The CMO revolution: 5 growth moves to win with AI

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Global C-suite Series33rd Edition

The CMO revolution:
5 growth moves to win with AIMarketing and sales are in perpetual motion. A massive leap in operational design is the only way to stay ahead.Download the report

The Marketing execution gap:
Why Marketing’s Big Ideas are falling flat

The modern CMO faces a stark reality: Despite commanding larger budgets and more sophisticated tools, most marketing organizations are structurally incapable of delivering the results boards now demand. This isn’t just an operational challenge—it’s an existential threat.

Today’s marketing leaders confront a brutal paradox. The traditional playbook—more data, more campaigns, simply more of anything—has hit its ceiling. To truly win with AI and prevent marketing aspirations from outrunning execution capabilities, fundamental operational transformation is non-negotiable. It demands five key growth moves to close the dangerous disconnect between promise and delivery.

This isn’t a minor hiccup; it’s why CMOs are feeling the heat. In the C-suite’s revolving door, a critical question emerges: Is the marketing operating model built to deliver tomorrow’s big ideas, or is it merely perpetuating yesterday’s limitations?

5 market-defining moves for CMOs

Win the moment

Forge an infrastructure that doesn’t flinch.

Heal your EX to fix your CX.

Hire for heart. Train for AI

Stop chasing campaigns. Architect outcomes instead

Action guide

This study is part of the 33rd edition of the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBM IBV) C-suite Study series.

About the study

Move 1

Win the moment.

Today's consumers exist in a state of perpetual demand...

asking, not searching; commanding, not browsing.

In these critical micromoments of intent, your brand must become the solution that algorithms surface first.

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CMOs who use AI to master this shift from journey-based thinking to moment-based execution will create adaptive lifetime value that drives measurable growth—while competitors remain stuck optimizing obsolete pathways to purchase.

CMOs’ top demand challenges

The smartest CMOs are now nailing the immediate consumer moment, building adaptive lifetime value that sparks real growth. CMOs overall, however, have faced significant demand challenges over the past year. They’re struggling to reach target audiences effectively, not only exceeding planned budgets but also finding operations or fulfillment could not keep up with the demand they did generate.

With answers provided instantly at the query level, consumers no longer need to click through to websites, transforming the digital landscape.

The rise of AI-powered answer engines marks a fundamental shift in digital discovery. These intelligent systems—from Google's AI Overview to ChatGPT and Claude—now intercept search queries before they reach traditional websites, delivering immediate, synthesized responses directly in the results page. These sleek, efficient portals are fast replacing traditional SEO-driven journeys. A recent study of 300,000 keywords found that the presence of an AI overview in search results correlated with a 34.5% lower average clickthrough rate (CTR) for the top-ranking page. The fallout of this shift: fewer clicks to your website mean fewer opportunities for engagement, forcing brands to win in the fleeting microsecond, to deliver value and build trust instantaneously.

Our research reveals a critical insight in how CMOs should approach their 2025 priorities. While 71% of marketing leaders expect to increase their focus on customer loyalty over the next year, many may be overlooking what actually drives that loyalty in the first place.

The customer relationship needs to be seen through a multidimensional prism. A series of experiences that must be imagined, created, orchestrated and tracked. And you cannot be complacent. The customer is always evolving and expectations only go higher. You’ve got to be on it all the time.”

Ginny Cartwright Ziegler

CMO, Pearson

What consumers want from brands has undergone a seismic shift, and it's not about faster checkouts or slicker interfaces. New data reveals a profound truth that should upend conventional marketing wisdom: people crave being known before being served.

The numbers tell a striking story. When asked what matters most in their customer experience, consumers placed personalized interactions and proactive support at the top of their priority list, with trust and security following closely behind. Meanwhile, high-quality products and intuitive purchasing experiences have slipped to the bottom of the priority list.

This hierarchy represents a profound evolution in customer expectations. For years, brands have poured billions into eliminating friction, optimizing click paths, and shaving seconds off transaction times. Those investments weren't wasted—smooth experiences are now the expected baseline. But consumers have raised the bar, aspiring to something more profound: the feeling of being genuinely seen and anticipated.

Think of it as Maslow's hierarchy for brand relationships. Once the basic needs of functional transactions are satisfied, consumers naturally progress toward higher-order connections characterized by recognition, anticipation, and protection. The frictionless experience isn't irrelevant—it's foundational. But it's no longer a differentiator.

