CASE STUDY
Defining a Strategic Roadmap for AI Readiness, Strategy and Activation
Cella Guides an Enterprise Retail Creative Team into AI Adoption
What does it look like to operationalize AI within a broad creative team? A major U.S.-based retail enterprise approached us to help its in-house creative team do just that by defining a clear and actionable strategy for using artificial intelligence across marketing, copywriting, and creative operations. While the organization had already begun exploring AI tools, efforts were fragmented, and leadership lacked a unified vision and execution framework.
The Challenge
Although early AI pilots were underway, the creative organization faced common obstacles:
- Unclear understanding of which AI tools were already available within the martech stack
- Limited visibility into how AI could improve current processes and workloads
- Inconsistent adoption and experimentation across departments
- Uncertainty about where to invest next
The creative team needed more than AI inspiration. It needed structure, clarity and direction.
The Ideals
Cella partnered with the client’s team to achieve their creative production ideals:
Be more efficient.
Increase speed time to market.
Reduce time and number of revisions.
Move to more personalization and targeted messaging.
Get more information and analytics from existing data.
Our Approach
We began by conducting a focused discovery phase with creative leadership, copy, project management and brand stakeholders. Through a series of user interviews and working sessions, we gathered input across people, processes and platforms.
Our work included:
Martech Stack Analysis to identify existing and hidden AI tools
AI Maturity Model tailored to the team’s organizational structure and workflow needs
Readiness Assessment to benchmark current capabilities across copy, design and operations
Tactical AI Playbook outlining practical steps to level-up AI usage
We didn’t stop at strategy. We mapped specific AI tools and agents to business needs: Prioritizing automation of repetitive tasks, enhancements in content generation and acceleration of project timelines.
The Outcome
The team used Cella’s AI Readiness Playbook to immediately pilot tools across three key areas: Creative, Copywriting, and Project Management.
The result was rapid experimentation, greater confidence among stakeholders and a roadmap to scale what worked. With better alignment and a future-focused strategy in hand, the organization is now equipped to grow AI usage intentionally, maximizing existing investments and preparing for what’s next.
Transformational Services
Cella addressed the client’s wish list and delivered service beyond standard expectations, positioning their team’s capabilities to scale with their future needs. We reviewed their capabilities and made recommendations providing a comprehensive service plan:
AI Readiness Assessment A comprehensive evaluation of their current AI capabilities across people, processes, and technology to identify strengths, gaps and areas for improvement.
Custom AI Maturity Model A tailored framework that benchmarks their team's AI adoption level and outlines specific criteria to progress toward more advanced, scalable AI use.
AI Playbook with Tactical Recommendations A detailed guide offering prioritized actions, best practices and integration strategies to enhance AI effectiveness across creative and marketing workflows.
AI Tool and Agent Mapping A visual and strategic inventory of current and potential AI tools and agents, highlighting usage, gaps and opportunities for optimization or consolidation.
Executive-Level Summary and Roadmap A concise presentation of key findings and a step-by-step plan to guide leadership in implementing immediate and long-term AI initiatives.
The Results
Following the completion of the AI Readiness project, the client quickly moved into action, using the playbook as a launchpad for meaningful change.
The assessment revealed that one of their core project management tools lacked the reporting needed to support their team, prompting them to explore AI driven analytics. At the same time, they launched a pilot program for their design team using a new AI solution with the potential to dramatically reduce design time. They also implemented AI-powered virtual personas to accelerate audience targeting and message testing, while initiating an evaluation of copywriting tools to ensure consistent brand voice and tone across all creative outputs. These swift steps demonstrated the client’s commitment to operationalizing AI and realizing its immediate and strategic value.
