Many CMOs are under growing pressure to deliver the efficiency and effectiveness promised by AI, but lack clarity on where to start, how to make the right choices, and how to train their teams to keep pace with change.
To address these challenges, BRX Group recently announced the launch of CM.OSX.
CM.OSX stands for Critical Marketing Operating Systems. It is designed to help CMOs, Marketing teams and In-House Agency functions make the right choices when it comes to the accelerated change brought on by AI.
Newly appointed founding managing partner Alison McKinnon is a proven strategic marketing and transformation leader, with more than two decades of experience helping enterprise organisations grow, evolve and build meaningful customer connections.
McKinnon spent almost 10 years at The Brand Agency across Melbourne and Perth as head of strategy and client services director, working with clients including Bunnings, Rio Tinto and Wesfarmers.
Most recently, as general manager of independent agency Town Square, she led strategy, people and business transformation across Australia and the Middle East, with clients including Destination Qatar, Hilton Hotels and the Northern Territory Government. She has also held senior roles at CHE, FCB and George Patterson.
In the exclusive interview, McKinnon speaks with B&T on what it takes to drive AI transformation for CMOs, agencies and in-house teams.
B&T: There are plenty of AI consultants in the market right now, what makes CM.OSX materially different from the wave of “AI transformation” offerings flooding the category?
Alison McKinnon: The market is full of AI and transformation advice right now. What’s missing is applied experience and proven outcomes.
CM.OSX was born out of BRX and the expertise of a team already operating AI-enabled marketing models at scale for enterprise businesses, having helped clients including AGL, Optus, Australia Post and HostPlus on their AI journeys.
And in response to the number one thing being asked of BRX when talking to marketers – where do I start?
We started this business to help CMOs make the right decisions upfront – what to automate, what to keep human, and where to invest, so they don’t end up with fragmented tools and underutilised platforms.
That means decisions get made faster, complexity is reduced early, and we avoid the accumulation of technology debt that a lot of organisations are already starting to feel. It’s not transformation theatre, it’s about building a system that actually works.
CM.OSX services include:
- Marketing and In-House Agency operating models and AI and automation adaption roadmaps.
- Capability development programs to enable confident adoption of AI and automation with sound governance for Marketers and In-house Agencies
- How to select the right automation tools, or steps to maximise the capabilities in existing tools.
- Industrialised campaign production to increase speed, consistency and output across channels, and how to drive efficiency dividends.
- Optimisation programs to drive continuous performance improvement and accelerate growth.
B&T: The phrase “Critical Marketing Operating Systems” is intriguing. What does that actually look like in practice for a CMO on Monday morning?
AM: On Monday morning, it looks like clarity.
A CMO knows which parts of their marketing are automated, which are human-led, and how work flows across teams and platforms.
There’s less duplication, fewer handovers, and visibility on performance. No ambiguity around roles, tools and for a CMO, that means less time managing complexity, and more time focused on growth.
It’s not another layer of strategy, it’s having an operating system that connects decisions to execution with everything measurable and scalable. And it’s having the all important answer for the CEO or the board on how AI and automation are tangibly driving impact in marketing.
B&T: How do you help organisations choose between adding new tools versus unlocking better value from the martech and automation stack they already have?
AM: The default response is that tools will solve the problem. In most cases, that’s not the answer.
We find most organisations don’t have a technology problem, they have a decision-making problem.
Our first step is understanding what’s already in place and where it’s underutilised. Most organisations are only unlocking a fraction of the value from their existing stack. Often the opportunity is in better orchestration, not more technology.
Where new tools are required, they’re introduced with a clear role in the system, so they enhance productivity rather than add complexity. The goal is always to simplify, not expand. We take a “value before volume” approach.
B&T: What does success look like six months after a client engages CM.OSX?
AM: Clients see success in three areas: speed, clarity and output.
Campaigns are moving faster, teams have a clearer understanding of how work gets done, and there’s a measurable lift in productivity without a corresponding increase in cost.
Importantly, there’s also confidence. The organisation feels in control of how AI is being applied. And team members feel confident in the roles they play, and their developing future skills. It’s not just transformation on paper, it’s visible in how the team operates every day.
B&T: Which parts of campaign production do you believe should now be fully automated—and which should stay human-led?
AM: Anything repetitive, rules-based, or high-volume should now be automated. This includes asset versioning, trafficking, optimisation loops, and a lot of production workflows.
Where humans remain critical is in judgment: strategy, creative direction, brand, and understanding nuance in customer behaviour. Automation should handle scale. Humans should handle meaning.
B&T: How should CMOs think about “efficiency dividends” without eroding creativity or customer connection?
AM: Efficiency shouldn’t come at the expense of creativity but rather it should create more space for it. If you automate the wrong parts of the process, you flatten creativity. If you automate the right parts, you amplify it.
When you remove manual effort and production bottlenecks, teams can spend more time on ideas, experimentation and refinement. Efficiency should free up humans to focus where they add the most value, understanding the customer, their context, and the nuances that drive meaningful connection. The part of the job we actually all love most.
The key is being deliberate about where you protect human input.
B&T: What skills do you think will define the highest-performing marketers over the next two years?
AM: The highest-performing marketers will focus on three things: commercial thinking, systems thinking, and AI fluency for them and their teams.
They won’t just execute campaigns, they’ll understand how marketing operates as a system, and how to use AI to improve it. The role is becoming more strategic, not less.
B&T: What are marketers most afraid of when it comes to AI-led transformation?
AM: It’s not the technology itself, it’s what it means for the marketing role and the associated teams. There’s uncertainty around what skills still matter, and how roles will evolve. That’s where a lot of hesitation comes from. People are trying to understand where they fit in a more automated system, and whether their experience still holds value.
Secondly is the material risk of getting it wrong. Because the consequences compound quickly.
If AI is layered onto an already complex marketing ecosystem, you don’t simplify, you accelerate the problem. You create more technology debt, more fragmented workflows, and less visibility on what’s driving performance.
There’s also the amplification effect. If your inputs, processes or governance aren’t right, AI doesn’t fix that, it scales it.
So the hesitation is understandable and in some ways healthy.
But the opportunity is in approaching this with structure: being clear on where AI creates value, how it’s governed, and how it fits into the broader operating model and how the team works within that model.
B&T: How do leaders build confidence and trust in AI inside teams that may feel threatened by automation?
AM: Trust comes from transparency and application. Leaders need to show how AI is being used, where it adds value, and where human oversight remains critical. It’s not about replacing people—it’s about redefining how they contribute. Quick, practical wins help teams see the benefit without feeling displaced.
Ultimately it is important to remember: change is hard, but not changing is harder. AI won’t fix a broken marketing model, it will scale it. Redesign how you operate before you accelerate.
B&T: What’s the leadership challenge you’re personally most excited to solve in this new role?
Helping CMOs cut through complexity and build teams that are confident navigating change.
There’s a significant opportunity to reset how marketing operates—bringing clarity, improving effectiveness, and reinforcing its role as a core driver of business growth, not an expense.
I’m also excited to build a team at CM.OSX that embraces this shift. CM.OSX exists to help make that shift practical and achievable. We work in an amazing industry that is evolving rapidly, and I want to help shape that evolution, not resist it.
