• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, February 5, 2025

Brands are warming up to AI and are steadily gaining expertise -- especially in the email area, judging by The Evolution Of AI in Marketing 2025, a study by Ascend2. 

Of the firms polled, 60% are somewhat successful at using AI to achieve their marketing objectives. And 25% say they are very successful, or best in class. Only 14% are unsuccessful. 

But they are not using AI as widely as they might.  Only 17% have extensively integrated AI across multiple channels, while 39% have applied it in select areas. Another 26% are exploring AI but have not yet implemented it. And 13% have no plans to use AI in marketing. Finally, 6% are unsure. 

Why this hesitation? Because brands face several challenges in adopting AI for marketing:

• High costs of AI tools — 38% 
• Data privacy and compliance concerns — 37%
• Integration with existing systems —37%
• Lack of internal expertise—35% 
• Ethical concerns — 32%
• Lack of clear ROI — 25% 
• Resistance to change/lack of buy-in — 24%
• Other — 8%

In addition, brands share these concerns about using Ai in marketing: 

• Loss of creativity and human touch—54% 
• Over-reliance on AI—42% 
• Ethical issues with data usage — 40%
• Lack of transparency in how AI makes decisions — 35%
• Bias in AI-driven decisions — 29% 
• Job displacement fears — 27%
• Other — 6%

Despite these issues, marketers are applying AI in multiple ways. 

Which AI-driven marketing tactics are most effective? The respondents cite:

• Content creation and management — 37% 
• Email marketing optimization — 36% 
• Social media management and ad targeting — 35% 
• Personalization of content — 33% 
• Chatbots and conversational AI — 25% 
• Predictive analytics for customer behavior — 22%
• Audience segmentation and targeting — 22% 
• Voice and visual search optimization — 20% 
• Other—14% 

Here are the tools they are using: 

• AI-driven content creation tools — 32% 
• Marketing automation platforms with AI features — 29%
• Chatbots and conversational AI platforms — 29% 
• Ad targeting and optimization tools — 29%
• Predictive analytics tools — 28%
• Social listening tools with AI — 24% 
• Voice and visual search tools — 22%
• Customer data platforms (CDPs) with AI capabilities — 21% 
• None of the above — 18% 
• Other — 5% 

Summing up, 76% of marketers agree that firms must adopt AI within the next five years or face a significant competitive disadvantage, and 28% strongly agree. Only 17% somewhat disagree, and 7% strongly oppose this view. 

Ascend2 surveyed 312 marketing decision makers. Of these, 23% are primarily in B2B, 49% in B2C and 28% in B2B and B2C equally.

In addition, 19% of the respondents surveyed work in firms with more than 500 employees, 30% in companies with 50 to 500 and 51% in organizations with fewer than 50.