As marketers, we’re bombarded daily with messages about how AI will open new doors and help us work smarter and faster. And since the floodgates opened with ChatGPT’s release in November 2022, teams everywhere are wading through the waves of AI enhancements for every piece of their martech stack.
But do the headlines and AI-powered promises reflect the reality marketers face today? Are their processes fully optimized and better than ever? And how do they feel about the AI revolution in martech?
We wanted to find out.
The 2025 AI and Marketing Performance Index
The 2025 AI and Marketing Performance Index is a data-driven report that examines how high-performing teams are accelerating marketing cycles. Conducted in partnership with Ascend2, this study evaluates the highs and lows of marketing processes — where there’s pain and where there’s success.
The report also delves into AI adoption by enterprise teams and surfaces opinions on how marketers envision working alongside this technology.
We surveyed more than 300 marketing professionals for this report, focusing on positions at the manager level or above. The companies surveyed were in the United States and Canada and reported at least $100M in annual revenue.
You can download the full report here and dig into all the nitty-gritty details.
Let’s jump into a few of the key findings we discovered.
AI adoption is accelerating, and so is the pressure to perform
We weren’t surprised to discover that the majority of teams are facing more pressure to perform. What was surprising is how overwhelming that majority is: 89% of those surveyed say pressure to deliver better results in less time has increased significantly in the last two years.
Yes, marketers are stressed. But the good news? Most of those surveyed also see AI as a potential solution to alleviating that stress.
- Almost three-quarters of respondents believe that AI can accelerate growth by at least 10%.
- More than a third expect AI to increase growth by at least 30%.
- Most marketers surveyed believe AI will be the biggest help in providing data analysis and insights.
- While most of those surveyed see AI as a tool for efficiency (66%), just as many marketers also see it as a tool for growth (67%).
Why should you care? More marketers are looking to adopt AI to accelerate their campaigns and processes, so leveraging AI tools within your marketing stack is becoming a competitive essential. But don’t just think of it as a resource for efficiency — how can AI help your marketing team drive more growth for your organization?
Fast growth comes from fast cycles
During this survey, we asked marketers to analyze their organization’s growth. Those that experienced significant revenue gains in the last year were considered “high-growth” organizations.
After investigating this high-growth cohort, we found that they were more likely to have marketing cycles that are “fairly fast” (rarely causing delays) or “extremely fast” (operating at peak efficiency). Meaning: Companies that drive more revenue can execute on marketing campaigns faster than companies that experience slower growth.
In fact, 70% of high-growth teams report being able to launch a marketing campaign in under 30 days.
Why should you care? When it comes to driving revenue, efficient and effective marketing cycles are critical. Those that find opportunities to improve and iterate with every campaign, can launch faster and smarter to compound growth over time.
AI works best with a human in the loop
While marketers recognize AI as a potential tool for both growth and efficiency, they also see its limitations. Yes, adoption is on the rise, but 86% of the marketers we surveyed believe human intervention improves AI efficacy.
- Nearly half of those surveyed (46%) believe AI should only make low-risk decisions with human oversight.
- Almost a third (31%) see AI as a recommendation engine only and that humans make all final decisions.
- Only 4% of those surveyed believe AI should fully control marketing execution.
Why should you care? AI has incredible promise for helping teams accelerate the marketing cycle, but human marketers provide invaluable context and creativity. Success lies in collaborating with AI to develop campaigns that engage customers and drive growth.
High-growth teams are ahead of the AI curve
Aside from having faster marketing cycles, our research also found that high-growth organizations were more likely to adopt AI within their marketing processes.
High-growth teams lean on AI for:
- Predicting customer behavior (48% of high-growth companies vs. 37% of all others)
- Automating audience segmentation (37% vs. 25%)
- Optimizing SEO (34% vs. 25%)
We saw the same correlation between teams that reported highly efficient marketing cycles; teams that move faster also lean more heavily on AI.
Why should you care? When used across applications like audience segmentation and journey orchestration, AI helps your marketing team test and iterate campaigns faster. With rapid experimentation across audience segments, channel orchestration, or creative, you can quickly zero in on what tactics are more likely to drive engagement and revenue.
Barriers to AI adoption remain, but high performers are overcoming them
AI may come with a lot of marketing promise, but teams still face plenty of hurdles when adopting this technology.
The most common obstacles our respondents face in AI adoption include:
- Data security concerns (45%)
- Integrating with existing systems (37%)
- Lack of internal expertise (32%)
Although an expertise gap is one of the top barriers to adoption, respondents also reported that their organizations are laser-focused on growing AI skillsets.
- 41% reported they’re prioritizing hiring AI-savvy marketers
- 71% reported they’re investing in upskilling their current team in AI proficiency
Why should you care? Marketers recognize that AI is only as powerful as the infrastructure and data it runs on (like the old saying goes: “garbage in, garbage out.”) Leveraging a secure, accurate, single source of truth for your AI infrastructure will ensure the output is useful for your marketing team and avoids expensive inefficiencies. And while many organizations may lack AI expertise today, it’s becoming a competitive advantage to hire and upskill around AI proficiency.
An analysis of marketing cycles, speed, and how AI fits into it all
Plenty of surveys today share the most common use cases for AI in marketing, or tout how AI is going to replace roles or functions.
But we wanted to dig deeper. With The 2025 AI and Marketing Performance Report, our goal was to analyze the marketing cycle — what slows it down, what makes it successful, and how AI comes into the mix.
We hope you dive into the details of this first-ever analysis and join the conversation as we explore the next generation of marketing teams and how they adapt in this AI world to drive lasting growth.
Want to join the conversation? Meet us for a live discussion about the report on Wednesday, July 16 at 1pm ET. The panel conversation will feature GrowthLoop CEO Chris O’Neill, Humans of Martech Founder Phil Gamache, and GrowthLoop VP of Marketing Rebecca Corliss.