Generative AI in Marketing
Marketing teams around the world have embraced generative AI and integrated the technology into their marketing funnels. As a result of these high levels of adoption, many marketing leaders report improved speed to market and enhanced productivity.
How are marketing teams using generative AI across their marketing tech stack? What benefits are they anticipating, and what barriers to entry are they facing, if any?
One minute insights:
Content marketing is the leading marketing function utilizing generative AI for marketing. 
Nearly all marketers agree that generative AI will be a standard part of marketing team’s tech stacks within four years. 
Although most are excited, skills gaps and unforeseen security risks are top concerns about the technology. 
Most respondents agree it is essential for marketers to familiarize themselves with generative AI as it applies to marketing.
Most respondents agree it is essential for marketers to familiarize themselves with generative AI as it applies to marketing.
Many marketers are already using generative AI in their marketing funnels, most commonly for content marketing, and most feel the tech will be ubiquitous on marketing teams within four years
Nearly half (48%) of marketing leaders report their organizations are already using generative AI in some part of their marketing funnel. An additional 43% say their organizations aren’t using it yet, but plan to. Just 6% say their organizations are not using it, and have no plans to start.
Does your organization currently use generative AI in any part of your marketing funnel?
n = 98
Among respondents who report their organizations are either already using generative AI in their marketing funnel, or plan to, the most commonly selected marketing functions currently using the technology are content marketing (76%), product marketing (43%) and customer experience (37%).
Which marketing functions at your organization are currently using generative AI? Select all that apply.
Marketing operations 30% | Branding 18% | Public relations 16% | Other (fill in) 1%
n = 89
Question shown only to leaders who answered “yes” or “no, but we plan to” to the question, “Does your organization currently use AI in any part of your marketing funnel?” n=89
*Other text: Product offerings
The most commonly selected areas of the marketing funnel marketers have used generative AI are content production (58%), drafting social media copy (52%) and generating ad copy (45%).
For what parts of your marketing funnel have you used generative AI? Select all that apply.
Creating customer satisfaction surveys 26% | Creating marketing play books 24% | Creating sales play books 19% | Drafting vendor recommendation letters 10% | Other (fill in) 1%
*Other text: Web content
n = 98
Most marketing leaders (94%) think generative AI will become a regular part of marketing team’s tech stacks within four years.
How long do you think it will be until generative AI is used regularly as part of marketing teams tech stacks?
n = 98
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Question: How should marketing teams be utilizing generative AI today?
GenAI is an excellent tool for supplemental content creation. While some hesitate using it for primary content or permanent, like packaging design, short term use like social media posts plus web articles can greatly improve efficiency.
The starting point should be to understand the use cases & the legal implications of using these tools. Next is to plot these tools to specific experiments & measure results. The lowest hanging fruit seems to be copywriting & text to image generation. Then there are more evolved use cases of using it for product development & even creating artificial models.
It can help to get ideas, to quickly check copywritings, to challenge ideas and concepts.
Generative AI should be used for content generation and creating more customized content, email designs for internal and external audience, personalized copies for sales pitch, social outreach, executive communication, customized images, etc.
Marketers trust generative AI to improve the speed of marketing production, and most feel marketers should be familiarizing themselves with the technology
Over half of marketing leaders (56%) selected improved speed to market as a benefit they have seen, or expect to see, from generative AI deployment. Improved productivity (53%) and improved flexibility (41%) are the second and third most selected benefits respectively.
What benefits have you seen, or do you expect to see, from your generative AI deployment? Select all that apply.
Increased audience (i.e., wider audience reached) 28% | Improved agility 26% | Overhead cost reductions (e.g. reducing team size, not needing temp workers) 22% | Improved customer satisfaction 19% | Increased sales 18% | Improved decision making 14% | Improved employee morale 8% | None of these 0%
n = 98
The top barriers to generative AI adoption, selected by respondents, are skills gaps (56%), unforeseen security threats (47%), and integrations with existing technology (43%).
What do you see as the main barriers to generative AI adoption in marketing at your organization? Select up to three.
Unforeseen regulatory/governance challenges 23% | Lack of executive interest 14% | Costs 12% | Lack of business use case 10% | None of these 5%
n = 98
The majority (81%) of marketing respondents agree or strongly agree that generative AI is a reliable solution for generating marketing copy and assets, which speeds up production.
How do you feel about the following statement: “Generative AI is a reliable solution for generating marketing copy and assets which speeds up production.”
Strongly disagree 0% | Not sure 0%
n = 98
Likewise, nearly all (94%) respondents feel it is somewhat or very important for marketers to familiarize themselves with generative AI and its applications in marketing.
In your opinion, how important is it for marketers to familiarize themselves with generative AI and its applications in marketing?
Somewhat unimportant 2% | Very unimportant 0% | Not at all important 0%
n = 98
Question: How should marketing teams be utilizing generative AI today?
It will be a must have solution for marketing teams.
AI will become mainstream for marketers once moral implications have been resolved and once the technology behind AI has improved to remove ambiguity and false construct.
Most of the mundane work will be outsourced to AI tools. There will be some unthinkable use cases as well, where an entire part could be experimented with… eg., influencer management.
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Respondent breakdown
