within five years, a striking 71% of corporate legal clients report they don't know whether their outside law firms are using generative AI. This communication gap represents just one symptom of a larger problem.
The truth is, despite rapid AI adoption in law firms—with 26% actively using generative AI in 2025, up from 14% in 2024—only 41% have established AI governance policies, and a mere 20% are measuring return on investment from their AI tools.
These statistics reveal a troubling reality: many law firms are pursuing AI strategies without the cross-functional leadership necessary to ensure these initiatives deliver real business value and enhance client relationships.
CMOs and CMBDOs: The Missing Strategic Voice
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Marketing and Business Development Officers (CMBDOs) aren't just communication specialists—they're strategic leaders who understand your clients, market positioning, and growth trajectory better than anyone else in your firm.
As Michael Yaziji, professor at IMD Business School, explains: "In the age of AI, marketing leaders are evolving into strategic linchpins who leverage AI for nuanced insights, enhanced customer experiences, and broader organizational impact. They're no longer confined to campaign execution or information gathering, but are becoming critical decision-makers in how technology shapes the overall client experience."
This evolution is redefining the CMO's role in significant ways:
- From Information Gatherer to Insight Curator: Marketing leaders contextualize AI-generated findings within the firm's strategic vision, determining which insights require immediate action and which represent long-term opportunities.
- From Channel Manager to Digital Architect: As AI creates increasingly complex marketing ecosystems, CMBDOs design and manage these systems to ensure they align with business objectives and enable real-time responsiveness to market trends.
- From Execution Focus to Ethical Guidance: Marketing leaders establish high-level goals and ethical guidelines for client-facing AI systems, steering them toward outcomes that protect brand integrity and client trust.
- From Task Manager to Relationship Builder: As AI handles more execution-level tasks, marketing leaders focus on the uniquely human aspects of their role—building relationships, navigating ethical dilemmas, and infusing client interactions with genuine creativity and empathy.
This transformation positions marketing leaders to make invaluable contributions to AI strategy—contributions that go far beyond mere execution.
How Marketing Leaders Drive AI Success
The data is clear: organizations that integrate marketing leadership into their AI governance achieve significantly better outcomes. Let me share a few compelling statistics:
- Companies effectively leveraging AI within their marketing functions report 20-30% higher ROI on their campaigns compared to those using traditional methods.
- Organizations deeply investing in AI specifically for marketing and sales operations observe an average improvement in sales ROI of 10-20%.
- Leading companies that achieve success with AI allocate resources strategically: 70% to people and processes, 20% to technology and data, and just 10% to algorithms—with marketing leaders playing a pivotal role in shaping the "people and processes" aspects.
But the impact goes beyond mere numbers. Marketing leaders bring unique perspectives essential for AI success:
1. Client-Centricity in AI Initiatives
CMBDOs are the primary custodians of client understanding within law firms. Their insights into client needs, expectations, and potential concerns are indispensable when developing or deploying AI tools.
As AI becomes increasingly client-facing—through intake chatbots, personalized communications, and data-driven service recommendations—the CMBDO's role becomes critical in ensuring these technologies genuinely enhance rather than detract from the client experience.
Oz Benamram, Founder of the Strategic Knowledge & Innovation Legal Leaders’ Summit (SKILLS), notes: "CMOs function as the firm's storytellers, guiding strategic decisions through the crucial lens of client needs and competitive insight. This perspective is vital when selecting, customizing, and implementing AI systems that will directly interact with or otherwise impact clients."
2. Strategic Alignment Between AI and Firm Growth
CMBDOs are responsible for shaping and executing the firm's growth strategy and market positioning. This strategic purview allows them to ensure AI investments serve overarching business goals rather than becoming technological novelties.
Consider that 86% of law firm marketing leaders already utilize generative AI for tasks directly related to business development—crafting pitches, building proposals, and developing thought leadership. This operational familiarity provides a strong foundation for CMBDOs to align broader AI initiatives with revenue generation and market expansion.
3. Market Intelligence for Informed Decision-Making
Marketing teams gather invaluable data regarding market trends, competitor activities, client preferences, and shifts in demand. This intelligence is vital for making strategic decisions about AI priorities and investments.
For example, understanding how AI is reshaping online search patterns enables the CMBDO to guide the firm's strategy for maintaining digital visibility and developing AI-optimized content that effectively reaches target audiences.
4. Ethical Guidance for Client-Facing AI
Perhaps most importantly, CMBDOs serve as an "ethical compass" for client-facing AI. While a firm's General Counsel ensures legal compliance, the CMBDO safeguards the equally important aspects of client trust and firm reputation.
This role is crucial as firms deploy AI for client interactions, communications, and data analysis. The CMBDO champions ethical considerations in how these tools are designed, what data they access, and how transparently the firm communicates about their use.
Cross-Industry Insights: Marketing Leadership Driving AI Success
While the legal industry is still developing its approach to marketing-led AI governance, valuable lessons can be drawn from other sectors where marketing leadership has transformed AI initiatives into powerful competitive advantages:
Mastercard exemplifies how marketing leadership in AI governance creates tangible business outcomes. Their CMO sits on the company's AI steering committee, ensuring all AI innovations align with brand values and customer expectations. This integration led to the development of their AI-powered "Decision Intelligence" platform, which not only improved fraud detection but became a marketable product offering. The marketing team's involvement ensured the technology was positioned effectively, with clear messaging about the enhanced customer experience and security benefits. The result? A 40% reduction in false declines and a significant increase in customer satisfaction.
