I’m happy to share that I’ve obtained a new certification: Agentic CMO Accelerator from Applied AI Academy. It matters to me that I can lead our Marketing team through the shift to AI-driven ways of working from a place of experience rather than theory. Agentic tools are changing how we plan, create and measure, and leaders need to understand them first-hand. Thank you to Victoria Rusnac for a programme that was practical from week one. I'm looking forward to bringing this into our AI Marketing roadmap at Wood Mackenzie.

It's a VERY long time since I've had a certificate! I signed up for the Agentic CMO Accelerator from Applied AI Academy for a fairly simple reason. Keeping up with AI felt like a full-time job, and I know "keeping up" wasn’t going to be enough to be an effective marketing leader. Six weeks later, Cohort 3 is done, and I am a lot clearer on where I am, - and how much there is still to learn. Along the way I built: - a strategic marketing agent - a content engine that writes in a brand’s voice (most of the time...) - a campaign launch pipeline, from concept to brief to landing page - market and customer intelligence agents, including a synthetic persona - the outline of an agentic marketing system and roadmap What was really amazing about the programme was how much I learned from everyone else. The weekly "live build" sessions were invaluable, seeing how other marketing leaders applied the same frameworks to very different businesses. Two things I’ll keep coming back to. Context is everything; most organisations have never properly written down what they know, and that tacit knowledge turns out to be the most valuable thing you can give an agent. And one clever agent is a party trick. The value comes when you think in systems, with connected workflows, clear handoffs and humans in the loop where judgement actually matters (spoiler: everywhere!). Not an agentic CMO just yet. More an apprentice with a much better toolkit and fewer excuses. Thank you Victoria Rusnac and Sergio Giannone for your patience and energy, and thank you to my fellow cohort for bringing real work and being so generous with it.

My biggest challenge is now making the time to keep this going. I’ve just graduated from the Agentic CMO Accelerator course from Applied AI Academy and I’m buzzing with ideas for what we could build next at Perk Over six weeks, we built: • A strategic marketing agent • A content engine agent • A campaign launch agent • Market and customer intelligence agents We also worked on our AI marketing roadmap, a team adoption plan and what a department-wide agentic marketing system could look like. We’re already building agents in our marketing team, so being able to work through this alongside other marketing leaders has given me plenty of ideas to take back. It’s also reminded me how much difference it makes to have time set aside each week to learn and build something. There’s always something else that needs doing. Having the course in the diary meant I made the time. Now I need to keep doing that without a weekly session to hold me to it. I’m looking forward to joining the Agentic CMO alumni and hearing from people in earlier cohorts. What have they built since? What are their teams using? What looked promising during the course but turned out to need more work? Thank you so much to Victoria Rusnac Sergio Giannone and everyone in Cohort 3. I’ve really enjoyed having people to compare notes with while we figure this out.

Six weeks ago, I had never built an agent and, frankly, felt a bit lost on how to move from using AI as a tool to starting to embed Agentic AI into my team. Today, I can confidently say I understand it a little more and have a plan to help me get there. Over the past six weeks, I joined 17 CMOs in the inaugural Agentic CMO Accelerator, led by Victoria Rusnac and Nicola Anderson. Together, we: 🔧 Built four agents: Strategic Marketing, Content Engine, Campaign Launch, and Market & Competitor Intelligence 🗺️ Developed our own AI marketing roadmaps and team adoption plans 🔈 Debated real-world use cases and challenges we are all facing. One thing became very clear: operating in a constant state of discomfort is fast becoming the norm. It’s both daunting and exciting in equal measure. The role is shifting from execution to system design, and that requires a different mindset. The conversations with fellow CMOs were probably the most valuable part. There was a shared honesty that none of us feel completely “on top of it.” A constant sense of being slightly behind, slightly uncomfortable, and still figuring it out. And increasingly, that feels less like a phase and more like the reality of the role.

I've been quiet for six weeks. Not burnout, not a pivot. I was rebuilding how I live and work, and it's changed what I think a fractional CMO is for. I took a break from posting and went properly deep on AI instead. The result: Claude and a team of agents now run alongside everything I do. Three limited companies - accounts and taxes done in a fraction of the time. CMO Thrive, coaching, personal training, the lot. Systems that keep me focused and productive without me being the bottleneck. Not perfect. But way better than just me. The catalyst was the six-week Agentic AI CMO intensive with Victoria Rusnac, Nicola Anderson and Applied AI Academy, built around real clients, a great cohort, real workflows, not theory. Building AI agents is fast becoming the easy part. The scarce skill is the marketing judgment you apply across them. Knowing which use cases actually matter, what good output looks like, and when to overrule the machine. Tools are cheap. Taste isn't.

Investing in personal growth feels more important than ever right now, especially with how quickly things are moving in AI. Being part of the first cohort of the Agentic CMO Accelerator was one of those steps forward. Super proud of this group, the ideas we've explored, and what we've built together over the last 6 weeks. Lots to take away. Lots still to learn. And that's definitely the point. 🚀 Thank you Victoria Rusnac & Nicola Anderson 🙌

For the cost of a training budget you can build 5-6 agents and grow your team. To me this is a no brainer. Claude projects, skills and agents have made me more data driven, productive and intentional at work. Victoria Rusnac is an excellent teacher, passionate about AI and gets what marketers need.

Founders, if AI adoption is stuck in your org, or marketing talent, if your organisation is not leaning into AI in a meaningful way (yes, using a chatbot is not meaningful). This is how you move it from “we should” to “we do.” Huge thanks to Victoria Rusnac — she gets what teams actually need to make this stick. Hands on, well guided, no matter what your current level of AI literacy is.

Imposter syndrome hit me before the first session even started. I signed up for the Agentic CMO Accelerator by Victoria Rusnac and Nicola Anderson knowing I had a gap. Turns out, I wasn't alone. Almost every one of the 20 Heads of, VPs and CMOs in the cohort expressed feeling behind in our first session. Apparently 30–50% of senior marketers haven't started their AI journey at all. And a lot of those who say they're "agentic" haven't actually put workflows into place. I came in not knowing what I didn't know. Six weeks later, I'm leaving knowing exactly what I still need to learn, and with practical steps to get there. That feels like real progress. 💪 Huge thank you to Victoria and Nicola for making it genuinely useful, not just theoretical.