Here’s where it gets interesting. While CMOs seem to recognize the importance of these elements, their execution capacity lags behind consumer expectations. When asked about their greatest challenges over the next three years, cybersecurity and data privacy topped the list, followed by technology modernization and forecast accuracy.

This points to a critical gap: companies understand what consumers want but have yet to master the technical and operational foundation required to deliver it at scale.

For marketing leaders, this isn't just another data point—it's a fundamental reorientation of priorities. The new mandate isn't about optimizing campaigns but orchestrating relationships. It's about building systems that recognize individual consumers, anticipate their needs, and protect their data simultaneously.

In the end, getting a customer to maintain a long-term relationship with you is essential. With a lot of price competition, the value propositions are very symmetrical and analogous.”

Valero Marin

General Director of Clients, Repsol

The brands that will win aren't those with the slickest apps or the fastest checkouts, but those that make customers feel valued, understood, and secure in every interaction. This isn't just CX—it's human-centered experience design that acknowledges the emotional depth consumers now bring to their brand relationships.

The protection premium

Perspective

Companies understand what consumers want but have yet to master the technical and operational foundation required to deliver it at scale.

For the modern CMO, the message is clear

Consumers aren't just looking for transactions; they're looking for recognition.

Questions to ask yourself

How well are you serving your customers in the moments that matter, with precision, personalization and proactiveness?

When customers engage through AI-curated channels—search, chat, voice—does your brand show up? And when it does, is it clear, differentiated, and valuable in that instant?

Do you have a system in place to consistently turn customer interactions into moments of loyalty—or is it left to chance?

Is your data strategy built for reaction—or anticipation? And what would it take to predict and serve customer needs before they articulate them?

Move 2

Forge an infrastructure
that doesn’t flinch

Most tech stacks weren’t built to predict, personalize, and protect all at once.

Every demand for greater relevancy puts your marketing infrastructure to the test—

exposing the fault lines in systems never designed for this level of precision at scale.

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Visionary CMOs are responding not with more complexity but with radical simplification: creating integrated platforms where data flows seamlessly, AI enhances human capability, and customer experiences remain flawless even as expectations intensify.

In this new reality, simplicity isn't just an operational virtue—it's your ultimate competitive edge.

CMOs’ top data-related challenges

CMOs and their sales counterparts are grappling with the Sisyphean task of syncing workflows across disparate systems, wrestling with data fragmentation that renders insights incomplete, and drowning in a sea of too many tools and platforms to manage effectively.

Teams are battling complexity with a Frankensteinian portfolio of disjointed technologies, a situation that's effectively trapping their ambitious AI strategies in an endless loop of pilot purgatory.

The uncomfortable truth is that investment has often been driven by a reactive fear of missing out (FOMO), rather than strategic clarity about tangible business impact. 58% confess that the risk of falling behind causes them to invest in technologies before truly understanding their value.

The bottom line is: more CMOs see the need for simplification than not. Roughly 7 in 10 (68%) agree that simplifying the marketing technology infrastructure will enhance their operational efficiency and effectiveness.

The tools in the marketing landscape are changing at a faster pace than they’ve changed before... the biggest challenge is keeping up with them.”

Allison Robl Stransky

CMO, Vice President Corporate Marketing, Samsung Electronics America

Amidst this technological sprawl, a clear path forward is emerging: platformization. As tech portfolios balloon to an average of nine tools (a number that has grown by two in just the last two years), streamlining infrastructure into connected platforms—underpinned by rigorous business cases—is proving to be the antidote to complexity. This isn't just about consolidation; it's about building intelligent, interconnected ecosystems that enable clearer measurement and drive enterprise-wide impact, finally liberating AI initiatives from pilot purgatory.

As tech portfolios bloat, platformization is emerging as the smart path forward because more integration correlates with higher performance.

The organizations that unite their tech stack around platforms rather than point solutions will be the ones that can more quickly mobilize from pilots to scaling—

...and ultimately, to profits.

Questions to ask yourself

Where is infrastructure or data latency inhibiting the customer experience of the future?

What technology barriers are undermining the ROI of your efforts to enhance market share growth and pipeline value?

Are you able to act on customer data instantly, or do delays or latency in your systems cause missed opportunities to engage in real time? And how is that inhibiting value?

Considering the accelerating pace of customer expectation shifts driven by AI, how are you strategically designing your martech stack and organizational agility to ensure your brand can consistently deliver hyper-personalized experiences at scale, not just next year, but for the foreseeable future?

Move 3

Heal your EX to
fix your CX

If your customer experience is broken, it’s because your employee experience broke it.

Your external customer experience is merely the visible manifestation of your internal organizational health.

