• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 17, 2023

Most businesses are testing AI for marketing. But they need better data and training, judging by The Growth Report, The AI Edition, a study from Twilio Segment.  

Of the companies polled, 83% are experimenting with AI in their marketing channels, while 88% are using AI in some form. 

In addition, 64% plan to adjust their strategy around AI in the year to come, while 54% to spend more on AI-driven campaigns. But 38% are challenged by lack of employee training, and 28% have data privacy concerns. 

Moreover, 71% say AI would be more useful if they had access to higher-quality data, and 85% will prioritize the capture and use of first-party data -- up from 71% in 2022. 

On the positive side, 90% believe AI will provide time or cost savings. And 66% believe customers will welcome the use of AI if it delivers better customer experiences and service. 

In addition, 53% say some of their most successful campaigns in the past year have included AI. Some are using AI to build intelligent customer journeys (26%) and some to automatically create personalized product recommendations (13%). 

Chatbots are the leading form of automation, with 38% using them. In general, 63% of firms expect to spend more on technology in the next year. Only 6% foresee a decrease, compared to 38% in 2022.  

One key line item will suffer: 24% of companies plan to simplify, remove or reduce their CRM spend.  

The U.S. lags behind most other countries in its technology spend, with 58% of companies expecting an increase, versus 87% in Brazil, 73% in Australia and 66% in the U.K. But that may be because other countries are playing catch-up.  

However, only 46% of businesses in the U.S. are prepared for the end of the third-party cookie, compared to 73% in Australia.

Twilio Segment surveyed 2,450 marketing and data leaders, including 1,000 in the U.S. and 300 each in the U.K., Brazil, Germany and France and 250 from Australia from August 3-August 30, 2023.