• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 27, 2024

An astounding 99% of marketers are using AI in some form and want to do more.

Yet many continue to struggle with tasks where AI might help, according to the Braze Customer Engagement Review, a study conducted by Wakefield Research.

Of the marketers surveyed, 98% face challenges to creativity and strategy, despite their tiny steps in using AI. They cite four parallel issues: 

• Emphasis on KPIs, which inhibits a focus on creativity — 42%
• Too much time spent on business-as-usual execution and tasks — 42%
• Lack of technology to execute creative ideas — 41%
• Hard to demonstrate ROI impact of creativity — 40% 

Yet 79% of marketers are confident AI can automate routine tasks and free up time for creative thinking. They hope to deploy AI for the following:

• Generate creative ideas — 48%
• Automate repetitive tasks — 47%
• Optimize strategies in real time — 47%
• Enhance data analysis — 47%
• Power predictive analytics — 45%
• Personalize campaigns — 44%

Another creative hurdle is that many brands lack a clear view of their customers and the ability to act on the data they do have. The respondents say they: 

• Export performance feedback to business-intelligence platforms to generate advanced analytics — 50%
• Sync performance with insights generated by other platforms in the business — 48%
• Apply their customer insights to their product and brand/creative strategy — 6%

In addition, only 24% are mapping customer behavior and sentiment. 

However, a mere 22% of brands are focused solely on upstream metrics like opens and clicks. Of those polled, 54% are also boost downstream metrics like retention and monetization. 

Email came in a close second among the channels being used:

• Messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Line or KakaoTalk — 47%
• Email — 45%
• Mobile and web push — 43%
• Targeted app or web content — 41%
• Paid media powered by first-party data — 41%
• In-app/in-browser messaging — 40%

“Marketers are utilizing the power of AI to ignite creativity and craft personalized experiences that resonate with today’s consumer,” concludes Astha Malik, chief business officer of Braze. “And by tapping into valuable first-party data and fostering cross-functional collaboration, marketers can transform this data into captivating campaigns that build loyalty and growth.”

Wakefield Research surveyed 1,900 marketing executives across three global regions — the Americas, APAC and EMEA — in December 2023.