Despite the fact that artificial intelligence (AI) has only recently gained momentum, marketing leaders have already used this technology in their activities over the last year, according to six out of ten respondents (60%) at the latest edition of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Survey, conducted by Duke University with the support of Deloitte. The report also shows that AI adoption has an effective impact on organizations, with marketing leaders mentioning that sales productivity has improved by 6% and customer satisfaction by 7%, while marketing overhead costs have decreased by 7%.
Content personalization (53%) and content creation (49%) are the two main uses of AI in marketing, the study underlines, followed by improving marketing return on investment by optimizing the content and timing of digital marketing (37%) and programmatic advertising and media buying (35%). In terms of content creation, blogs (65%), website content (62%) and social media (55%) are top areas for which organizations use AI tools.
“The use of AI in marketing is still in its early stages, but its seeds already bear fruit. For marketers, AI might address challenges such as managing and optimizing content among a myriad of channels, providing a seamless and personalized brand experience across different ecosystems and touchpoints or even ensuring regulatory compliance for organizations and avoiding issues such as selling an unsuitable product to a customer, and misinformation. For marketing teams, AI will play the role of an enabler, allowing them to work more efficiently, better understand their customers and cultivate skills that will complete the benefits that technology brings to the table,” said Ruxandra Bandila, Marketing and Business Development Director, Deloitte Romania.
In a post-pandemic world, companies show progress in their digital marketing transformation journey, as almost a quarter of marketers (24%) participating in the survey believe their organizations have fully integrated digital investments, compared to only 14% last year, and 13% of respondents said that organizations leverage digital investments to drive and evaluate marketing decisions, compared to 7% a year ago.
When it comes to spending patterns, increases remain modest. The report highlights that mobile spending registers a slight increase of 2% compared to last year, reaching 16% of the marketing budget, but it is expected to surpass the pandemic high of 23% in five years and reach 27%. Marketers continue to report mobile marketing as contributing weakly to company performance (2.9 on a 7-point scale), especially because of the difficulty of tracking the customer across the journey (40%), of the weak link between the mobile and the broader marketing strategy (38%) and of the insufficient in-house mobile expertise (37%).
Social media spending represents 16% of the marketing budget and is estimated to remain flat in the next 12 months, registering an increase of only 3%. Instead, when it comes to predictions for the next five years, it is expected to surpass the pandemic high of 23% and reach 24%.
When thinking about the skills of future marketing hires, the top priority identified by the survey respondents is the ability to rapidly re-evaluate the approach as new priorities emerge, followed by creativity and innovation skills and the ability of navigating ambiguity. At the opposite side, financial acumen is showcased as the least prioritized skill.
However, organizations don’t rely only on their employees’ capabilities to implement marketing activities. They also turn to agencies, vendors or partners, as marketers are outsourcing 20% of their activities and are predicted to increase this share by 5 percentage points in the next year.
The latest edition of the CMO Survey is based on the responses of more than 300 marketing leaders, active in 15 industry sectors in US.
The information provided by KomuniK
Romanian deep-tech startup .lumen, the developer of what it says are the world’s first AI-powered glasses for the blind, has secured a new investment from EIT Urban Mobility, the European innovation community focused on advancing sustainable and inclusive urban mobility solutions. The value of the new funding round was not disclosed. The investment aligns with […]
The health spending per capita in Romania was the lowest in the EU, with spending less than half the EU average in 2023, the recently released report, State of Health in the EU - Romania Country Health Profile 2025, shows. At the same time, life expectancy in Romania is 5.1 years below the EU average, […]
Romania’s annual inflation rate stood at roughly 9.8% in November 2025, similar to October, according to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INS). Food prices increased by 7.6% last month, while services rose roughly 11% and non-food goods climbed 10.7%. The consumer price index rose by 0.42% in November compared with October, while […]
Three French soldiers deployed in Romania as part of NATO’s Multinational Battle Group at Cincu intervened to save a truck driver following a serious traffic accident on the A3 Bucharest–Ploiești motorway, the Romanian Ministry of Defense said. The incident occurred earlier this week as the soldiers were traveling toward Ploiești and witnessed the truck crash...
Eight contemporary art galleries will present the works of the artists they represent at the third edition of the Smallest Art Fair in Town, an event dedicated to works on paper. This edition showcases works “investigating the state of wandering, disorientation, and rediscovery in the face of uncertainty.” Under the title In Dark Woods, A […]
Parents everywhere are asking an important question: What skills will truly prepare a child for a world defined by rapid change, global uncertainty, and the rise of artificial intelligence? For decades, schools focused entirely on academics. Today, research from neuroscience, performance psychology, and leading universities shows a different reality: The students who thrive long-term are […]
