• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 3, 2025

Marketers are stuck, and that includes those who lead email teams.

The demand for personalized content is surging, but most practitioners are trapped in slow, fragmented workflows, according to a new study titled The Typeface Signal Report.  

The study argues that AI projects must move beyond the pilot stage. But how? 

Of the marketers polled, 82% use AI, yet are stalled in the process.

Here are the top barriers to AI scaling, followed by the percentage of failed pilots:  

• Compliance/legal/privacy concerns — 56%
• Lack of technical resources/IT support — 53% 
• Poor data quality affecting output — 48%
• Brand safety/consistency governance — 48%
• Cultural resistance/change management — 48%
• Poor integration with existing systems — 47%
• Lack of executive sponsorship — 22%

Here are several signals that document problems: 

1. Although 83% expect automation to reduce most agency spending, 47% still can't deliver true personalization, and budget reallocation is happening faster than capability development, creating strategic misalignment.
2. Workflows can't support an improvement in speed of campaigns without systemic change - although 69% of campaigns take 3–4 weeks to launch, 85% of leaders want 1– to-2-week turnarounds 
3. Marketing leaders spend 15+ hours weekly on tasks that can be automated, but are spending 15% less time for strategic planning than desired and remain trapped in execution, with 84% viewing  their role as creative rather than operational
4. While 82% of marketers use AI agents, most implementations remain experimental, preventing the transformation needed for enterprise scaling

Marketers seeking to reverse these conditions must:

• Orchestrate workflows
• Reclaim time for strategy
• Scale with trust

Typeface surveyed 200+ marketing leaders in the United States.