Eighty-three percent of marketers say customers expect two-way conversations. Yet 69% admit they struggle to respond quickly to questions. That gap is perhaps the most critical signal in Salesforce’s latest State of Marketing report.
The AI revolution in marketing is already operational. Nearly 4,500 marketers surveyed worldwide confirm that expectations are rising faster than most teams can adapt. Although 75% of organizations already use at least one form of AI, implementation still lags behind ambition.
This is no longer just a GMO issue. It’s a frontline marketing reality.
According to the report, three out of four marketing teams use AI in some form. On paper that sounds like a broad transformation. In practice, many teams are still using AI tools on top of disconnected data and legacy workflows.
Marketers say AI can help them reclaim a lot of time each week. That reclaimed time goes beyond speed. It represents a comprehensive capacity for strategy, creative thinking and customer insight. But the value will only become reality when marketers develop the skills to effectively guide, interpret and manage AI systems.
Data analysis and AI skills are quickly becoming core competencies. The marketer who cannot interpret data or orchestrate AI tools will struggle to stay relevant.
Marketers trust AI to talk to customers
Eighty-one percent of marketers now say they rely on AI to respond to customer queries. That means a breakthrough moment. AI agents can provide 24/7 responsiveness at a scale that human teams cannot handle alone.
Responsiveness without relevance falls short. To drive meaningful conversations, AI must be powered by unified, contextual customer data.
Salesforce’s findings highlight a persistent problem. Many marketing teams still don’t have full access to customer data across all departments.
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When service, sales, and commerce data remain in silos, personalization suffers. AI systems cannot accurately predict behavior or recommend the best actions without full visibility.
As a result, personalization efforts often fall short. Eighty-four percent of marketers admit that their campaigns still feel generic. That underlines a crucial point. AI by itself cannot create personalization. Connected data drives meaningful personalization.
Some progress is visible. A growing number of marketers are using predictive behavioral models to segment target groups. But predictive capabilities require investments in data architecture, governance, and cross-functional alignment.
Agentic marketing moves to implementation
The clearest signal that agentic marketing is on the rise is not conceptual. It’s operational. Sixty-one percent of marketers say their organizations are experimenting with or fully implementing AI agents. This means that autonomous systems are no longer side projects. They enter live workflows.
This shift is strategic, not tactical. Sixty-eight percent of marketers say generative AI is critical to their overall marketing strategy. That level of prioritization suggests that AI is becoming an infrastructure, not a campaign tool.
However, autonomy depends on timing and context. Sixty-four percent of marketers say real-time data activation is critical to their success. Agent systems cannot function with delayed reporting. They need current cues to elicit the best actions, adjust trajectories, and personalize responses as interactions unfold.
The data base also separates leaders from laggards. Fifty-seven percent of high-performing marketing teams report having a unified customer data platform. That unified understanding allows AI agents to act with awareness rather than guesswork.
Taken together, these numbers point in one direction. Marketing is moving towards systems that do more than just help people. They operate alongside them, initiate processes, adjust messages and continuously optimize interactions.
The opportunity lies not only in automation. It’s coordinated autonomy, enabled by real-time data and unified customer context.
Marketing is tailored to sales
Accounting for revenues is no longer ambitious. It is measurable. According to Salesforce, 83% of high-performing marketers report having a clear view of their impact on the sales pipeline, while low-performing teams have much lower visibility.
The coordination is structural. More than half of marketers say their most important KPIs are now directly related to revenue growth and contribution to the pipeline, rather than just engagement metrics. At the same time, 60% report that improving customer journey orchestration across marketing, sales and service is a top priority, reinforcing the need for visibility across the lifecycle.
Data integration emerges as the dividing line. Fifty-seven percent of high-performing teams say they have a unified customer data platform. That unified view enables closed-loop reporting, clearer attribution, and stronger credibility among financial and executive leadership. Marketing is no longer measured by output volume. Growth contribution is assessed.
remains the most difficult challenge
While revenue reconciliation is accelerating, personalization is still catching up. Eighty-four percent of marketers admit that their campaigns still feel generic, despite years of investment in segmentation and automation.
The gap is not consciousness. Seventy-eight percent of marketers say they need more personalized content than they can currently produce. Meanwhile, 64% say real-time data activation is critical to success, yet many teams still lack the infrastructure to consistently meet that expectation.
Fragmented data remains a major obstacle. Only 57% of high-performing teams report having unified customer data, leaving a significant portion of the market unable to personalize without full context. AI can scale content production, but without strong data management and connected systems, automation simply accelerates generic output.
The result is a paradox. The tools for hyper-personalization are widely available, but the operational foundation to execute at scale is still uneven.
Salesforce State of Marketing Report
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