Research Shows AI Helps Save Up to Five Weekly Hours in Marketing and Sales

Over 70% of marketing and sales professionals state that the use of artificial intelligence increases productivity. With time optimization, 67% of users are able to save two to five hours weekly. This is revealed by the sixth edition of the annual report on the sales and marketing market (State of Sales and Marketing Report 2024/2025) conducted by Pipedrive, an easy and effective CRM for small businesses.

The research surveyed 1,060 professionals across 82 countries, including Brazil. The survey shows that AI adoption is highest in medium-sized companies, while large companies are progressing more slowly, due to the complexity of current systems, challenging approval processes, and other factors related to data collection, standards, and regulations. Regarding user profiles, professionals between 18 and 35 years old are twice as likely to adopt AI tools compared to those aged 65 or older.

“Like any powerful tool, AI opens endless opportunities to save time, simplify workflows, and even boost creative thinking. But true success comes from using it with measured confidence, a healthy dose of critical thinking, and a strategic, consistent, and scalable approach to adoption. Much of this success starts with us, building awareness, asking better questions, and fostering a culture that balances innovation with responsibility, both as individuals and as companies,” states Paulo Cunha, CEO of Pipedrive.

See the key findings of the survey (State of Sales and Marketing Report 2024/2025) by Pipedrive:

1- Use of AI in sales: communication tasks predominate

When analyzing the use of AI in sales, a clear trend can be observed: the majority of professionals who have adopted AI in their processes use the tool mainly for communication tasks, such as content creation (76%), summarizing existing content (56%), and preparing sales materials (46%).

On the other hand, fewer than one in four respondents use AI for activities more related to data, such as pattern analysis or predictions. This reveals an as-yet underexplored potential of AI. 
 

2- AI is mainly used to create marketing content

Marketing professionals also use the technology primarily to create content and perform other communication tasks. The most common uses of AI include generating social media posts (62%), advertising content (58%), and blog articles (56%), followed by content summarization (53%).

3- Time saving is one of the main benefits of AI adoption

For the majority of users (67%), AI helps save between two and five hours per week. Sales and marketing professionals working in micro and small businesses (with up to 100 employees) have implemented AI more successfully than those in larger companies, reporting greater time savings.

Marketing teams use AI mainly to generate new content. The tool has proven especially efficient in this area, with professionals estimating greater time savings compared to people in sales roles.

4- AI has a positive impact on productivity and overall employee performance

Over 70% of respondents who implemented AI state that it contributed to increasing their productivity. AI tools are also recognized as

useful for performance improvements. 

Marketing managers form the group most engaged in adopting AI into workflows. At least 41% of sales managers and 75% of marketing managers have adopted AI, compared to 34% of sales representatives and 54% of marketing professionals.

5- Large companies are slower to adopt AI

Adoption is highest in medium-sized companies (44%). Large companies are progressing more slowly (30%), due to the complexity of current systems, challenging approval processes, and other factors related to data collection, standards, and regulations.

“AI seems to be everywhere, which creates the illusion that it is already used by everyone, but the data tells a different story. Large organizations, in particular, face significant obstacles: legacy systems, complex internal processes, and stricter compliance requirements often delay adoption. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized businesses tend to be more agile, as they have simpler structures and can make decisions more quickly, giving them a clear advantage when testing and integrating AI into their workflows,” explains Viktoria Ruubel, CPO of Pipedrive. 

To download the full report, click here.