An audit of where AI actually helps,
and where it would quietly make things worse
AI gets pitched for every marketing task right now. Some of that is genuinely useful, and some of it would quietly make your numbers worse. We audit your operations and tell you where AI helps and where it should stay human. We also name the guard that has to exist before anything automated touches real budget or a real customer.
Why “use more AI” is the wrong starting question
Right now every marketing task gets pitched an AI fix, and the pressure is to automate by enthusiasm, not by risk. The failure is rarely dramatic. It is quiet: an AI-drafted report that confidently states a wrong number. A content pipeline that drifts off-brand once the person who set it up stops reviewing it closely. A chatbot that makes a claim about pricing or availability that is not true.
We built this discipline on our own systems first. An AI analyst we use to answer business questions over a live database got a read-only role. A guarded query layer, one query at a time, forced limits, no write access. We still found and closed gaps in our own guard before trusting it with real customer data. Assume the automation will drift somewhere it should not, and check for it directly. That is the same discipline we bring to your marketing operations.
What the audit actually covers
We walk through your real operations, content production, reporting, segmentation, customer messaging. For each task we give one of three calls: fully automate, AI-assist with a human review step, or keep it entirely human. The call is based on actual risk if it goes wrong, not on how impressive the automation would look. Anything touching budget, pricing or a customer-facing claim gets a specific guard requirement, since that is where an unreviewed automation causes damage fastest.
If you already run AI tools in production, we audit them the same way we audit our own systems. We look for the edge case: the prompt that gets the system to do something it should not. We do not just trust a vendor’s safety claims at face value. The output is a phased rollout plan ranked by safety and time saved, so the safest, highest-value automations go first.
What you hand us to start
A walkthrough of your current marketing operations and anything already automated. Honest access to past incidents too, a bad AI-generated post, a reporting mistake, since that history is the fastest route to the real risk.
What counts as proof it worked
Whether the phased rollout, once live, actually avoids the failure modes we flagged. We check this a month or two after rollout, against the specific guards we recommended.
Price and timeline
| Option | Price | What it covers | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch or audit | from $800 | Full task-by-task review and phased rollout plan | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Monthly management | from $500 / month | Ongoing guard review as new AI tools or tasks get added | monthly, no lock-in |
| Full control, handover to your team | from $1,800 | Full guard framework and documentation for your team to maintain | 2 to 3 weeks |
Related
This audit pairs with a marketing automation audit and a marketing stack audit. The full build is on the analytics service page. For a specific automated layer with guards already built in, see dashboard commentary on the automations catalogue. Real examples: the two-brand analytics hub with its own AI analyst.
Using AI somewhere in marketing and not sure what guard is actually protecting you? Get in touch and we will look at what is live today.
FAQ
How much does an AI marketing audit cost?
From $800 for a full review of your marketing operations with a task-by-task recommendation and a phased rollout plan, delivered in 1 to 2 weeks.
Will the audit just tell us to automate everything?
No. A real audit finds tasks that should stay human: pricing decisions, sensitive customer communication, anything with real reputational risk. We say so directly either way.
We already use some AI tools. Can you audit what we have?
Yes, and that is often the most valuable part. We check an AI tool or workflow already in production for guard gaps nobody has looked for since it was first set up.
What do you need from us?
A walkthrough of your current marketing operations, including anything already automated. Honest access to where things have gone wrong before, a bad piece of AI content, a reporting error, since that history points straight at the risk.
How do you report findings?
A task-by-task call: automate, assist, or keep human, with the specific guard needed for the first two categories. We rank it into a phased rollout plan, not an all-at-once recommendation.