How to Scale Gen AI in 6 Steps

Taking Gen AI from the testing phase to full enterprise-wide adoption. Will Hanschell, co-founder and CEO of Brandtech Group’s Gen AI marketing platform, Pencil shares six steps to integrate Gen AI into your marketing operations.

Step 1: Gaining Conviction – Are You Ready to Scale?

This comes once you have tested and measured and can see clearly the path to transformational gains. Do not pilot anything that you cannot see a path to scaling across the business. Keep pushing until you hit that moment of certainty and you’re confident that you want to scale.

Step 2: Defining the Philosophical Model – Where Should the AI Sit?

AI might sit with agency partners or in-house. But most brands rightly want to own the value themselves, which raises the question: should you buy it or build it? The key is figuring out the right balance of building versus buying – or buying what you can configure.

Step 3: Understanding the Commercial Impact

To summarize the math, take “Mythical Company A” with revenues of $20 billion, and a 10 % marketing budget of $2 billion. On a very conservative content-creation cost saving of 30 % of its $400 million non-working media budget (20 % = $400 million), the saving would be $120 million. That can be invested straight back into working media and brand building – or, for a company trading at an EV/EBIT multiple of 20x, that is a remarkable $2.4 billion value creation opportunity.

Step 4: Execution – the Rollout Strategy and Timeline

The rollout should be fast enough to capitalize on the AI advantage but methodical enough to ensure adoption.

Phase 1: Proving It Works (0-3 months)

• Select pilot brands and markets. Deploy AI in managed service mode. Measure success.

Phase 2: Expanding Adoption (3-6 months)

• Enable and train internal teams and key partners. Create incentives. Support with Gen AI Studio.

Phase 3: Full Scale Deployment (6 to 12 months)

• AI becomes the default. Refine governance. Continuous optimization.

Step 5: Operationalizing AI and Making It BAU

A successful Gen AI rollout isn’t just about launch, it’s about making AI an embedded, repeatable part of how content gets made at scale. We will plan out exactly how a brand’s workflow will function, for in-house teams, agency partners, and the Gen AI studio.

Step 6: Incentives

The best brands don’t just hope their people and partners will get on board, they make sure there are real incentives to embrace AI and real consequences for those who don’t.

The carrot? Partners that get on board with clients' AI-driven workflows gain a competitive edge. They unlock bigger budgets, higher margins, and a seat at the table for the next big thing.

The stick? Those who resist AI adoption risk losing scope, because if they don’t adapt, brands will find partners who will.

By managing these elements together – financial modeling, execution planning, incentivization, and structured workflows – brands and their partners can move from AI pilots to true enterprise-wide adoption, maximizing both creative impact and enormous economic value.