Every siloed department, fragmented dataset, and clunky process creates ripple effects that customers inevitably experience as friction.

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Leading CMOs are making the critical connection between operational excellence and customer experience, transforming internal workflows before attempting to revolutionize customer touchpoints.

The orphaned customer experience

The data paints a stark picture of disconnection at the enterprise level: Only 28% of organizations report that the end-to-end customer experience is effectively owned and aligned across functions.

This organizational fragmentation isn’t just an internal headache—it directly translates to financial underperformance.

When asked where inefficiencies or misalignments between marketing, sales, and operations create the most negative financial impact, leaders point to a cascade of costly consequences: reduced conversion rates, elevated customer acquisition costs, missed sales opportunities, and inefficient use of marketing and sales spend.

Look deeper, and the technological fault lines become even clearer. 24% report that their technology platforms support consistent collaboration between business functions, and even fewer—19%—describe their business functions as highly integrated, relying on seamless end-to-end workflows.

In a world where loyalty is earned moment by moment, disconnected systems—even smart ones—can’t deliver the cohesive experiences customers expect. Only a third of organizations possess a cross-functional view of the customer journey.

This disconnect breeds friction, with 62% of demand leaders acknowledging tensions with operations fueled by the relentless pace of change.

Streamlining infrastructure into connected platforms—backed by clear business cases—helps teams cut complexity, improve efficiency, and move AI efforts out of pilot purgatory by enabling clearer measurement and enterprise-wide impact.

The path forward is clear, if challenging. By healing your organization from the inside out—aligning teams, integrating systems, and streamlining processes—you create the foundation for truly transformative customer experiences that competitors can't easily replicate.

This inside-out approach requires marketing leaders to expand their sphere of influence and responsibility. Rather than focusing exclusively on external messaging and campaigns, the most effective CMOs are becoming internal change agents—working across functional boundaries to create seamless workflows that ultimately manifest as superior customer experiences.

A strong employee experience isn’t just good for morale—it’s good for business. Engaged teams deliver better service.”

Karen Saverino

CMO, Smithbucklin

The question for CMOs isn’t whether they should lead this charge,

but how quickly they can begin the work of internal alignment before competitors gain an insurmountable lead in the race for operational excellence.

Questions to ask yourself

Where might internal friction be quietly shaping the customer experience more than you realize?

What’s one recent moment where internal team misalignment had downstream effects on the customer—and what did it cost?

How are you ensuring your teams’ optimization efforts and their measurement truly align with and proactively adapt to the evolving needs of the customer, rather than just internal targets?

What concrete organizational structures and processes are you establishing to ensure seamless cross-functional collaboration, fostering clear ownership and eliminating bottlenecks across the entire customer journey?

Move 4

Hire for heart.
Train for AI.

The most valuable marketing currency isn't data...

... it’s the uniquely human capacity to create emotional connections through intuition, empathy, and creative brilliance.

Forward-thinking CMOs are cultivating a new breed of marketing professional:

Creative souls with technological fluency.

People who can direct AI tools with strategic vision while infusing the output with emotional resonance that algorithms can’t generate.

Equally comfortable with creative briefs and prompt engineering.

As marketing’s technological complexity increases, the greatest differentiator remains uniquely human insight amplified by AI capability.

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The first part of that equation is key. Perhaps this is why roughly only one in five CMOs are confident in their ability to let AI-based tools directly engage customers and/or clients.

AI: A human endeavor

71% of CMOs acknowledge that the success of AI hinges more on people’s buy-in than the technology itself.

As marketing’s technological complexity increases, the greatest differentiator remains uniquely human insight amplified by AI capability.

The good news is, there’s a middle ground. Forget the binary choice between creative genius and technological prowess. The future of marketing belongs to a new category of talent–the rare breed equally fluent in crafting emotionally resonant narratives and wielding the power of prompt engineering. This fusion of human intuition and AI fluency isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s the new competitive battleground.

It’s still a human conversation that closes the deal. Trust is built through people, not technology. That’s why we need professionals who can create and nurture those relationships, earning the trust of our clients and decision-makers. It’s a human touch that makes all the difference.”

Luca Samorì

Former Commercial Excellence & Transformation Director, Petit Forestier

Research confirms that personalized interactions and communication rank as the top element of a positive customer experience. However, as brands rush to deploy AI solutions, consumers are already noticing a troubling trend: the loss of originality in brand communications.

