A survey found that while most marketing organisations have adopted AI tools, only a small number of companies have linked them to clear business results.

Business Insider reported on Sept. 30 that a Bain survey of 1,397 senior executives in marketing and finance found 95 percent said their organisation had adopted AI tools. Only 6 percent said AI was currently delivering substantial results. Laura Beaudin (로라 보댕), a Bain partner, said, "Transformation is difficult and takes time."

Companies delivering results also had traits in common. Bain classified companies with more than 11 percent annual revenue growth and more than 7 percent market share growth as "leaders." Leaders were twice as likely as laggards, whose revenue or share had stagnated or declined, to say AI contributed to double-digit revenue growth or cost reductions. That does not mean AI is the direct cause of growth.

Leaders centralised AI strategy to reduce departmental silos and redesigned workflows and team structures. They also showed a clear tendency to use first-party data to analyse customers and apply AI to personalised marketing. Bain viewed it as important not only to buy AI software but also to change how an organisation operates.

Other surveys showed similar results. A Dentsu Creative survey of 1,950 marketing decision-makers worldwide found 70 percent said they had not yet achieved major cost efficiency through AI. A PwC survey also found 56 percent of chief executives said they had not seen AI-driven revenue growth or cost-cutting effects over the past year.

AI is also changing staffing in marketing organisations. Bain viewed the importance of talent able to coordinate multiple functions as set to grow, rather than specialists who handle only detailed tasks. One chief marketing officer who took part in the survey said, "Using AI, a team of 5 to 10 can handle work that previously took as many as 50 people."

The next task for companies is not AI adoption itself, but how much they redesign work and organisations to fit AI, the analysis said.