CMOs' ability to harness the full potential of AI is the most effective way to navigate increasing demands and seize new opportunities
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an essential tool for marketers over the past decade. However, this adoption accelerated sharply with the arrival of generative AI, demonstrating how quickly and deeply AI can integrate into business operations.
In the last two years, CMOs have focused on embedding as many AI-driven use cases as possible into core marketing activities, from content creation and campaign management to personalization. Recent research shows that marketing leaders now use AI in nearly 60% of these activities. Furthermore, slightly more than half of UK marketers report using AI to develop Black Friday marketing strategies and set promotional prices, according to digital experience platform provider Optimizely.
By 2025, AI will likely follow the typical pattern of emerging technologies: After an initial surge in adoption, marketers will more critically assess its effectiveness. This evaluation is especially relevant for CMOs who continue to struggle with declining use of their MarTech tools. Adding to this challenge, CEOs are pressuring CMOs to make more substantial contributions to revenue, while CFOs demand greater spending efficiency.
This next phase of the AI evolution in marketing promises to be more challenging than the first but also more rewarding. With their pioneering work in generative AI, CMOs are well positioned to ensure that AI creates business value — and not just hype. If successful, CMOs can elevate their role and stature within their organizations and fulfill AI’s bold promises to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, and customer experience.
However, success is far from guaranteed. CMOs have leveraged AI across critical areas, such as campaign planning and execution, managing advertising budgets, and extracting insights from post-campaign data. Yet, outcomes have been inconsistent. Nearly half of AI deployments are not yielding business value, according to Infosys research. Most CMOs lack a coordinated approach to AI that would maximize business value, though a significant portion understand some of the factors that contribute to successful AI initiatives.
Companies across industries and executives in various roles are assessing their AI readiness. And study after study suggests that most are still unprepared. For many organizations, the primary barrier is data — the lifeblood of AI and a growing factor in CMO decision-making. Although data is essential and forms a strong foundation, it’s only one of several challenges that CMOs must address.
Fortunately, the path to AI success aligns well with the strategic direction CMOs are already pursuing — one that extends beyond branding and creativity. CMOs are increasingly influential in C-suite decisions, shaping critical areas like technology investments, market entry, and new business model creation. Those CMOs who succeed with AI are the ones who see it as an integral part of their business and marketing strategy, not just another technology layer.
To become AI-fluent leaders, CMOs must effectively orchestrate and harmonize AI adoption and usage. The following critical steps can increase the likelihood that AI deployments generate real business value.
Embed AI into business processes: CMOs should restructure long-standing business processes to fully utilize AI’s benefits, such as cost savings and faster speed to market. These processes must be adaptable to accommodate the continuous development of new AI tools and capabilities. Additionally, establishing robust governance and KPIs is essential to keep AI initiatives aligned with business objectives and on track for success.
Align AI, marketing, and business strategies: To drive sustainable growth, CMOs need a dynamic AI strategy that seamlessly integrates with broader business objectives. This alignment enables marketing leaders to prioritize AI use cases based on their value, feasibility, and associated risks, ensuring that AI investments support the organization’s long-term goals.
Prioritize risk management in AI adoption: Embedding risk management into AI implementation significantly increases the likelihood of success for marketing AI initiatives. Effective risk mitigation is essential to build confidence among stakeholders and regulators — an especially critical factor in the UK. Here, government plans to use AI to reform public services and the economy have heightened scrutiny on the trustworthiness of AI systems.
Ensure MarTech scalability: To realize their AI ambitions, CMOs need a MarTech stack that is scalable, adaptable, and optimized to support evolving AI use cases, such as real-time customer data platforms, marketing automation, and advanced analytics. Just as with business processes and strategies, the technology must be flexible enough to integrate future AI capabilities, ensuring that the organization can keep pace with the next generation of AI innovations.
The responsibilities of the modern CMO extend beyond traditional roles such as creative visionary, digital marketing expert, brand storyteller, and customer advocate. Today’s CMOs must fulfill all these roles while also contributing to broader business and technology strategies. Their ability to harness the full potential of AI is the most effective way to navigate these increasing demands and seize new opportunities.
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