The risk is no longer theoretical. Recent NIQ research reveals a stark truth: consumers can intuitively identify most AI-generated ads and, crucially, perceive them as less engaging, more “annoying,” “boring,” and “confusing” than their human-crafted counterparts. This isn’t just about a preference; these negative sentiments risk creating a “negative halo effect” that tarnishes the brand itself. The implication is clear: a perceived lack of originality, the very soul of effective marketing, is being detected by the audience.

71% of CMOs acknowledge that the success of AI hinges more on people's buy-in than the technology itself. Only 21%, however, believe they have the talent needed to achieve their goals for the next two years, and only 23% feel employees are prepared for the cultural and operational shifts brought by AI agents.

Many CMOs recognize their pivotal role in this cultural transformation. 67% see it as their responsibility to reshape aspects of their culture to better embrace emerging technologies such as generative AI. They understand that "AI-literate talent" isn't just desirable; it's mission-critical, with 65% of demand leaders agreeing it's essential for achieving high-priority objectives.

Even more concerning is the governance gap: only 22% of organizations have established clear guidelines and guardrails for the use of AI in automated decision-making. This means that roughly 8 out of 10 organizations have work to do to guide their people through a major shift in ways of working.

Our company’s people-first mindset is simple: everyone owns the customer experience. It extends well beyond marketing—HR plays a vital role in hiring top talent focused on client interactions. Sales and delivery teams are central in creating first impressions. While we value the power of marketing technology, analytics, and digital ecosystems, it takes real people, working together, to make it real.”

Keith Landis

CMO, Xebia

The data suggests that while organizations are investing heavily in AI capabilities, most are underinvesting in the frameworks that protect a brand’s humanity. Without these guardrails, the very qualities that make a brand memorable risk being diluted in the pursuit of efficiency.

The most successful marketing organizations will be those that hire for heart and train for AI. They’ll cultivate professionals who bring emotional intelligence to technology decisions, and technological fluency to creative choices. And they’ll establish clear guardrails that protect the soul of their brand while embracing the power of automation.

In the race to harness AI capabilities, the organizations that win won’t be those with the most advanced algorithms, but those with the most emotionally intelligent humans directing algorithms toward truly resonant customer experiences.

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CMOs understand that “AI-literate talent” isn’t just desirable; it’s mission-critical.

The message is clear: as you build your marketing organization for the AI era, prioritize the human qualities that technology can't replicate...

...empathy, creativity, intuition—while systematically developing AI fluency across your team.

Questions to ask yourself

How prepared is your team to parse quality from quantity in AI-generated outputs?

How clear are your teams on when to use AI literacy and when to add human judgment to brand, marketing, and experience decisions?

What guardrails are in place for your team to determine whether AI-generated content enhances the brand and makes a connection?

In the race for speed and efficiency, are the human elements of your marketing keeping pace—or quietly falling behind?

Move 5

Stop chasing campaigns. Architect outcomes instead.

While previous generations of CMOs orchestrated campaigns with start and end dates...

... tomorrow’s marketing leaders are building perpetual growth engines powered by agentic AI that continuously learn, adapt, and optimize toward business objectives.

This isn't simply automation; it's the creation of marketing organisms.

Anticipate customer needs

Adjust to market shifts

Drive conversions without constant human intervention.

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Real-time insights are a 24/7 job, and agentic AI makes that possible. But in spite of all this potential, many companies still lack the operational systems and processes to turn it into meaningful growth.

As the marketing landscape evolves, however, 69% acknowledge that “new privacy regulations will require us to rethink our data strategy.”

Demand leaders’ top 3 moves as third-party data dwindles

Companies used to buy customer data from third parties to understand their audiences. But with new privacy laws, the end of third-party cookies, and growing consumer scrutiny, that approach is becoming obsolete.

Automation executes. Assistants respond. Agentic AI plans and adapts. That’s the real leap—from following instructions to anticipating impact.

While previous generations of CMOs orchestrated campaigns with start and end dates, tomorrow's marketing leaders are building perpetual growth engines powered by agentic AI that continuously learns, adapts, and optimizes toward business objectives.

For this to truly be about architecting outcomes, the focus extends beyond just building these intelligent systems. It's fundamentally about how these systems are seamlessly integrated into every facet of the customer experience—from initial discovery to post-purchase engagement—and how their real-world impact is continuously measured and optimized to ensure tangible business growth. And they need to be combined with marketing talent’s new skillset.

The client is getting smarter, fast. They’re using AI tools to educate themselves, and they’re quick to challenge our sales experts, armed with that knowledge. Gone are the days of walking in with a template and being the authority. It’s a game-changer. We need to adapt and bring more value to the conversation.”

