Piloting AI Adoption Through Marketing at aes renewables

How a marketing-led pilot gave an established renewables business the governance, tools and confidence to adopt AI on its own terms.

Industry: Manufacturing and Engineering; Renewable Energy Systems

Services Provided: AI Adoption and Training Programme

Key Highlights:

The marketing team’s AI capability rose from 5.2 to 8.9 out of 10
Around 15.5 hours a week saved across the marketing team
40% of the workforce trained on the new AI policy and Microsoft Copilot
All programme participants rated the support 5 out of 5

The Challenge

aes renewables is an established renewable energy business in Moray and Ross-shire and came to Ethical Sales part-way through a rebrand and website relaunch. With a growing team, its Marketing Director could see AI reshaping how the function would work, but wanted to adopt it carefully: building capability in-house, reducing reliance on external agencies, and keeping company data safe.

An initial readiness assessment set the direction. Marketing would receive targeted support to build the skills and systems it needed, while the right governance was put in place so the wider organisation could adopt AI safely when the time came.

The Solution

Ethical Sales delivered a phased AI Adoption and Training programme from February to July 2026, with marketing as the pilot function. Governance came first, followed by internal systems and organisational capability. Core deliverables included:

Governance: an AI Use Policy developed and refined through real use, with named ownership across Continuous Improvement, Marketing and HR, and an approved position around Microsoft Copilot. An AI amnesty surfaced hidden tool use and began moving it into a governed environment.
Workforce training: around 30 employees, roughly 40% of the workforce, were introduced to the policy and to Copilot across two hybrid sessions, online and onsite.
Marketing capability: hands-on skills in structured prompting, grounding outputs in real documents, deep research, agent-building and workflow mapping, reinforced with bite-sized learning and workbooks between sessions.
Practical tools: four working AI assistants, built inside the approved Microsoft environment, for LinkedIn content, website copy, market monitoring and meeting notes.
Evidence and intelligence: the team’s own market research, a 13-competitor analysis, an SEO assessment that shaped the new website, and a reporting framework ready to measure impact from launch.

Weekly on-site check-ins kept the work tied to live tasks, and decisions stayed with aes renewables throughout.

The Results

Six months on, aes renewables had moved from informal experimentation to a structured, responsible approach it owns.

The marketing team’s capability index rose from 5.2 to 8.9 out of 10, and the team now uses AI confidently every day. Between them, they reported saving around 15.5 hours a week, roughly 95 working days a year, freeing time for review, decision-making and work that had previously been squeezed out. Every participant rated the programme support 5 out of 5.

“The support has been excellent… It made the support feel tailored to our business rather than following a standard training programme. It’s helped speed up content development and output, but it’s also enabled me to make operational improvements that I simply wouldn’t have had time to prioritise otherwise.” Marketing Director, aes renewables

“AI has driven the most productivity in building individual customer journeys for the new website chatbot.” Marketing Manager, aes renewables

Just as valuable, the pilot gave the organisation a clear, evidenced picture of where it is, and isn’t, ready to extend AI next.

Looking Ahead

With marketing having proved the model, the next step is a controlled organisational capability phase, extending the same structured approach to leaders and other functions. The pilot showed that real adoption comes from capability-building connected to everyday work, not from tools alone. That is the foundation aes renewables now builds on, with clarity, control and confidence.

Ready to build practical AI capability in your team, starting with a controlled pilot in one business function? Book a consultation call.

The support has been excellent.. it felt tailored to our business rather than following a standard training programme. It's helped speed up content development and output, but it's also enabled me to make operational improvements that I simply wouldn't have had time to prioritise otherwise.

Marketing Director, aes renewables