AI Productization and Go-To-Market
CEI could deliver AI work but had nothing a client could actually buy. Marketing built the offering and took it to market across brand, web, and content. It generated more than $1MM in AI project pipeline.
- Company
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- Role
- Led the productization and go-to-market for CEI’s new AI practice as VP of Marketing, from branding through demand generation.
- Timeframe
- 2023 to 2024
- Scope
- Offering definition, naming and brand, messaging, web, content, and campaigns
$1MM+
AI project pipeline generated from marketing activities and campaigns.
73
AI keywords newly ranking on Google for the CEI site.
18
Of those AI keywords ranking on Google Page 1.
10
Of those AI keywords ranking in position 1 on Google.
The situation
The capability existed, but the offering to buyers did not.
CEI shifted its global go-to-market in 2023 to prioritize AI-led offerings. Delivery was ready for the shift. CEI had the engineers, the enterprise platform experience, and the client relationships to put production AI systems in place.
The GTM was not ready. There was no name for the practice, no description of what an engagement included, no answer to how long it took or what a client had to commit, and no page on the website for a prospect researching AI to visit. Every competitor in IT services added the word AI to their homepage that same year. CEI had the capability, but no way to show it.
Productization was the missing piece. CEI’s AI delivery capability needed a name, a shape, a first step, and a story before it could be launched as part of any campaign.
The work
How CEI turned a tech capability into a practice you could buy.
We implemented 4 steps, done in sequence. Branding came first, then messaging, then the website, then the content program, and each stage depended on the one before it.
Create the offering and the brand behind it
Marketing built the AI Innovation Practice the way you build a product. It was given a name, an identity, a positioning statement, and the sales and marketing materials to empower a distributed team to sell it consistently.
The name landed on CEI Clairvoyance, signaling foresight and pattern recognition. The identity keeps the CEI mark locked to the new name, which gave the practice CEI’s existing credibility from day one, without building a second brand. The letters A and I are highlighted inside the wordmark.
Answer the questions AI buyers are asking
Interest in AI was high, but at this time buying confidence remained low. Prospects wanted to know what CEI’s AI offering was, how it worked, how long it took, and how they could engage without signing up for a full transformation program.
The offering went to market as a staged path with real durations attached. A short workshop to find the use cases, a fixed engagement to prove value on one of them, then ongoing adoption. A buyer could see where they would start and what that first step cost them in time.
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Step 12 days
AI Innovation Workshop Build an understanding of how AI tools can be incorporated, and identify specific use cases for the organization. -
Step 26 to 8 weeks
Proof of Value Engagement Implement one use case into production, measure the results, and determine the ROI impact. -
Step 3Steady state
CEI Clairvoyance Incrementally adopt AI tools, models, and automation, maturing toward fully AI-powered operations.
The engagement path as published. Two days to a decision, six to eight weeks to a measured result.
Rebuild the website around the new practice
Website creative, copy, and pages were rebuilt so AI read as one of CEI’s core service areas, not a capability buried in a services list. The homepage gave the AI practice significant real estate above the fold, and “AI Innovation” became a top-level navigation item.
Seven new pages went live underneath it, one for each AI use case and application. Clairvoyance Foundation, Enterprise Assistants, AI Knowledge Management, AI Managed Services, GitHub Copilot, Clairvoyance Automation, and Clairvoyance Data Analytics. A prospect searching for a specific problem found a page about that problem, and the content and campaign programs had somewhere to send traffic that converted.
Publish enough to be credible in search and in the room
A content marketing plan put 25 articles into market over four months, aimed at three outcomes. Establish CEI as an AI thought leader, show business leaders where AI could be applied to specific functions and tasks, and rank the site for AI keywords it had never competed for in the past.
Articles covered AI in the workplace, AI-powered managed services, coding assistance, cybersecurity, computer vision, and the generative versus predictive AI question that came up in nearly every early client conversation. That volume moved 73 AI keywords onto Google, and the seven use case pages are what those articles pushed prospects toward.
The results
A practice that did not previously exist suddenly carried seven figures of pipeline.
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$1MM+
AI project pipeline generated as a direct result of marketing activities and campaigns.
-
73
AI keywords newly ranking on Google for the CEI site.
-
18
Of those AI keywords ranking on Google Page 1.
-
10
Of those AI keywords ranking in position 1 on Google.
Recruiting got easier alongside the pipeline. Engineers evaluating CEI as an employer could see the AI practice, read the work, and understand what they would be building. That mattered in a year when every services firm claimed the same capability and few could show it. CEI Clairvoyance is still the AI practice CEI takes to market today.
What ran alongside it
The AI keywords were one pillar of a larger search program.
The 73 AI keywords landed inside a broader SEO and content engine running across all five of CEI’s service pillars over the same period. That program took the site from 463 to 810 ranking keywords and grew organic sessions 47 percent year over year.
It is written up separately in SEO and Content Marketing Growth, which covers the ICP-led content model and the technical work underneath it.