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According to a McKinsey article from June 202696% of CMOs surveyed agreed with the statement: “I am excited about the possibilities of AI in the workplace.” » Does this enthusiasm translate into action?
That’s the question CMOs need to answer now. The survey also reveals that “only 28% of marketers surveyed believe their company is pursuing a fundamental overhaul of its marketing teams and workflows.”
Two phenomena are at play.
- First, according to McKinsey, 80% of CMOs surveyed agreed with the statement: “AI poses a threat to my job security.” This suggests that CMOs are unwilling to change despite their enthusiasm. If CMOs are unwilling to change in a rapidly changing industry, their fear is justified.
- The second comes from Gartner: His research found that “only 32% (of CMOs) say significant changes are needed in the CMO’s profile and skill set.” Even if CMOs wanted to push their organizations to adopt AI, they lack the skills to do so. As if that wasn’t enough, two-thirds of respondents don’t think the skills gap is a problem.
AI in marketing is similar to the toothpaste factory in the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie’s father works in the factory capping toothpaste tubes, but loses his job when the factory management invests in machines to cap them. Eventually, Charlie’s father is rehired by the factory to maintain the machines that plug the tubes.
Dear CMOs, AI is transforming marketing with or without you. We don’t hear much these days from those who have chosen not to embrace digital. Since we’re past the point where reluctance can stop the train, let’s look at what CMOs should be doing today.
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Expand your AI knowledge
You must work with these tools and develop a thorough understanding of how to use them. Start with general resources, such as the Marketing AI Institute, which offers free courses and resources. This will give you a baseline to work from.
From there, you’ll need to get your hands on the keyboard. Play with the tools your organization uses to develop intelligent questions to offer to your team. You’ll begin to understand the decisions they regularly have to make, why they’re important, and why you want to know about them.
It’s unpopular. According to a Gartner article from June 2026“66% of marketers say learning new technologies takes a lot of time out of their day-to-day work. ” However, given that “Gartner predicts that by 2027, a lack of AI knowledge will be among the top three reasons CMOs are replaced at large companies,” it might be worth the daily disruption.
Rethink your marketing organization
The demand from boards and CEOs for AI adoption is relatively new, so your organization is probably not designed around AI. This must change. Start by thinking about two key questions:
How much of your budget should be allocated to AI?
In Gartner May 2026 Press Releasethey reported, “CMOs allocate an average of 15.3% of their marketing budgets to AI initiatives. » For context, a Boston Consulting Group June 2026 Publication found: “43% of CMOs say their AI investments in marketing have exceeded $15 million this year (up from 28% last year).” The appetite for AI investment is strong, but be prepared to quantify the results before your finance team’s patience runs out.
What do you do with a team you didn’t build for AI?
BCG found that CMOs “need to reimagine the work to be done at each level of the function – insight, strategy, creative, planning, production, activation or measurement – in the context of what AI makes possible.” They say the majority of marketing organizations are making targeted reductions, but top CMOs are doing things differently.
- They create new AI roles and teams. They combine humans with AI in analytics, marketing science, and engineering to create and manage new workflows.
- Realizing that AI doesn’t care about their org chart, these CMOs are creating smaller, AI-powered teams that work cross-functionally and break down old organizational silos.
Transform AI Adoption into Business Outcomes
A McKinsey article from April 2026 discovered that a hybrid human-AI workforce would be transformational:
- 10-30% revenue growth through hyper-personalized marketing.
- Creating and executing marketing campaigns 10-15 times faster.
- Humans are freed to focus on human tasks with higher ROI through data-driven marketing, media and creative performance.
As almost every CMO agrees, it’s an exciting time to work in marketing. AI is revolutionizing the way we do business, and this change is causing anxiety. The time has come to take responsibility and rework your organization. You definitely don’t want to be Charlie’s dad, always capping toothpaste tubes at the factory.
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