Most 2027 marketing plans have a line that says AI. This is what goes under it.
The AI Marketing Planning Playbook 2027. Ten chapters, a job scorecard, a cost calculator and a free workbook for small NZ marketing teams. With the lessons of leading CMOs, scaled down to your size.
Free to read. No sign-up until you want the workbook. Updated October 2026.
The tools are ready. The plan usually isn't.
Most of the marketing managers I work with are already using AI. Very few have it written into the plan with a budget, an owner and a way to measure it. Datacom found only 20% of NZ organisations have an AI budget with clear cost tracking.
The gap is widest for small teams. MYOB found 30% of NZ businesses with one to five staff use AI proactively. For businesses with 20 or more staff, it's 64%.
The playbook answers the three questions I hear most, in the order you'd plan with. Where to start, whether it's safe, and whether AI will replace your team.
Score the marketing jobs AI is already touching.
Start with the work, not the tool. Rate each job from 1 to 5 on four things. Does it matter? How often does it come round? How bad is it if AI gets it wrong? How easily can you undo it? The top one or two are where AI and a written process go first.
These are example scores. Change the jobs and scores to your own.
High is good for the first two. For the last two, high means risky, and risky jobs drop down the list.
Write rules for these first
When you're ready to start it, the free Prompt Vault has 452 prompts to work from. GET THE VAULT →
Scoring adapted from Gartner, From Tasks to Decisions, 2026, and Michael Domanic, Section, October 2026.
Twenty minutes and four steps first. Then read only the chapters you need.
Score three jobs
8 MINThree marketing jobs your team does every week. The top one is your first job.
SCORE THEM →Answer the five questions
4 MINYes or not yet. Your first "not yet" tells you which chapter to read first.
ANSWER THEM →Take the before reading
7 MINHours a week the job takes now, and one number it moves. Write both down.
WHY THE BEFORE COUNTS →Every chapter answers a real question, and ends with a job to do.
Start with the job that eats your week.
Most teams start with a tool. Someone signs up for ChatGPT, a few people try it, and six months later nobody can say what changed.
Start with the work instead. Find the job your team repeats every week that costs the most hours. Monthly reports, social captions, replying to enquiries. Write down how it's done today, step by step. That's the job AI gets first.
Not sure what to ask AI for first? The Prompt Vault has 452 prompts across 77 categories. Free.
GET THE PROMPT VAULT →The CMOs of Google, OpenAI, Chase and LinkedIn at Cannes Lions 2026, and the Forbes CMO Summit in September. Their lessons, scaled down for a team of five.
Ten chapters, plus a planning kit.
What does AI actually cost a team your size?
Most small teams have no AI budget line. Just a few subscriptions on someone's card. Add it up properly, then work out how much time it needs to give back to pay for itself.
That's of your marketing budget.
If that sounds easy, it probably is. The hard part is proving it, and chapter 09 shows you how.
If you use an agency
Ask how they use AI on your account. If they're using it, you should see it in the price, the speed or the output. If you're seeing none of those, ask why.
Getting the owner to yes
Ask small. Name one job, the hours it takes now, and the number you'll report back in 90 days. A first budget is how you earn the second.
Then ask what it bought you
Did the team get time back? Did the work get better? Did it replace spend you already had? Can you do something you couldn't before?
Adapted from Michael Domanic, Section, October 2026, and James Fitzgerald, SMK, October 2026.
I'm Lisa.
I've spent more than 20 years building marketing by hand, across publishing, media, retail and public-good work. Now I build the AI systems that run it for NZ businesses.
This playbook comes from decades of marketing in New Zealand and the questions marketing managers ask me most. The latest NZ research sits beside every answer. The big overseas brands get one chapter. The rest is about teams like yours.
Custom-built AI systems. Not bolted-on tools.
Five questions for your 2027 plan.
Answer all five to see where to start.
Want the full picture? Take the BUILD Scorecard. It shows where AI fits across your whole marketing.
Take the scorecardThe tools to act on your plan, most of them free.
AI Governance Check
A few questions, and it writes you a tailored set of draft guidelines for a business your size. A starting point, not legal advice.
Goes with chapter 06, is it safe for our data?
RUN THE CHECK →The Prompt Vault
452 prompts across 77 categories, B2B and B2C.
Goes with chapter 02, where do I even start?
GET THE VAULT →Prompt Vault Recipes
Ten workflows that chain the vault prompts into finished jobs, plus twelve Claude Skills and a setup kit.
Goes with chapter 03, systems beat tools.
SEE THE RECIPES →Resources
Free tools and checklists for NZ marketing teams.
