AI Growth Shows Continued Rises In Sales, Satisfaction, And Marketing Savings

Last Fall, The CMO Survey sought the insights of hundreds of marketing leaders and found a 6.2% rise in sales, a 7% rise in customer satisfaction, and a 7.2% drop in marketing overhead costs, all thanks to the increased use of AI (which, at the time, a full 60.4% had only started using in the previous 12 months).

For the recently released Spring edition, the research — from Deloitte, the American Marketing Association, and Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business — found continued AI successes, with a 5.1% improvement in sales productivity, a 6.1% improvement in customer satisfaction, and a 7% drop in marketing costs. 

Even with these positive impacts, the report had caveats.

“Despite the media hype, companies are using generative AI only 7% of the time in marketing activities,” the report says, “with smaller companies (<$10M in sales use it 11.6% of the time) and Services companies (average 9% of the time) using higher levels. For the marketers who are integrating generative AI into their marketing organizations, challenges abound, including the most vexing as ‘minimizing bias’ and ‘investing in necessary hardware.’”

(Source: The CMO Survey)

When it comes to large language models, the research found that 39% have not yet used LLM tools. Between that massive group and the large percentage of marketing activities still not being optimized by marketers, Duke professor Christine Moorman says it all points to a “massive opportunity.”

My money is on that opportunity amounting to even higher rises in sales, satisfaction, and savings.