Marketing MacGyver: 8 AI Hacks You Can Use Today (No Lab Coat Required)
Marketing MacGyver: AI Edition
If 2024 was “play with GenAI,” then 2025 has been “prove it—or risk looking like you’re still playing.”
The good news? The best GenAI wins don’t require a Chief AI Officer, a data science team, or six-figure prompt engineers. They require curiosity, a few tools, and someone with just enough nerve to duct-tape a custom GPT to a strategic goal. In this month’s Peer Huddles, CMOs shared how they’re embracing their inner Marketing MacGyver: Finding fast, clever ways to use AI to solve real problems right now.
Here are eight AI hacks that are low-lift, high-impact, and 100% stealable.
1. Turn Your AI Into an SDR That Never Sleeps
One CMO deployed AI SDRs trained on intent data to drive outreach campaigns. The result? “They’re faster, more consistent, and shockingly effective, especially at hitting the 37+ touchpoints needed to book a meeting.” These AI agents follow every cadence rule without exception. While they’re not picking up the phone (yet), they’ve already slashed time-to-meeting in half and are proving ideal for engaging mid-funnel leads that need a nudge, not a handshake.
2. Build a GPT That Handles Analyst Relations (Yes, Really)
When a product marketer left suddenly, one marketing leader built a GPT to replace part of the role. “I created an Analyst Relations Partner GPT that evaluates analyst surveys and advises on whether we should respond and how,” they shared. Trained on internal messaging docs, it reviews requests, drafts replies, and acts like a tireless virtual team member. “It’s like having someone on the team who never sleeps or complains.” Now that’s what we call headcount hacking.
3. Create a Brand-Trained GPT That Knows Your Tone (and Grammar Quirks)
Another CMO in cybersecurity took content quality seriously and gave their GPT some very specific training. “We trained it on our tone, brand voice, and yes, even punctuation preferences. Our CTO hates em dashes, so the GPT knows to avoid them.” It’s now producing first drafts that are 80% ready for review and perfectly aligned with the company’s most effective communicators. Style guides are great; style GPTs might be even better.
4. Hook Your GPT to Snowflake and Ask It for Revenue Insights
Imagine asking a GPT for this quarter’s pipeline velocity and getting an instant answer. One Huddler did just that by connecting a custom GPT to Snowflake. “It can answer pipeline questions in real time,” they explained. The catch? “We’re still working on verifying the accuracy.” While dashboards aren’t going away anytime soon, this early-stage Revenue GPT offers a glimpse into a future where data answers come with conversation, not filters.
5. Find Your Team’s Hidden ‘Vibe Coder’ and Let Them Cook
You don’t need a full-time engineer to build smart workflows; you just need a curious marketer who’s not afraid to tinker. “Someone on our team just self-selected into that role,” one CMO said. “Now they’re essential.” These unsung heroes stitch together tools like N8N, Zapier, GPTs, Slack, and more. You won’t find “vibe coder” in a job description (yet), but most Huddles agree: This is the talent that makes GenAI scalable.
6. Don’t Launch a Marketing GPT Without a Use Case
The rush to build a marketing GPT is real, but strategy still comes first. “I keep asking: Who’s the audience? What’s the use case?” one marketing leader noted. “If you skip that step, you’re just building something shiny that nobody uses.” The lesson: Avoid GPT tourism. Anchor your experiments in real workflows, real problems, and real stakeholders, or risk ending up with a chatbot that gathers digital dust.
7. Train the Team—Or Prepare for Prompt Paralysis
Giving your team access to ChatGPT Enterprise is a nice gesture. Teaching them how to use it? That’s a strategy. “We rolled it out to the whole company and realized most people had no idea what to do with it,” said one CMO. “Training became the real unlock.” Without structure, teams default to vague prompts or worse, produce content that feels like AI wrote it. A little education can unlock a lot of effectiveness.
8. Build GPTs of Your CEO, CRO, and CFO (Yes, Seriously)
Drew suggested that CMOs start building “executive simulator GPTs,” for both defensive and offensive purposes. “Train your GPTs on your CEO, CRO, and CFO communications and personalties so you can anticipate what they’re going to ask in meetings, or even what they might ask ChatGPT about marketing’s performance,” explained the Penguin-in-Chief. Think of it as proactive board prep with a Magic 8-Ball that got an MBA.
Don’t Miss the Super Huddle: Nov 6–7 in Palo Alto
- PechaKucha-style presentations from AI experts like Nicole Leffer, Noah Brier, Liza Adams, Jon Lombardo, Samantha Stark, and Tahnee Perry.
- Guy Yalif, Chief Evangelist at Webflow, on how to win the Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) game.
- Armen Najarian, CMO of Sift, on how his team is deploying AI-agents via Boomerang to capture and activate customer champion data.
AND Join Us at Dreamforce!
If you’re attending Dreamforce (or live in the Bay Area), join us and our GTM Partner, HG Insights, on 10/14 for a panel & happy hour, or 10/15 for another insight-rich discussion (to register, click here).
- Jeff Otto (Riskified)
- Heidi Bullock (Tealium)
- Allyson Havener (HG Insights)
- Paige O’Neill (CultureAmp)
- Christine Royston (Wrike)
- Shekar Hariharan (HG Insights)
Best,
Drew Neisser
Founder, CMO Huddles