Marketing and technology have never been so tightly intertwined. As brands focus on differentiating their total experience, paradoxically, effective collaboration between CMOs’ and CIOs’ teams are more the exception than the rule. With AI increasingly at the heart of customer interactions, relying on external marketing technology vendors and investing in shadow generative AI (genAI) tools might help speed up innovation — but it’s not enough to securely deploy AI at scale. This report shares guidelines and best practices on how business and technology teams can better collaborate to align marketing and technology teams’ strategy, planning, and execution.