CMOs Prioritise AI Investment, but Operational Readiness Falls Behind
A new survey reveals CMOs are increasing AI investments, but most marketing organisations still lack the operational readiness, governance and talent needed to scale AI successfully.
As AI adoption accelerates across the marketing industry, CMOs are under growing pressure to prove measurable business impact from their investments.
Yet, many organisations are discovering that buying AI tools is far easier than building the operational foundations required to scale them effectively. Challenges around governance, talent readiness, process maturity and data integration continue to slow progress, even as AI becomes central to long-term marketing strategies.
A new survey from Gartner highlights how marketing leaders are balancing rising AI ambition with constrained budgets and increasing demands for transformation. The study found that CMOs are now allocating an average of 15.3% of their marketing budgets to AI initiatives. Despite this growing investment, most marketing organisations still lack the maturity required to fully scale AI adoption.
While 70% of CMOs say becoming an AI leader is a critical goal for 2026, only 30% report having mature or fully developed AI readiness capabilities.
AI Ambition Continues to Rise Across Organisations
The annual Gartner CMO Spend Survey was conducted January through March 2026 among 401 CMOs and other marketing leaders in North America, the United Kingdom and Europe across different industries, company sizes and revenue, with the vast majority of respondents reporting annual revenue of over $1 billion.
“CMOs recognise AI’s potential as a force multiplier for growth, efficiency and transformation, but most marketing organisations are not yet built to capture that value,” said Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst and Chief of Research in the Gartner Marketing practice.
“The risk is that CMOs invest in AI tools faster than they build the data foundations, processes, governance and talent required to scale them.”
Marketing budgets remain effectively flat, rising only slightly to 7.8% of company revenue in 2026 from 7.7% in 2025. This constrained fiscal environment is increasing pressure on CMOs to fund AI-enabled transformation through sharper prioritisation and resource reallocation.
CMOs Increase AI Investment, but Readiness Lags
The survey found a clear gap between AI ambition and organisational readiness. 70% of CMOs consider becoming an AI leader to be a critical goal for 2026. However, 70% also acknowledge that their internal marketing processes are not yet mature enough to effectively implement and scale AI.
CMOs whose organisations report mature or fully developed AI readiness capabilities are establishing an early advantage by pairing AI investment with stronger budget agility, innovation commitment and organisational readiness.
These more AI-ready marketing organisations allocate 21.3% of their marketing budgets to AI initiatives, compared with the survey average of 15.3%. They also report average marketing budgets of 8.9% of company revenue, above the 2026 average of 7.8%.
“AI maturity is beginning to separate marketing leaders from laggards,” said McIntyre. “The most advanced CMOs are not simply spending more on AI. They are creating the budget agility, innovation capacity and operating discipline needed to turn AI investment into measurable business impact.”
Constrained Resources Force CMOs to Prioritise AI-Enabled Transformation
While overall marketing budgets have remained effectively flat, CMOs are still expected to deliver growth, efficiency and AI-enabled transformation. The survey found that 56% of CMOs say their marketing organisation lacks the budget required to deliver their 2026 strategy, while 54% report insufficient resources.
This resource gap is forcing CMOs to make sharper decisions about where to invest, what to deprioritise, and how to reallocate existing resources toward capabilities that can create greater business impact.
As AI becomes a larger share of marketing investment, CMOs must ensure those dollars are supported by the right operating model, governance, data foundations and talent.
“CMOs are being asked to deliver growth, efficiency and transformation without meaningful budget expansion,” said McIntyre. “Those who succeed will make deliberate, data-driven trade-offs and treat AI as a force multiplier.”
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