Chief marketing officers are clear, confident, and intentional in where Generative AI integration and application will deliver the best results in marketing process improvement and execution in 2024, reveals new CMO Council research. Over 40 percent of those surveyed are looking to AI to boost content origination and minimize mistakes, inaccuracies, flubs, gaffes, snafus, and errors in marketing communication images, video, and text. They also seek more predictive outcomes from creative investments and higher levels of automation, productivity, and efficiency in internal and agency teams—all translating into improved output and inspiration from a lower headcount.
The Council’s new CMO Intentions 2024: Fueling Martech Innovation Through AI study, in partnership with AI-powered marketing cloud Zeta Global, focuses on three key Gen AI drivers to improve marketing productivity, effectiveness, and innovation—and also reveals that 60 percent of marketers see marketing as providing the most value and ROI in 2024.
Survey respondents report they will heavily target content creation for more invention, impact, and personal resonance when deploying AI applications in marketing
They expect AI-driven execution will help brands be both adept and adaptive in connecting and engaging more individually across cultures, borders, boundaries, shoppergraphics, psychographics, and the requirements of localized marketing partners and channels.
“Marketing technology procurement intentions have made a massive swing to embracing new Gen AI tools, applications, and analytics,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, in a news release.
Customer data is seen by nearly 46 percent of marketing leaders as the essential lubricant to recognize, personalize, humanize, prioritize, and vitalize engagement with the most valued buyers and loyal shoppers. Better knowledge and understanding of customer journeys—along with improved process, productivity, and workflow are high on the priority list for marketing technology investment in 2024.
“This study reinforces that we are in the early stages of a Replacement Cycle. Generative AI is the catalyst for sophisticated CMOs to recognize that there are superior technologies and tools to deliver better experiences for consumers and better results for their brands,” said Steven Gerber, president and COO of Zeta Global, in the release.
The report stresses that CMOs face multiplying in gaining organizational adoption while using or marketing automation platforms and point solutions
The report finds dedicated marketing technology management and digital transformation expertise appear to be maturing and more widely accepted, supported, and represented in global organizations. Teams of cross-functional leaders are now being deployed with clear strategies for selection, deployment, adoption and scaling of new or existing platforms, solutions, and tools.
Key survey findings include:
- Half (50 percent) of all surveyed chief marketers prioritize functional alignment and unified execution in 2024, followed by acquiring customer insights for better outcomes.
- Only 17 percent of CMOs believe their teams lack digital skills and just 18 percent face resistance to change.
- About 14 percent of chief marketers rated their teams excellent in 2023, while nearly 50 percent said they met expectations. Around 30 percent see room for improvement, and 8 percent reported underperformance.
- Top-line revenue growth is the top priority for nearly 60 percent of respondents, who also expect more operational efficiency and cost reduction from marketing in 2024, with big expectations for AI’s impact on productivity and performance.
- CMOs view IT, CIOs, CTOs, and chief digital officers as key partners for leveraging customer data, driven by expanding marketing stacks, point solutions, channel partners, eCommerce, and customer-facing groups.
Download the full report here.
CMO Intentions 2024 research findings are based on a Q1 online survey of nearly 200 chief marketing executives at both B2B and B2C/hybrid companies in a cross-section of industry sectors throughout North America and Europe. Over 90 percent of respondents held CMO/CRO/CGO/CXO/SVP/VP titles and 70 percent represented large corporations with annual revenues of more than $ 1 billion. The balance of survey participants came from mid-sized enterprises with less than $1 billion in annual sales. Nearly 30 percent of survey respondents spend over $5 million annually on marketing technology and a further 43 percent between $2 million and $5 million.
