The Reason Your AI Isn’t Working (And How Marketers Can Fix It!)

Interview with Rūta Gaudiešienė, Partner at Civitta and Chairperson of Lithuanian Marketing Association (LIMA).

You work for Civitta, why do we hear so little about such a large company?

I joined Civitta five years ago, and I was also surprised by its size—almost 800 people—and consistently high quality of work. But here's the thing -  it's a partner-run business. We're built for expertise delivery, not brand visibility. Our experts focus on a wide range of areas—strategy, funding, innovation, digital, data, sustainability, and the public sector—to deliver end-to-end solutions for our clients. With such diverse priorities and some partners operating internationally, we tend to invest less time and energy in local marketing efforts. .

Sometimes Civitta feels like a hippopotamus for me—only the eyes visible above water, with a massive body underneath. Of course we do marketing activities, but too small for the size of our business. Most growth comes from direct client relationships and recommendations. It's very much a pure B2B environment—partners are responsible for sales and relationships, often built on personal branding and previous work, not broader brand marketing.

So clients come mostly from personal networks rather than awareness building?

There's definitely irony here—I spend my time advocating for marketing-centric organizations while working for one that's decidedly personal-relationship driven. But every business model should fit its function, and for Civitta, this approach works.

Civitta acts like a strong production house—we have HR, data analytics, and cross-partner collaboration that’s really important today. Data, strategy, digital innovation—they all come together strongly. But active, full scale arketing? Not yet.

You are a chairwoman of Lithuanian Marketing Association LIMA. You are the right person to ask - what makes a good CMO today?

We're advocating for CMOs to evolve into strategic business leaders—ideally, future CEOs. That means understanding finance and broader business context, not just creative campaigns. I even made a typology of CMOs with five types:

1. Technological Innovator – Data‑based, AI‑driven, focused on efficiency and speed. Very startup‑driven.

2. Holistic Strategist – Understands how business works, integrates marketing into the full customer lifecycle. Moves from vanity metrics to impact metrics.

3. Team Player – Focused on employer branding, reputation, ethics, and community building. Very relevant in large companies.

4. Brand Builder – Traditional focus on brand value and storytelling, now evolving into brand experience delivery.

5. Campaign Maker – Traditional, and increasingly obsolete.

The first two are the most relevant today—especially with the rise of AI. 

But AI is only as good as your data. Only 4% of companies in Europe say their data is ready for AI.

Lithuanian Marketig Association LIMA selects top CMO-s. What are your impressions from the Lithuanian CMO’25 elections?

The CMOs who earned a spot in our TOP 10 don’t just think creatively—they think like CEOs, bringing commercial and financial acuity alongside creative flair. They understand the bigger picture and can clearly tie their marketing initiatives to organizational growth, profitability, and long‑term value.

This is Holistic Strategic Integration for Tangible Business Outcomes in action. Beautiful campaigns that don’t move the bottom line? That’s just expensive art. The businesses that thrive understand this. The ones that struggle are still figuring it out…

As a CMO’25 judging panelist, I heard countless challenges, triumphs, and hot topics from candidates. Three recurring, interconnected trends dominated the conversations—and they’re exactly where Civitta and our clients are focusing today. 

TOP 10 Lithuanian CMO-s in 2025

1. Data‑Driven & AI‑Ready Analytics for Business Impact

Data that actually matters.

We’re moving past vanity metrics. Today’s marketing leaders expect integrated data ecosystems—CRM‑centric intelligence that merges sales, marketing, and customer data into one reliable "source of truth," rather than the chaos of seventeen spreadsheets no one trusts.

AI is the game‑changer: it automates data validation and smart workflow setup. But the challenge remains—most companies are still drowning in siloed customer data. Achieving a true 360‑degree customer view is still the hardest part.

The shift is toward metrics that matter: Net Revenue Retention, Qualified Pipeline, Customer Lifetime Value. AI is instrumental—automating funnel tracking and highlighting gaps before they become expensive problems.

2. Customer‑Centric Communication & Experience Personalization

We’re shifting from generic, product‑centric messaging to highly personalized, value‑driven experiences. Customer Experience now equals revenue potential—it’s no longer an overhead line.

B2B marketers are doing sophisticated 1:1 personalization: warm outbound emails triggered by buying‑intent signals; dynamic website experiences reacting to visitor behavior.

Brands are also using AI‑powered chat services to handle routine queries—“AI for tickets, humans for relationships.”

3. Holistic Brand & Reputation Management + Adaptive Leadership

Marketing leadership today is about guiding dynamic organizational change. A strong reputation is both a magnet and a moat: it attracts talent and unlocks opportunity.

Authenticity matters. Employer brand now drives recruitment—employee reviews hold nearly 7× the influence of company marketing, even overshadowing pay and benefits.

Importantly, strategic social responsibility must be authentic—not lip service. Truthful ESG efforts and genuine employee‑care resonate, especially among opinion leaders.

Bottom line: Internal culture is an external brand. Treat your people with respect, stand for real values, and let your reputation tell the story

In a recent Parrot B2B conference, we heard that small teams are expected to do everything—content, social media, analytics. How can they handle it?

That’s the reality. I have slides from Inbound, HubSpot’s conference, that show the evolution of marketing teams. It’s moving toward orchestration—fewer people managing AI tools and creative AI directors. We’re entering an era of synthetic personas, AI agents, and hyper-personalization. But it’s risky. Synthetic personas depend on data quality. If your data is poor, you’re building personas on hallucinations.

Relevance is key in B2B now. How can marketers be truly relevant?

Golden age is coming! With CRM‑integrated data, you can now see customer journeys in real time. Performance marketing used to push everyone down the funnel, but now you can segment by cohorts—track how clients who joined in September behave versus others. That enables more relevant, warm outbound efforts and personalized experiences.

Websites can now serve different content to different visitors. It's becoming more affordable. This ties into battling the zero‑click trend—people getting info without visiting your site. You have to be genuinely useful and focus on real customer needs.

But many businesses hide their real problems. How can we uncover them?

Start with customer jobs‑to‑be‑done. Companies might not spell out their issues, but industry trends and internal experience can reveal them. Sales and experience teams know what challenges customers actually face. Ask them.

Also, look at your own data. Many companies say they’re customer‑centric, but their data says otherwise. Sales, marketing, and finance often live in separate silos. I always ask—do you actually see your customer in your data? Often, the answer is no.

Even with advanced tools like Salesforce, why is data still disconnected?

Because marketing doesn’t lead the data strategy. IT or finance often drive it, focused on internal metrics or reporting. 

Marketing should lead customer‑data architecture—what gets collected, how it connects. That’s the only way to build customer‑centric strategies.

I believe companies have about one year to prepare. If you don’t get your data ready, you’ll miss the AI wave.

What would you recommend marketers read or learn now?

Go to school again—Turing College! It’s an AI and data‑analytics school based in Lithuania but fully online and international. They teach you how to talk to AI, use Python, and understand how these systems actually work. It’s like learning a new language. Don’t talk about AI without knowing what’s behind it.