The AI Marketing Canvas, Second Edition: A Five-Step AI Plan for Marketers

Five essential steps to take you from "zero to superhero" with AI for marketing

For marketers, the landscape is shifting underfoot. Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept but a present-day reality, rewriting the rules of relevance, differentiation, and connection. Navigating this new era is the single greatest challenge, and opportunity, for marketing leaders. How do you move beyond scattered experiments and buzzwords to unlock AI's true transformative power?

In the newly revised and essential second edition of The AI Marketing Canvas, top MBA marketing professors Rajkumar Venkatesan and Jim Lecinski provide the definitive roadmap. They distill complexity into clarity with a field-tested, five-step plan for marketers at every stage of their AI journey. This is not a speculative look at the future; it is a practical guide for winning your "AI Moment of Truth" now.

The concepts, frameworks and examples in the book will enable you to:

Master the two core functions of AI: Wield predictive AI for unparalleled insights and optimization, and generative AI for creating compelling content and communications at scale.

Pinpoint your greatest opportunities: Use a powerful 2x2 framework to identify the highest-value AI use cases for your business, whether driving internal productivity or explosive external growth.

Build your AI "exosuit" Learn how to augment your team's strategic expertise and human judgment with machine intelligence, turning your department into a marketing powerhouse.

Lead with confidence: Navigate the critical challenges of ethics and governance while preparing for the next wave of disruption, from Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to autonomous AI agents.

Rich with case studies, best practices, and the latest insights on AI's impact on decision-making and customer engagement, this book empowers CMOs and marketers alike to harness AI's full potential. Whether you are laying the groundwork for AI adoption, scaling across functions, or reinventing your go-to-market approach, The AI Marketing Canvas provides clarity and confidence at every stage of your journey.

It's not too late to be an early adopter, but the train is leaving the station. This book is your ticket to the forefront of marketing innovation.

Author: Rajkumar Venkatesan,Jim Lecinski
Publisher: Stanford Business Books
Published: 01/20/2026
Pages: 282
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 8.80h x 5.90w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781503644335

About the Author
Rajkumar Venkatesan is the Ronald Trzcinski Professor of Business Administration and Academic Co-Director of the La Cross Institute for Ethical AI in Business in the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. His writing has appeared in the Journal of Marketing and Harvard Business Review, and he is the co-author of Marketing Analytics (2021). Jim Lecinski is Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. His thirty years of experience as a marketing adviser for prominent global brands include a twelve-year stint at Google, where he was vice president of customer solutions. He is the author of Winning the Zero Moment of Truth (2011).