Despite the growing adoption of GenAI in marketing, 27% of CMOs report that their organisations have limited or no technology integration into their campaigns. While some companies are leveraging AI at an accelerated pace, others remain hesitant, according to a recent Gartner survey.
“Many believe GenAI will transform marketing, but despite the hype, many CMOs feel that their GenAI investments have yet to pay off,” said Suzanne Schwartz, senior director analyst in the Gartner Marketing Practice.
Among those who have embraced GenAI, creative development is the most common use case, with 77% utilising it for tasks like content generation and design. This number increases to 84% among high-performing organizations—companies that outperform their peers in profit growth and meet or exceed customer acquisition, retention, and revenue expansion objectives. GenAI is also making inroads in strategy development, with 48% of adopters using it in this capacity, rising to 52% among top-performing firms.
Beyond creative work, GenAI has also proven valuable in campaign evaluation and reporting. As many as 47% of marketers report seeing many benefits from AI-driven insights in measuring performance and optimising future campaigns. However, despite these advantages, concerns over return on investment and execution challenges persist, particularly among organisations that have yet to integrate the technology entirely.
Struggling with campaign execution
CMOs struggle with campaign execution, even as marketing accounts for a substantial portion of budgets—44.5% of total marketing spend goes toward campaigns and media plans. Alarmingly, 87% of CMOs reported experiencing campaign performance issues in the past year, with 45% stating that they sometimes, often, or always had to terminate campaigns due to underperformance prematurely.
While some CMOs are highly self-critical, they also identify internal roadblocks that hinder marketing success. Finance departments are seen as the biggest obstacle, with 31% of marketing leaders citing financial constraints as the primary impediment to executing effective campaigns.
Executive leadership and sales teams are also key challenges, with 26% of CMOs pointing to each as a source of friction in achieving marketing goals.