Report: Only 16% of Marketers to Actively Work on AI Products This Year

Although artificial intelligence (AI) is growing as a prominent tactic among marketers, new research suggests that many marketers are still hesitant to turn to it to achieve their top objectives.

The Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) and Forrester Research recently teamed up to publish the “Global Digital Outlook” report for 2018-19, and statistics showed that AI technology and initiatives related to AI-driven digital experiences were at the top of marketers’ minds over the past 12 months. However, only 16 percent of respondents said they are actively working on AI-related projects, and 27 percent have no plans to tackle AI in 2019.

This is not to say that marketers do not believe that AI will impact the way they work. The majority of respondents (56 percent) said “AI technology will significantly impact the way we plan for and design customer interactions.”

Marketers Remain Slow to Adopt AI

AI continues to grow in prominence, but previous research shows that marketers have been slow to adopt it and integrate it into their existing strategies.

Econsultancy and Adobe published the “Digital Intelligence Briefing: 2018 Digital Trends” report to determine how AI is being used by marketers around the world. The statistics showed that many of top-performing companies (43 percent) do not have plans to use AI within the next 12 months. Nearly 29 percent of top performers said they intended to use it, while 28 percent stated that they were already using it.