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AI in marketing,
Seeds bear fruit, change is coming,
Skills and tech uniting.
60% of marketers use AI, says Deloitte
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a staple in the marketing toolkit, with six out of ten marketing leaders having utilised AI in their activities over the past year, according to the latest edition of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Survey. The global study, conducted by Duke University with the support of Deloitte, suggests that AI adoption has enhanced sales productivity by 6% and customer satisfaction by 7%, while simultaneously reducing marketing overhead costs by 7%.
The primary applications of AI in marketing are content personalisation (53%) and content creation (49%), followed by optimising content and timing of digital marketing to improve marketing return on investment (37%), and programmatic advertising and media buying (35%). When it comes to content creation, AI is predominantly used in blogs (65%), website content (62%), and social media (55%).
The survey also revealed that almost a quarter of marketers (24%) believe their organisations have fully integrated digital investments, a significant increase from just 14% last year. Mobile spending has seen a slight uptick of 2% compared to last year, accounting for 16% of the marketing budget. It is projected to surpass the pandemic high of 23% in five years, reaching 27%.
Social media spending, which currently represents 16% of the marketing budget, is expected to remain relatively stable in the next 12 months, with an increase of only 3%. However, it is predicted to surpass the pandemic high of 23% and reach 24% in the next five years.
The study suggests, in the future the top priority skills for marketing hires are the ability to rapidly re-evaluate the approach as new priorities emerge, followed by creativity and innovation skills and the ability to navigate ambiguity. According to the study, marketers are currently outsourcing 20% of their activities and are predicted to increase this share by 5 percentage points in the next year.
The CMO Survey is based on the responses of more than 300 marketing leaders, active in 15 industry sectors in the US.
