S-Group automates annual marketing planning with AI

S-Group's marketing team has automated part of their annual marketing planning process with AI, reducing manual work and streamlining planning workflow.

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Identifying the opportunity

Creating annual marketing plans is a significant undertaking, as S-Group operates on both national and regional levels. Susanna Gustavson, Head of Marketing Strategies, recognized an opportunity in automating these manual processes.

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The planning process and its outcomes are standardized. It begins with analysing the business objectives and competitive situation, and reviewing previous year's learnings. Then defining marketing objectives and selecting marketing concepts from the portfolio. Justifying every choice with business rationale.

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"We have a solid process and strong concept portfolio, but creating the plans is still manual work," Gustavson explains.

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The opportunity was clear: speed up execution without sacrificing quality.

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Building intelligence into Microsoft tools

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OstraconAI developed a Copilot Studio agent that lives directly within S-Group's existing Microsoft environment. The solution connects to their SharePoint-hosted concept portfolio and works with meeting summaries to generate strategic recommendations.

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The AI agent follows S-Group's established planning methodology. The system adheres to strict guidelines: use only existing concepts, keep brand portfolios separate, ask for clarification when information is unclear. Teams can access the AI agent directly through Teams without separate logins.

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AI amplifies the strategic thinking

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With several brands and plans, marketing strategists can now focus on strategy instead of document production. "In the future, AI helps us not only being faster – but also more consistent," Gustavson explains. "Every recommendation links explicitly to business objectives. No concept gets chosen without clear justification."

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The solution demonstrates that enterprise AI doesn't require abandoning existing tools. Everything runs within Microsoft's ecosystem, maintaining security and integration standards.

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"This project showed us AI's true potential isn't replacing our expertise - it's amplifying our strategic thinking while eliminating repetitive work," Gustavson concludes.

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