The 2023 State of Marketing AI Report

The 2023 State of Marketing AI Report from Marketing AI Institute and Drift unveils fresh insights into how marketers are leveraging artificial intelligence—with some surprising findings.

Why it matters:

This is the third-annual report from Marketing AI Institute and Drift benchmarking AI understanding, usage, and adoption in the marketing industry. This year’s report has data from over 900 marketers detailing the current state of marketing AI.

Connecting the dots:

In Episode 61 of the Marketing AI Show, Marketing AI Institute founder/CEO Paul Roetzer walked me through some of the highlights of the report and why they matter.

1. 64% of marketers say AI is very or critically important to success in the next 12 months. This is a 13-point jump over 2022, and one of the report’s biggest findings. This data indicates that AI is a top priority in the coming year for the marketing industry.
2. 77% want AI to reduce time on repetitive tasks. We asked about what top outcomes respondents wished to achieve with AI, and this is the top desired outcome by a wide margin.
3. 98% of marketers use AI in some way, signaling widespread experimentation and adoption. The largest segment of respondents, 45%, said they were experimenting with AI. 29% say it’s already infused into their daily workflows.
4. But 78% report that their organization has no AI-focused education or training. 54% say they have none; 24% say it’s in development.
5. And only 22% say they have generative AI policies. Only 21% say they have AI ethics policies.
6. CEOs and CMOs overwhelmingly own AI. Yet CMOs lag behind in AI when benchmarked against the rest of the C-suite. We asked several questions about AI understanding, usage, and purchasing confidence. CMOs had the lowest ratings across these factors when compared to other C-suite roles.

Overall, the report paints a picture of a marketing industry eager to deploy AI, but lacking the training, policies, and leadership to fully take advantage of the opportunities AI has to offer.

What to do about it:

First, click here to get your copy of the 2023 State of Marketing AI Report. It contains tons more findings relevant to any modern marketer.

Second, consider the following steps if you’re a marketing leader or an AI champion in your organization, says Roetzer:

1. Focus on education and training.
2. Create an internal AI Council.
3. Develop Responsible AI Principles and Generative AI Policies.
4. Conduct an AI impact / exposure assessment for your teams.
5. Build an AI Roadmap.