Goldman Sachs demonstrates how marketing insights can redirect AI development priorities. When their digital banking platform Marcus implemented an AI chatbot, marketing leadership insisted on comprehensive customer journey mapping before deployment. This process revealed that customers valued human interaction for complex financial decisions but preferred automation for routine transactions. Based on this insight, the firm redesigned their AI implementation to focus on transaction streamlining rather than advisory services, resulting in 30% higher engagement rates than their initial approach would have achieved.
Mayo Clinic showcases the ethical guidance marketing leadership brings to AI governance. Their Chief Marketing Officer championed patient-centric principles in their AI ethics council, ensuring all AI health initiatives were communicated transparently and aligned with the organization's reputation for compassionate care. When implementing AI diagnostic tools, the marketing team developed comprehensive educational materials that explained the technology's role while emphasizing continued human oversight. This patient-first approach, driven by marketing leadership, resulted in adoption rates 45% higher than similar initiatives at other medical institutions, demonstrating how ethical considerations directly impact implementation success.
These examples illustrate how marketing leadership transforms AI from a technological implementation into a strategic business asset. In each case, the marketing function provided crucial insights into customer expectations, brand alignment, competitive positioning, and ethical considerations—perspectives that would have been absent in purely technical governance structures.
Law firms can adapt these cross-industry learnings to their unique context, recognizing that the same principles apply: AI initiatives achieve greater success when guided by those who understand client needs, market positioning, and strategic communication.
The Path Forward: Building Inclusive AI Leadership
For law firms serious about maximizing the return on their AI investments, the path forward is clear: CMBDOs must be formally integrated into AI governance and strategy-setting processes. Here's how to make this happen:
1. Formalize CMBDO Role in AI Steering Committees
Include your CMO/CMBDO in any firm-wide AI governance council, with explicit responsibility for assessing client impact, ensuring brand alignment, championing ethical considerations, and evaluating ROI from a market penetration perspective.
These councils should be resolutely cross-functional, incorporating representation from IT, legal professionals, innovation leaders, finance, and risk management—with the CMBDO serving as the voice of client interests and market relevance.
2. Empower CMBDOs to Lead Client-Facing AI Initiatives
Grant your marketing leaders clear oversight authority for AI projects related to client communication, relationship management, lead generation, and overall business development.
Encourage them to champion pilot programs for new client-facing AI tools, prioritizing direct client feedback and measuring impact on engagement, satisfaction, and perceived value.
3. Make Marketing Input Mandatory for AI Tool Selection
Establish formal processes requiring marketing and business development input before significant investments in AI tools, particularly those with client-facing implications.
CMBDOs should play a central role in defining use cases, ensuring proposed solutions address genuine client needs and market opportunities rather than being driven solely by technological availability.
4. Foster AI Literacy Within Marketing Teams
Support your CMBDO in developing comprehensive AI training programs tailored for marketing and business development professionals, focusing on practical application, ethical usage, data interpretation, and client value enhancement.
Organizations providing AI training report 43% higher success rates in AI project deployment—a compelling reason to invest in your team's capabilities.
5. Develop Clear Policies for AI in Client Interaction
Task your CMBDO with co-developing policies and ethical guidelines covering AI-generated content, client data usage, transparency in AI-driven interactions, and mechanisms for avoiding bias or misrepresentation.
This collaborative effort should involve your General Counsel, ethics committee, and practice group leaders to ensure comprehensive coverage of all concerns.
6. Establish Metrics for Marketing-Related AI Impact
Define and track key performance indicators that assess AI's impact on lead conversion rates, client acquisition costs, client lifetime value, engagement with AI-driven content, and client satisfaction with AI-assisted interactions.
These metrics provide essential feedback for continuous improvement and help justify further investment in AI capabilities.
Building Trust as Competitive Advantage
For law firms, establishing robust AI governance that includes the CMBDO isn't merely about compliance and risk mitigation. It represents a proactive strategy to build and fortify client trust, creating sustainable competitive advantage in an AI-transformed legal marketplace.
The current governance gaps—with only 41% of firms having AI policies and 71% of clients unaware of their firms' AI use—present a golden opportunity for forward-thinking firms. By proactively involving CMBDOs in AI governance to champion client-centric ethical standards, ensure data privacy, and drive transparent communication, firms can actively build rather than inadvertently erode client trust.
Firms that can demonstrably showcase responsible, ethical, and client-centric AI governance will significantly differentiate themselves from competitors who may be opaque about their AI use or perceived as less meticulous in their approach.
Conclusion: A Strategic Imperative
The integration of marketing leadership into AI strategy planning and governance is no longer optional but a critical imperative for success. The evidence clearly indicates that such integration is pivotal for aligning AI initiatives with overarching firm objectives and, crucially, with evolving client expectations.
As artificial intelligence continues its rapid evolution, with advancements like agentic AI promising even more autonomous capabilities, the strategic, client-focused, and ethical guidance provided by CMBDOs becomes increasingly indispensable.
Law firms that proactively embrace this model of integrated AI leadership, formally empowering their CMBDOs within their AI strategy frameworks, will be better equipped not just to participate in the AI-driven future of legal services but to lead it.
They will be the firms that "move fast, listen well, and weave innovation into the fabric of how they serve clients." By doing so, they will not only future-proof their operations but also redefine service excellence and client value in an increasingly intelligent and automated world.