Companies that integrate AI with human marketers are three times more likely to achieve measurable ROI than those that do not, according to a global study of 371 senior marketing leaders by the CMO Council and WongDoody.
The report identifies a group of high performers it calls Power Partners — organisations that have redesigned workflows to combine machine intelligence with human judgment rather than simply layering AI onto existing processes.
Among this group, 73% report exceeding ROI expectations compared to 22% of peers, and 86% see moderate to major impact on campaign ROI versus 43% of peers.
"Those who move decisively will build lasting advantage, while those who hesitate risk falling further behind as the gap continues to widen," said Tom Kaneshige, chief content officer at the CMO Council.
A key finding is that technology adoption without workflow transformation fails. Some 70% of Power Partners are prepared to redesign workflows for AI-human collaboration, compared to just 7% of peers.
The biggest barriers to effective integration are skills gaps, lack of trust in AI outputs, concerns over brand authenticity, poor data readiness and difficulty defining roles between human and AI systems.
In the APAC region, the challenge is primarily cultural, with resistance to change slowing progress despite growing investment.
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