Half Of CMOs Cite Gen AI Adoption As Top Five Priority Over Next Year: Survey
Chief marketing officers are navigating a tough environment: intense competition, pressure to “do more with less” and scrutiny from boards, Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers around marketing’s overall contribution to performance. In the face of this pressure, many CMOs view generative artificial intelligence as a tool to improve efficiencies and unlock growth, according to a survey by Boston Consulting Group.
Half of CMOs cited the adoption of AI or gen AI as one of their top five priorities over the next year, according to the survey. Around 80% of CMOs surveyed said that gen AI is already improving automation, speed and productivity. Additionally, three out of five respondents plan to invest at least $10 million annually in AI and gen AI initiatives over the next three years.
The report also indicated that CMOs are optimistic and confident about gen AI. When asked to select words that best describe their feelings about the technology, CMOs chose optimism (78%), confidence (75%) and curiosity (65%). However, some CMOs are turning away from the technology: 18% counted themselves among the “rejectors”—an increase of 6% over BCG’s 2023 survey.
How brands manage social media channels is likely to change with gen AI. Half of CMOs are deploying gen AI tools for content creation, especially draft copy and images that marketers refine for social media ads. CMOs also admitted to using AI tools to enrich their social media listening, leveraging the technology to provide feedback and data insights.
However, there are concerns about content quality of gen AI. Over 70% of CMOs surveyed were concerned about gen AI’s impact on creativity and brand voice. Hence, roughly half of CMOs said they are hiring talent with gen AI-specific skills, with the hope of maintaining the focus on creativity and emotional connection as they move towards tools that do a better job of incorporating brand voice.
Success in personalisation driven by gen AI has also proved difficult to achieve. In BCG’s 2023 survey, personalisation was among the most common experimental use cases, with 67% of CMOs pursuing efforts in this area. Over the past year, CMOs have learned that personalisation is one of the hardest use cases to deploy quickly at scale, but in the long term, it is likely to be among the most rewarding.
“Most CMOs have captured the low-hanging fruit of gen AI applications, but real growth will come from focusing on areas such as personalisation, customer insight generation and predictive analytics,” said Mark Abraham, BCG managing director and global leader of personalisation business. “The work is difficult and time-consuming, but those who master the shift from automation to innovation of the customer experience will achieve the greatest benefits from gen AI,” he added.
