ITG CEO Andrew Swinand examines the role of leadership as a catalyst for marketing transformation, and how CEOs can lay the foundation for effective and lasting change in the age of AI.
I’ve always believed the hardest part of transformation isn’t the technology. It’s the will. The conviction to say, “We’re going to change how this company works — and I’ll lead from the front.” That conviction matters more than ever.
According to PwC, 59% of CEOs are now personally sponsoring transformation projects. That’s a healthy signal — and a reminder that accountability at the top accelerates outcomes across the business. When leaders show up, change speeds up.
Change management vs. change leadership
People often ask me, “What’s the difference?” Here’s how I see it.
Change management is essential. It brings structure, timelines, and tangible milestones that move businesses from where they are to where they need to be.
But change leadership is what makes transformation stick. It’s the energy that turns process into progress. Leadership shapes belief. It builds trust. It connects people to a compelling “why”, transforming change from an initiative to survive into a direction to believe in.
Over the years I’ve watched organizations execute flawless roadmaps and still struggle to shift behavior. I’ve also seen inspiring leaders ignite the room — only to lose momentum because the operating model lagged. Real, sustained transformation demands both: process and purpose, management and meaning.
An AI-enabled backbone for operational change
Right now, AI is the biggest accelerant to marketing performance I’ve seen. But let’s be honest: AI without an operational backbone becomes theatre — demos that dazzle and pilots that never scale.
If you want AI to drive measurable ROI, you need a unified content operating system that connects strategy, planning, creation, approvals, distribution, and measurement. That’s why a Content Marketing Platform (CMP) — in our case, Storyteq — matters. It’s the backbone that brings clarity to the chaos of AI’s speed and potential, turning clever tools into sustained business value.
In most enterprises, marketing lives across dozens of point solutions, shared drives, and email chains. Work slows. Compliance becomes strained. AI can help, but only if it’s anchored in the flow of work — where briefs are born, creative is versioned, approvals are captured, and content is activated.
Storyteq CMP connects those dots end‑to‑end — automated multichannel briefs and workflows, creative automation for thousands of on‑brand variants, integrated DAM, channel distribution, and asset‑level analytics. Plug AI into that system and you don’t just produce faster. You learn faster, govern better, and prove ROI with a straight face.
This is why we’re embedding leading generative models directly into Storyteq’s operating fabric. We recently announced an integration of Adobe Firefly into the platform — pairing Storyteq’s orchestration and our Halo Intelligence with Firefly’s generative capabilities to speed briefing, versioning, approvals, and compliance.
It’s not “AI on the side.” It’s AI inside the system of work, where value is created every day.
The CEO’s job: Set the culture, model the values, make it real
Tools don’t transform companies. Cultures do. And culture changes when leaders go first.
As CEOs, our job is to set clear values, remove friction, and model the behaviors we want to see. If we want more experimentation, we must reward smart tests, not just big launches. If we want data‑led creative, we must ask “What did we learn?” as often as “What did we make?”. If we believe AI should augment people, not replace them, we must invest in upskilling and celebrate the teams who blend creativity with machine‑speed execution.
How do you cascade change? Three moves I’ve found effective:
- Name the north star. In plain language. Revisit it until everyone can explain it at the coffee machine.
- Wire it into the work. Bake new behaviors into rituals — weekly pipeline reviews, monthly learning forums, quarterly business readouts — so they stick.
- Celebrate progress publicly. Recognize the teams who make the new way of working feel inevitable.
At ITG, I’ve asked every team — product, creative, client services, operations — to make AI part of daily life. We practice what we preach not just because it makes us faster and more efficient, but because our clients deserve partners who live the future they’re selling.
What this looks like with clients
One of the best examples is our work with John Lewis Partnership. Together we’ve built a new content production capability that blends ITG’s technology and expertise with JLP’s brand and teams — operating as “one team” to deliver high-quality content at the speed of retail.
The goal isn’t just more assets. It’s better operations — faster cycle times, consistent brand governance, and the agility to adapt across channels without sacrificing quality. That’s marketing transformation you can feel in the numbers and the culture.
And the reason this scale of change was possible? Because JLP’s leadership team lived and breathed it. They were front and center, helping colleagues to understand the why and embrace the how. Even positive change can be daunting, but when leaders champion the transformation, their positivity cascades through every team.
Why the CEO must lead
Back to that 59% figure. I see it as both progress and challenge. Progress because sponsorship is a sign of seriousness. Challenge because sponsorship alone isn’t leadership. To truly unlock value, CEOs must do four things:
- Champion the backbone. Mandate a unified content operating model so AI doesn’t just add another layer of complexity. If you’re juggling 20 tools, AI will multiply the chaos rather than contributing value.
- Invest in skills. Fund training and make it career‑advancing. The best ideas happen when human creativity and machine capability meet in the middle.
- Make outcomes the metric. Not AI pilots, but speed, quality, compliance, and ROI. When you connect creation to activation to analytics, you can measure the things that matter.
- Lead visibly. Join the reviews. Ask simple questions. Share customer stories. When people see you care, they care.
The invitation
Transformation is a team sport, but it starts with a captain. If you’re a CEO, ask yourself: Are we not just managing the change, but leading it? Do we have a content backbone that turns AI from promise into performance? Are our teams excited because they understand the “why,” or exhausted because they’re pushing against the system?
I’m optimistic. The industry is moving. The tools are maturing. And the leaders who balance belief with execution are already pulling ahead. The ones who win won’t bolt AI onto yesterday’s processes — they’ll rebuild the operating system of marketing, end‑to‑end.
Are you ready to lead from the front?