Marketers Accelerate GenAI Investment, But Lag in Strategic Readiness

Artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) reshape the marketing landscape. New research reveals that 90% of organizations plan to invest in GenAI this year. However, a significant knowledge gap persists, with the same percentage of CMOs admitting they don’t fully understand GenAI’s strategic potential. This disconnect is hindering adoption beyond basic tasks like copywriting and editing, even as marketing emerges as the leading business function for GenAI integration.

Currently, only a minority of marketers use GenAI for more advanced applications:

• 19% for audience targeting

• 18% to build audiences

• 16% for customer journey mapping

• 14% for price optimization

According to Head of Martech Solutions Marketing at SAS, this limited usage is largely due to insufficient training, privacy concerns. To bridge the gap, marketing teams must develop competencies in AI, data literacy, and GenAI tooling. “It’s not AI coming for your job, but a marketer with AI skills,” Moran emphasizes.

AI is now driving a shift toward customer journey optimization, using reinforcement learning and predictive analytics to deliver tailored, data-driven experiences across multiple channels. GenAI complements this by generating synthetic data, filling gaps in datasets and enhancing the accuracy of marketing models.

Looking ahead, GenAI is expected to evolve beyond content generation to orchestrate and automate entire marketing workflows, from strategy to execution. Integrating GenAI into CRM and CX platforms introduces challenges—including technical compatibility, process changes, and cultural adoption—but also offers significant returns in customer engagement and operational efficiency.

As brands move toward agentic AI, the future of AI in marketing will demand not just tools, but a complete rethinking of how marketers operate, strategize, and connect with audiences.

 

Source:

https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/marketers-genai-spending-surges-readiness-lags-177485.html?__hstc=8228397.cbe7a3a03489c49131d9a40f0909459b.1745229294955.1746515997871.1750069239239.5&__hssc=8228397.4.1750069239239&__hsfp=2512533840