Bridging the Human-AI Readiness Gap in Marketing: Introducing the HACR Framework
Asif, S., & Lalwani, S.
As artificial intelligence spreads through marketing, the hardest obstacle is turning out to be the team, not the technology. Despite heavy investment in advanced platforms, many organisations still struggle to weave AI into everyday decisions and workflows, and this paper argues that the missing ingredient is human readiness rather than better tools.
To address that gap, the paper sets out the Human-AI Collaboration Readiness, or HACR, Framework, a conceptually grounded and practice-tested model distilled from fifteen leading academic and industry sources. The framework pinpoints four levers that decide whether AI ends up embedded or estranged: agile workflows, cross-functional collaboration, continuous upskilling, and role clarity, redefining readiness as an organisational capability rooted in team structure and everyday behaviour rather than in hardware.
Unlike infrastructure-heavy maturity indices, HACR concentrates on operational agility and team dynamics. It gives chief marketing officers a strategic diagnostic lens for spotting where collaboration breaks down, and offers researchers a scalable blueprint for advancing genuine human-AI synergy across real-world marketing settings rather than in theory alone.
As AI reshapes marketing, the real bottleneck is team readiness rather than technology. It puts forward the Human-AI Collaboration Readiness framework, distilled from fifteen sources, identifying four levers: continuous upskilling, role clarity, cross-functional collaboration, and agile workflows. Unlike infrastructure-heavy maturity indices, it centres team dynamics, giving CMOs a diagnostic lens and researchers a scalable blueprint.
- The paper's premise is that marketing's main barrier to AI is the readiness of teams, not the technology, since heavy platform investment often fails to embed AI into everyday decisions and workflows.
- It introduces the Human-AI Collaboration Readiness framework, a conceptually grounded and practice-tested model distilled from fifteen leading academic and industry sources to assess organisational readiness for AI.
- HACR identifies four levers that decide whether AI ends up embedded or estranged: agile workflows, cross-functional collaboration, continuous upskilling, and role clarity, redefining readiness as a team capability.
- Unlike infrastructure-heavy maturity indices, HACR centres team dynamics and operational agility, giving chief marketing officers a diagnostic lens and researchers a scalable blueprint for human-AI synergy.
Publication Details
Publisher
Market Research Society of India (MRSI)Author
Asif, S., & Lalwani, S.
Year
2025
Type
Conference
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