How The Best Marketers Think Differently About AI, And Why It Matters

Are you feeling the pressure to start using AI in your marketing work? You’re not alone. Every marketer feels the same sense of urgency that they must catch up before it’s too late. But they don’t yet know where to start. Many believe “others get it,” and yes, some do. But most are still figuring it out.

One in five marketers is leading in AI: connecting workflows, integrating AI-assisted decisions, and embedding personalisation at scale. If you’re reading this, you’re in the majority who are still learning. 

The good news: the path to leadership is about mindset as much as it is technology.

In recent interviews with marketing leaders across Europe (supported by 3,000 hours of analysis and 2,500 pages of transcripts), here are three distinct AI adoption mindsets. Let’s explore how to move beyond fear and into advantage.

The Three Mindsets of AI Adoption

1. Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)

Marketers operating from FOMO sense the buzz and urgency around AI and feel they must act now. They see phrases like “imperative”, “vital”, “we’ll be left behind” in internal documents.

They push to adopt AI quickly, but often without a clear strategy or understanding of what they’re solving.

• Common Language: “must”, “act now”, “left behind”, and “imperative”.
• The Result: High-tempo activity, but often less scalable outcomes.
• What Happens: This mindset creates motion but not necessarily momentum.

2. Fear of Messing Up (FOMU)

At the other end of the spectrum is FOMU: the fear of misstepping. Marketers here see risk everywhere.

• Common Language: “risk”, “oversight”, “safeguard”, “mistake”, and “ethical”.
• The Outcome: Cautious pilots, many evaluations, few broad roll-outs. Decisions get delayed; the novelty of AI remains in limbo.
• What Happens: Literally stuck in a tug-of-war between FOMO and FOMU, rushing ahead, then retreating, and stuck in oscillation.

3. Focus on Maximising Advantages (FOMA)

This is the winning mindset of the leaders. Notice the shift: there is no fear in the acronym. Instead, it’s about advantage, not avoidance.

• Common Language: “augment”, “collaborate”, “empower”, “transform”, “vision”, and “opportunity”.
• The Result: AI is not a threat or checkbox, but a strategic partner to extend capabilities, open new value-frontiers, and outpace competitors.
• What Happens: They act, yes, and they act with purpose.

Why FOMA Matters More Than Technology

Mindset Shapes Behaviour

How we talk about things often predicts how we act. The internal vocabulary of teams, what they write in emails, meeting agendas, and pitch decks, reveals their mindset. That language correlates with whether AI initiatives stall or scale.

Adoption ≠ Leadership

Many organisations adopt AI tools but few embed them. Surveys show that while 88 % of marketers say they use AI daily, only a much smaller proportion are using it strategically and at scale. 

Competitive Edge

Organisations that lead in AI adoption, especially those using it strategically rather than reactively, report significantly higher returns. While the exact number varies, AI-enabled personalisation, automation, and decision support have demonstrated meaningful gains. 

Risk of Inertia

If you default into FOMO or FOMU, the risk is either wasted investment (chasing tools without a strategy) or paralysis (never scaling pilots). In both cases, you fall behind competitors who adopt FOMA.

The Pillars of a Winning AI Mindset

Here are actionable pillars you can apply in your team or organisation:

1. Partner with AI: Extend your capabilities

• Ask: Which tasks or goals have we struggled to achieve?
• Identify: Where could AI meaningfully assist, not just automate?
• Consider: What are our strengths right now, and how could they be multiplied with AI?

2. Learn by doing: Experimentation over perfection

• Create sandbox spaces for testing AI tools, free from the immediate pressure of delivery.
• Set aside dedicated time for teams to explore and document what works and what doesn’t.
• Share learnings broadly across the organisation. Transparency accelerates confidence.

3. Embrace uncertainty: Make room for failure

• Build a culture where trying and failing is acceptable—provided it’s followed by learning.
• Enable cross-functional teams (marketing, analytics, IT, legal) to make decisions on scaling pilots quickly.
• Define clear criteria for when to double down (scale) and when to pivot.

