---
id: "action-deploy-virtual-scientists"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ Testing AI as a Growth Engine"]
tags: ["marketing-tactics", "ai-agents"]
related: ["concept-virtual-scientists", "claim-virtual-scientist-lift", "action-reallocate-inorganic-budget", "question-competitive-compression"]
action: "Use AI to autonomously generate and simulate ad variations before spending field marketing budgets."
outcome: "A 3x+ lift in direct marketing performance and an increase in organic growth contribution."
speakers: ["Shlomo Benartzi", "Randall Long", "Stefano Puntoni"]
sources: ["spine"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-spine"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-tier1-04-ai-for-growth"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/companies-are-using-ai-for-efficiency-they-should-use-it-to-grow"
sourceTitle: "Companies Are Using AI for Efficiency. They Should Use It to Grow."
---
# Deploy Virtual Scientists for Direct Marketing

**Do:** Use AI systems to generate dozens of alternative advertising concepts (e.g., LinkedIn ads) and **simulate target-audience responses** to predict performance; deploy only the winning concepts in the field.

**Why:** Operationalizes [[concept-virtual-scientists]]; backed by [[claim-virtual-scientist-lift]] (predicted 2.7×–3.5×, realized 3.2× CTR lift).

**Outcome:** A 3×+ lift in direct-marketing performance and a higher organic-growth contribution — feeding [[action-reallocate-inorganic-budget]]. **Caveat:** the edge compresses as competitors imitate ([[question-competitive-compression]]).