Introduction
In 2023, companies asked, "How do we get access to AI?" In 2025, the question has become, "How do we control all this AI?"
Marketing teams are currently suffering from Shadow AI. The copywriter is using Jasper. The designer is using Midjourney on their personal Discord. The sales team is pasting customer data into ChatGPT. None of these tools talk to each other, subscriptions are duplicated, and proprietary data is leaking everywhere.
Enter the most critical new role of the year: the AI Operations Manager (AI Ops). This is not a technical engineering role; it is a strategic operational role. Just as we have "RevOps" for sales and "DevOps" for engineering, "AI Ops" is the glue that holds the modern automated enterprise together.
What Does an AI Ops Manager Do?
The AI Ops Manager sits at the intersection of Marketing, IT, and Legal. Their mandate is simple: Maximize AI leverage while minimizing risk.
Core Responsibilities:
Tool Governance & Procurement: Instead of every employee buying their own $20/month tool, the AI Ops manager audits the stack. "Do we need Copy.ai and Jasper? Or can we consolidate on the ChatGPT Team?"
Prompt Engineering Libraries: They maintain the company's "Prompt Library," a central repo of vetted, high-performing prompts for recurring tasks (e.g., "The Q3 Report Generator Prompt").
Data Security (The Kill Switch): They ensure that "Data Training" is turned off for all enterprise accounts. They monitor usage logs to ensure no one is pasting PII (Personally Identifiable Information) into public models.
Workflow Orchestration: They are the architect of the "No-Code" systems. They build the Zapier Central agents that route leads from the website to the CRM.
The "Pi-Shaped" Marketer
Hiring for this role is difficult because it requires a new type of talent. We call them Pi-Shaped Marketers.
Leg 1 (Deep Skill): They understand traditional marketing strategy (funnels, brand voice, KPIs).
Leg 2 (Deep Skill): They understand systems thinking (APIs, webhooks, data structure).
The Bar (Broad Skill): They have a high-level understanding of the AI landscape (LLMs, Diffusers, RAG).
Salary Benchmarks (2025): In major hubs like NYC and SF, competent AI Ops Managers are commanding $160k - $220k base salaries, reflecting the high ROI they deliver by automating headcount.
The Risks of Not Having AI Ops
Companies that ignore this function face three risks:
The "Franken-Stack": A bloated software budget with 50 disconnected tools that don't integrate.
Model Drift: Automated content that slowly becomes robotic and generic because no one is updating the system prompts or style guides.
The Data Breach: An intern uploaded the entire customer database to a free PDF summarizer tool, exposing the data to the public web.
Sample Job Description Snippet (For Hiring)
Role: Lead, AI Operations
Mission: Build the automated infrastructure that allows our 10-person team to output like a 100-person team.
Day-to-Day:
- Audit and consolidate our AI tool subscriptions.
- Build and maintain 3 core autonomous agents (Customer Support, Lead Scoring, Social Scheduling).
- Train the wider team on proper Prompt Engineering techniques.
- Own the "AI Ethics & Safety" guidelines for the brand.
Conclusion
AI is not a tool you just "buy"; it is a capability you must manage. The companies that win in 2025 won't just have the best AI models; they will have the best AI processes. The AI Operations Manager is the architect of those processes.
Recommendation: If you can't hire a full-time AI Ops manager yet, appoint an internal "AI Council" of 3 people from different departments to meet bi-weekly and govern your strategy.