4. Proactively add business value: Align with strategic goals

• Integrate AI discussions into your annual planning, not just IT/operations phases.
• Frame AI not as a technology project, but as a means to unlock key business challenges: customer acquisition, personalization, efficiency, growth.
• Define metrics beyond “we used AI”. Instead: “AI enabled X% reduction in time to market”, “AI improved personalization click-through by Y%”.

5. Reimagine, don’t just optimise

• Ask: What is our unique competitive advantage and how might we solve for it with AI from a blank slate?
• Avoid simply automating current workflows; consider how AI could reshape them, open new business models, or create entirely new customer experiences.
• Keep the customer at the centre: How would they experience our brand if AI were embedded end-to-end?

Overcoming the Pitfalls of FOMO and FOMU

Pitfalls of FOMO

• Jumping into tools without clarity: Because “everyone else is doing it”.
• Over-investing in hype technologies, under-investing in strategy and integration.
• Result: Many small pilots, few scaled wins.

Pitfalls of FOMU

• Excessive caution: Holding back until “everything is perfect”.
• Endlessly analysing risks but never deciding, which leads to stagnation.
• Result: Lost time, missed opportunities, creeping competitive disadvantage.

How to move beyond them

• Establish a clear “why” and “where”: Why are we investing in AI? Where can we use it to advance?
• Establish guardrails (governance, ethics, metrics) so you’re not reckless but move at a pace that avoids stagnation.
• Create quick wins to build momentum, then expand those into strategic initiatives.
• Communicate internally using FOMA language: “augment”, “collaborate”, “vision”, “transformation” rather than “we must act now or be left behind”.

Evidence from the Market

Some key statistics that underline the urgency and opportunity:

• Around 88% of marketers say they use AI in their day-to-day roles in 2025. 
• Another source indicates that 73% of marketing teams now use generative AI, and top-performers adopt faster than others. 
• In 2025, the global AI-in-marketing market is projected to reach USD 47.32 billion, with a CAGR of ~36.6%. 
• Yet while adoption is high, only a smaller share of organisations report full integration or scaled use. 

These numbers show: it’s no longer about whether to adopt AI, it’s about how well you adopt it. And mindset plays a crucial role in that “how well”.

Putting This Into Action in Your Context

• Even though global adoption is accelerating, local markets may have additional challenges: infrastructure, talent availability, data maturity. Use local pilot programmes to learn.
• Focus on what’s uniquely valuable in your region/segment. For instance: large regional audiences, multilingual content, regional personalisation.
• Build internal champions: Marketing + analytics + tech need to collaborate, and culture is key. Use FOMA language to shift internal tone.
• Use measurable steps: e.g., choose 2-3 “stretch” goals where AI might help (personalised campaigns, dynamic creative optimisation, lifecycle automation). Run pilot, evaluate, scale.
• Governance & ethics matter: As AI becomes more powerful, risks of bias, privacy, and inappropriate use increase.
• Celebrate early wins and share stories to shift culture. When people see that AI helps them do better work (not replace them), mindsets begin to shift.

Conclusion

The winning marketers of tomorrow won’t just adopt AI tools; they’ll adopt the FOMA mindset: thinking proactively about how to maximise advantages, framing AI as a partner and strategic lever, and moving forward with both speed and sense.

If you’re feeling uncertain, know this: you’re not behind, you’re at the starting line. The difference will be made by how you think, how you act, and how you align language, culture and strategy around AI. Move from fear to advantage and you’ll position yourself not just to catch up, but to lead.

Need a fresh perspective? Let’s talk.

At 360 OM, we specialise in helping businesses take their marketing efforts to the next level. Our team stays on top of industry trends, uses data-informed decisions to maximise your ROI, and provides full transparency through comprehensive reports.