• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, December 11, 2017

Marketers are looking to artificial intelligence in a big way.

AI is the leading technology that marketers expect to grow the most over the next two years, based on a new, large study.

Marketers expect AI will grow by 53%, higher than any other technology type, over the next two years, according to the fourth annual State of Marketing Report, comprising a survey of 3,500 marketing leaders globally conducted by Salesforce Research.

The majority (51%) of marketing leaders already using AI and more than a quarter plan to at least do an AI pilot in the next two years.

Of the marketers already using AI, most (64%) say it has increased their overall marketing efficiency and more than half (57%) say it is essential to help them create one-to-one marketing.

There are many areas where marketing leaders see AI having a major impact on their business. Here are the areas expected to be substantially impacted over the next five years:

• 61% -- Hyperpersonalization of content
• 61% -- Dynamic landing pages and websites
• 61% -- Delivering the right message, on the right channel at the right time
• 60% -- Hyperpersonalized product recommendations
• 60% -- Programmatic advertising and media buying
• 60% -- Predictive journeys
• 59% -- Productivity of marketers
• 59% -- Campaign analytics
• 59% -- Digital asset management
• 59% -- Business insights across data and systems
• 59% -- Hyperpersonalization at scale
• 58% -- Customer segmentation
• 57% -- Lead scoring
• 56% -- Sentiment analysis

Despite all of this, it doesn’t mean there’s AI smooth sailing ahead. A separate Salesforce survey found that only 26% of business leaders, including marketing, sales and service, have complete confidence in their organization’s ability to define an AI business strategy.

Obstacles to executing an AI strategy include customer privacy concerns, sorting out data stored in separate systems, budget constraints and internal skills.

Other than that, all AI systems are go.