Everything else in one place.
BROWSE RESOURCES →Before you start.
How is this different to asking ChatGPT for a 2027 plan?
A chatbot answers one request. This gives you the whole planning job in order. It starts with where NZ actually is and the questions marketing managers ask me most. Then you score your own work and take a workbook into the room. Every number is sourced.
Who is it for?
Marketing managers and owners in NZ small businesses. If your team is a handful of people and your marketing budget is under NZ$50,000, it's written for you.
Is it free?
Reading the playbook and using the tools is free, with no sign-up. To get the workbook, I ask for your email.
Where do the numbers come from?
MYOB's Business Monitor, Datacom's State of AI Index and MBIE's SME research with The Research Agency. Also Xero, the AI Forum, Google and Public First. Chapter 10 adds the Cannes Lions 2026 CMO panel, Gartner and Section for the big-company view. Each is credited where it's used.
How current is it?
NZ research from 2025 and 2026, accurate to each named source at the time of writing, October 2026. The workbook is dated, so you can tell which version you have.
Where does the CMO advice come from?
Two places, both credited. The Cannes Lions 2026 panel with the CMOs of Google, OpenAI, Chase and LinkedIn, quoted from the recording. And the Forbes CMO Summit in Aspen, September 2026, where Carla Hassan and Jessica Jensen were back on stage. Those takeaways are paraphrased from Forbes' published recap. Every quote on this page names the person who said it.
Is this advice?
It's a guide. It isn't financial, legal or tax advice. Check anything that matters to a decision with your accountant, your lawyer or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
Which decision goes first in your 2027 plan?
Get the AI Marketing Planning Playbook workbook by email. It opens with the same 20-minute Start here route. Then come ten short chapters, each with time tags and space to write. The job scorecard sits after chapter 03, the budget sheet after chapter 08, and the 90-day plan at the back. Your results from this page show here too, with a print button, so you can take them into the room.
The workbook comes by email straight away. You'll also get my newsletter, with no set schedule, and you can unsubscribe any time.
Your results,
Start with .
Here are two tools to help you do it, and the first one is free.
The Prompt Vault
452 prompts across 77 categories, B2B and B2C. Each one is a full brief you can copy straight into ChatGPT or Claude.
GET THE VAULT →Prompt Vault Recipes
Ten workflows that chain those prompts into a finished campaign, plus twelve Skills for Claude and ChatGPT. Setup takes about twenty minutes.
SEE THE RECIPES →LET'S TALK, book a free Foundation clarity call at charismadigital.co.nz/lets-talk
Hear when the AI Planning Playbook is updated.
Short emails when something changes, with no set schedule. Unsubscribe any time.
A guide, not advice.
What it is
The AI Marketing Planning Playbook 2027 is a guide to planning and budgeting AI into a small marketing team. It isn't financial, legal or tax advice. For your own situation, talk to your accountant, your lawyer or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. The budget figures are examples built on your own inputs. Check them against your real numbers before you take them into a meeting.
How current it is
Every figure is accurate to its named source at the time of writing, October 2026. Research gets refreshed, prices change and the tools change faster than either. Where a source sells AI products, it's said so beside the number. If a figure matters to a decision, go to the source and check the date.
How it was made
I used AI to help research, draft and build this playbook. It's the same way I'd use it on a client job. Every claim was checked against its source and every word was read by me before it went out. How I work with AI, and the rules I hold myself to, are on the site.
Sources. MYOB Business Monitor, August 2026, n=1,026 · MBIE and The Research Agency, AI adoption by NZ small and medium businesses, July 2025 · Datacom State of AI Index, 2026 · Xero NZ, Kiwi SME AI adoption research, May 2026, n=1,081 · AI Forum NZ, AI in Action, August 2025, n=166 · Google and Public First, Shaping New Zealand's AI Era, 2026 edition, n=1,036 (Google-commissioned) · SBE Council, Small Business Tech Use Survey, 2026 (US) · Gartner, From Tasks to Decisions, 2026, and CMO Spend Survey, May 2026, n=401 · Section, Michael Domanic, 20 questions about 2027 AI budget planning and How to Build a 2027 AI Plan, October 2026 · Cannes Lions 2026 CMO panel, LinkedIn · Forbes CMO Summit recap, Forbes, 24 September 2026 · Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Privacy Act 2020.
Prepared for
Scoring adapted from Gartner, From Tasks to Decisions, 2026, and Michael Domanic, Section, October 2026. Costs are your own inputs, with a 25% contingency added. Hours assume 46 working weeks. A guide, not financial, legal or tax advice. charismadigital.co.nz