- Research shows that 96% of chief marketing officers say AI is driving end-to-end transformation of their function.
- However, 42% only use GenAI to assist humans with individual tasks
- AI investments in marketing exceeded $15 million this year in 43% of responding companies
- 9 out of 10 marketers say GenAI is reshaping the way consumers discover brands
boston, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The majority of chief marketing officers (CMOs) feel that AI is driving an end-to-end transformation of their function. However, only 8% are running campaigns where multiple AI agents work autonomously, and just under a third are transforming key parts of their agents’ capabilities. In contrast, 42% only use GenAI as an assistant for individual tasks in a small number of workflows. This gap in AI transformation becomes even more pronounced given the increasing pressure to enable AI in marketing departments.
How CMOs are taking agenttic marketing from fantasy to reality
Roughly half of CMOs say their marketing organization currently drives AI investment decisions within their own department. This is in stark contrast to the broader enterprise, where 72% of CEOs describe themselves as the key decision-maker regarding AI. However, 94% of CMOs feel that CEO expectations for marketing have increased significantly over the past two years.
Latest report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), How CMOs are taking agenttic marketing from fantasy to realitycombines a global survey of 300 CMOs across B2C and B2B sectors with structured interviews with 50 CMOs to illustrate the AI transformation gap and what is needed to close it.
“90% of CMOs who participated in our survey agreed that GenAI is already reshaping the way consumers discover and evaluate brands. However, most marketing organizations are not yet built to compete in that environment,” said Mark Abraham, BCG Managing Director and Senior Partner and co-author of the report. “Going forward, investments must move beyond individual AI tools and toward fully connected agent operating systems built on a strong data foundation, brand intelligence layer, multi-agent orchestration, and the right talent. If established brands don’t build this first, new agent-native adversary brands will.”
Spending on AI is increasing, but so are risks.
Almost half (43%) of CMOs surveyed reported that their marketing AI investments exceeded $15 million this year, up from 28% last year. Among the most invested CMOs, 41% are significantly increasing their investments in end-to-end workflow orchestration. Currently, the number one investment area is martech and data, up 11-12 percentage points from 2025.
The benefits are tangible and include increased cost efficiency, significantly increased growth and velocity, and significantly improved campaign cycle times. Nearly one-third (31%) of B2C CMOs and 20% of B2B CMOs report that agent marketing transformation is already having a significant and measurable impact on revenue.
The talent gap is the most difficult problem to solve
Upskilling is a key enabler of modern agent marketing organizations. Some CMOs describe this factor as talent that cannot be hired and must be created. About 80% of CMOs report investing heavily in AI-specific upskilling programs, and a similar proportion are adding responsible AI and ethics training, an increase of 10 percentage points from 2025. In addition to upskilling, leading CMOs are creating important new roles and teams, redesigning organizational structures, and rewiring processes to fundamentally reimagine marketing functions for the AI era.
“The introduction of end-to-end agent workflows is forcing a fundamental reset of marketing operating models,” said Lauren Wiener, BCG Managing Director and Senior Partner and Global Head of Marketing and Customer Growth Practice. “As marketing organizations are being redesigned around AI, CMOs have a unique opportunity to drive value by moving early and optimizing not just their organizations but their entire partner ecosystem.”
Download the report here:
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2026/making-the-agentic-marketing-transformation-a-reality
Media contact:
Eric Gregoire
[email protected]
About Boston Consulting Group
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SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
