Measuring the transition from marketing automation to governed autonomy
The APM Autonomy Index Research (AIR) is an industry research programme initiated by So What Labs to understand how organisations are progressing from automated marketing execution towards greater decision autonomy.
Rather than simply asking whether organisations are using AI, AIR explores a more important question:
How much marketing decision-making are organisations prepared to delegate to intelligent systems – and under what conditions?
We are currently speaking with senior marketers, agency leaders and marketing technology practitioners for the first phase of the research.
AIR looks at how organisations are approaching six areas of marketing autonomy.
How AI-driven decisions are connected to commercial objectives rather than isolated channel metrics.
What data, signals and business information systems have access to before making decisions.
How systems move from identifying a change to determining the most appropriate response.
How decisions are coordinated across advertising, analytics, CRM, ecommerce and other marketing systems.
Which decisions systems may make independently, which require human approval, and where authority should remain with people.
Whether the outcomes of previous decisions influence what systems decide next.
Marketing technology is moving rapidly from automation towards systems capable of analysing, recommending and increasingly acting.
However, greater capability does not automatically create meaningful autonomy.
A system may be able to take an action without having sufficient context, authority or understanding to determine whether that action is appropriate.
AIR is designed to examine how organisations are navigating this transition in practice, including the relationship between:
The research will contribute towards a broader evidence base for understanding the emergence of Autonomous Performance Marketing.
We are currently conducting 25–30 minute structured interviews with practitioners across brands, agencies and marketing technology organisations.
Participation is intended to help build a practical understanding of how marketing autonomy is developing across the industry.
Individual responses will remain confidential and findings will be reported in aggregate unless explicit permission is provided otherwise.
There is no sales pitch associated with participation.
AIR is currently in its first research phase.
Initial practitioner interviews will be used to refine the research framework and identify emerging patterns around marketing autonomy, governance and decision-making.
Future outputs are expected to include: