Gartner Highlights AI's Challenge to Marketing Leaders' Strategic Relevance
Gartner's research reveals that while AI reshapes marketing, many leaders focus on execution, risking their role in enterprise growth.
AI Reshapes Marketing Priorities
AI is already altering how customers make discovery and buying decisions and how organizations evaluate market opportunities and compete for growth, according to MarTech. Despite this shift, many marketing leaders are primarily evaluated on campaign execution rather than guiding enterprise transformation. Gartner research indicates that 82% of business leaders believe their company’s brand and culture must evolve to match AI advancements, but only 15% of CEOs view their marketing leader as strongly AI savvy.
The Disconnect in Marketing Leadership
This gap means marketing’s strategic relevance is at risk, as AI accelerates forces like customers using generative AI for product research and recommendations. Gartner research also shows that the average marketing leader has only an 11% chance of exceeding CEO and CFO expectations, reflecting how organizations often see marketing as an execution engine rather than a strategic partner. Marketing leaders who fail to interpret disruption may be sidelined as other functions adopt AI-powered insights.
Market Shapers Lead with AI for Strategic Gains
Market-shaping marketing leaders outperform by using AI extensively across various use cases, such as monitoring shifting customer needs and synthesizing fragmented signals to inform strategic decisions, according to MarTech. These leaders apply AI beyond task automation to run rapid experiments, understand evolving customer questions, and guide innovation priorities. Gartner research finds that teams led by market shapers demonstrate higher proficiency in strategy, critical thinking, customer understanding, and data literacy, enabling them to turn AI recommendations into executable actions.
Key Behaviors for Success in AI Era
Market shapers influence customer preference and align brand with business strategy, using AI to update value propositions and protect trust, as AI accelerates commoditization and misinformation. Our research shows that companies with high-performing brand strategies are twice as likely to exceed growth goals, with the differentiator being stronger alignment rather than higher spending. Gartner identifies four behaviors distinguishing market shapers, including excelling at innovation, positioning, and insight generation, which gain speed when reinforced by AI, according to MarTech.