Luca Samorì

Former Commercial Excellence & Transformation Director, Petit Forestier

Perhaps most telling, 54% of demand leaders confess they “underestimated the operational complexity of translating AI strategies into tangible outcomes.” Only 17% strongly believe their function is prepared to integrate agentic AI into their processes to improve decision-making and efficiency.

Why this lag? Because too many CMOs are still primarily funding automation—a tactical solution—when the true strategic advantage lies in building intelligent systems for continuous, autonomous growth.

65% of our survey participants say realizing the full value of generative AI depends on effectively leveraging proprietary data.

Brands can no longer depend on external sources to fuel targeting, attribution, or customer modeling. Instead, CMOs say optimizing existing data, collecting first-party data, and tapping into direct customer relationships are becoming the foundation of understanding the customer. Brands must rely more on their own data to drive outcomes.

We have to shift. Shift from being the short-order cook for marketing tactics and others’ ideas to becoming the strategic orchestrator that consistently enchants with our organization’s story and purpose.”

R. Ethan Braden

Vice President, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Texas A&M University

Strategic growth will come from adaptability, first-party optimization, and AI-ready partnerships. For many demand leaders, digital products and services are emerging as a key lever. Why? Because they deliver on what matters most. Demand leaders are creating digital products and services to lower costs (76%), respond more quickly to customer needs (74%), improve operational efficiency (70%), and expand market reach (70%).

Digital products open the door for collecting not only first-party data but also zero-party intelligence. Zero-party data is information that customers intentionally and proactively share with a brand, typically in exchange for a more personalized and valuable experience. Proprietary data of both types feeds the growth engine, but few are ready to operationalize this scenario. Partnerships are also emerging as a critical lever: 73% report leveraging ecosystem partnerships to expand market reach, with 30% doing so “to a great extent.” Encouragingly, 64% are confident that their partners and vendors can effectively leverage agentic AI to enhance collaboration, quality, and performance.

Strategic growth will come from adaptability, first-party optimization, and AI-ready partnerships.

The underlying systems, robust processes, measurement approaches, and the necessary organizational confidence...

...simply haven’t caught up to technological advancements.

Questions to ask yourself

Is your AI positioned to power perpetual demand?

How seamlessly and consistently can your organization turn customer intent into action—before the moment passes?

How are you evolving AI within the demand generation function to move beyond execution and contribute to long-term growth over the next year? Over the next three years?

How well are your AI systems set up to influence core demand generation metrics such as pipeline, market share, or customer retention?

The 2025 CMO study action guide:
What demand leaders can do today

Conduct an assessment evaluating your organization in five key areas for operational readiness:

Strategy. How well are you serving your customers in the moments that matter, with precision, relevance and proactiveness?

Security and infrastructure. Where is infrastructure or data latency inhibiting the customer experience of the future?

Internal ops. Where might internal friction be quietly shaping the customer experience more than you realize?

Human-AI collaboration. How prepared is your team to parse quality from quantity in AI-generated outputs?

Operationalization. Is your AI set up to become a flywheel for demand generation?

Pinpoint one critical decision point in the customer journey and challenge your team to trace the data flow and team handoffs behind it.

This exposes where fragmentation is slowing relevancy—and where platform-level integration is urgently needed.

Shift your brand from being visible to being indispensable.

Review how your brand currently shows up in AI-curated environments—search, chat, voice—and identify one opportunity to improve how clearly and contextually you answer customer intent.

Put one upcoming customer-facing, AI-enabled moment through the “AI + EQ” test: are we being fast, but forgettable?

If so, elevate the human layer. Precision needs personality to be memorable. The true power lies in blending the two, making AI a catalyst for smarter, more human-driven demand generation.

Identify one key outcome and reframe how AI can optimize this outcome in real-time, rather than just executing individual tasks.

Map how AI can influence a specific goal by leveraging real-time data and adaptive learning, turning AI from a tool into a proactive engine for growth.

Define your market

The stark truth is this: the old marketing operating models are dead. They're simply not equipped for a world where customer loyalty is measured in micro moments, where trust precedes relevance, where technology fragmentation cripples AI implementation, and where operational alignment drives customer experience.

Yet amid this disruption lies unprecedented opportunity. The CMOs who architect outcomes rather than chase campaigns, who build platforms instead of accumulating tools, who hire for heart and train for AI, who transform from the inside out, and who protect as they personalize—these are the leaders who will define the next decade of marketing excellence.

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