• CMOs are constrained by ineffectiveness, with only 15% of marketing leaders strongly agreeing that their set up today allows them to do high value work
  • 7 in 10 organizations now use generative AI (Gen AI) in marketing, yet just 7% of marketers strongly agree that AI has boosted marketing effectiveness
  • Only 18% of marketing leaders strongly believe they are successfully personalizing customer interactions using AI/GenAI to boost engagement and outcomes
  • With less than 40% of CMOs controlling martech budgets, CIO-CMO collaboration is critical for AI-driven marketing outcomes

Mumbai : The Capgemini Research Institute’s CMO Playbook, “From complexity to clarity: How CMOs can reclaim marketing to build competitive edge,” finds that the role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is at a crossroads, calling for a fundamental reimagining of the function.  While expectations of CMOs are at an all-time high, they face a plethora of challenges such as tightening budgets, declining strategic influence, limited ownership of martech budget and integration of AI. Despite high optimism around the impact of generative and agentic AI, more than half (55%) of marketing leaders say these initiatives are currently funded by IT, with limited marketing control.

Nearly 70% of CMOs face rising expectations, yet their strategic influence is waning

While CMOs’ responsibilities are expanding, budgets are shrinking. The report finds that marketing budgets have tightened over the past two years to an average of just 5% of company revenue. At the same time, the percentage of CMOs involved in critical decision-making has dropped from 70% to 55% in just two years. Despite Gen AI gaining traction across marketing – now being used for content creation, customer segmentation, and digital campaigns – only 15% of marketing leaders say that low-value tasks are automated within their function. Most teams still remain focused on manual tasks, limiting their time for brand building, innovation, and customer connection.

The report also finds that current martech and data strategies fail to leverage real-time data for seamless customer experiences. Just 18% of marketers strongly agree that they are successfully personalizing customer interactions to boost engagement and outcomes. This highlights the need for stronger collaboration between marketing and technology leadership, combining CIO expertise in tech with CMO insight into customer strategy, to fully harness AI for greater business value.

“CMOs today are expected to drive growth and meet sales targets, whilst also being experts in data and AI – they must now market to both humans and agents. But many lack the resources, control or clarity to manage these growing demands. AI tools offer great potential but often fail to deliver results as budgets, strategy and technology aren’t fully aligned,” said Gagandeep Gadri, Managing Director frog, part of Capgemini. “This is a pivotal moment for marketers to rethink their function’s core purpose and reposition it not just as a support department but as a driver of customer experience and enterprise growth to create real business value.”

AI is considered a growth driver, yet its real impact on marketing falls short

Nearly seven in ten large organizations now use Gen AI in marketing, either extensively or to a limited extent. Its share of martech investment has risen from 64% in 2023 to 79% in 2025. Yet, impact remains limited: only 7% of marketers strongly agree that AI has boosted marketing effectiveness and many report challenges in scaling AI pilots.

In addition, optimism for agentic AI is high but most organizations remain cautious. Nearly 70% agree that autonomous or multi-agent AI could be applied to various marketing use cases, but few are currently testing, experimenting or using any form of agentic AI in marketing. The report cites the lack of the right skills, data privacy challenges, security risks and ethical concerns, as well as low trust in autonomous AI-generated decisions, as the key challenges in fully leveraging AI’s potential in marketing.

Integrating AI across the value chain and rethinking models is key to reclaiming marketing

Integrating sales and go-to-market strategies is a top priority for 61% of marketers, yet less than a quarter report having shared KPIs, leading to fragmented execution and suboptimal customer experiences. Similarly, tighter collaboration between CMOs and CIOs is emerging as a key driver of influence, ensuring that data, systems, and teams are aligned so that AI can deliver measurable business value. Capability gaps also remain a challenge, as seven in ten (68%) marketing leaders believe their teams must upskill in AI, ethics, and business strategy to stay competitive.

To reclaim marketing in an AI-led future, the report suggests that CMOs should redesign their operating models and integrate AI across the entire marketing value chain. There is a need for CMOs to build marketing that is human-centric, optimized and future-ready, repositioning themselves as drivers of customer experience and engagement, contributing to business growth. Strengthening collaboration with CIOs, removing silos across the organization investing in the right AI skills and enabling human-AI chemistry will be at the heart of this, in order to align technology and data with strategic priorities.

Report Methodology
The Capgemini Research Institute conducted an extensive survey in July 2025, engaging 1,500 executives at director level and above, overseeing marketing strategies within diverse organizations across 15 countries worldwide. These organizations each have annual revenues of $1 billion and over. To complement this research, the Capgemini Research Institute interviewed ~30 CMOs and marketing leaders. ‘Strongly agree’ reflects respondents who have selected 5 on a scale of 1-5. Please read the full report for more information.