Marketing is going through a purpose crisis. In a scenario of stagnant budgets, pressure for results, and increasingly fragmented customer journeys, many teams have switched to autopilot mode. The answer to any problem seems to always be the same: more campaigns, more performance media investment, more deliverables in less time. But recent numbers show the limits of this model. The Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2025 reveals that more than half of campaigns executed globally did not generate the expected sales return.
Even with this warning, 55% of CMOs say they will increase investment in performance channels in 2025. All this while the ROAS (return on ad spend) – the metric that measures how much a company earns for every dollar invested in ads – becomes increasingly unstable. What was once a solid metric for guiding decisions has turned into a volatility thermometer. Consumer behavior is changing, channels are saturated, and the model of insisting on the same formulas is generating more wear and tear than results.
It is in this context that Artificial Intelligence stops being a promise and becomes a strategic necessity. The survey shows that 41% of CMOs already use AI to automate key tasks, while 33% are integrating advanced technologies, including AI, to boost operational efficiency. But the most critical point is not the adoption of technology itself—it’s what companies are doing with this gain in speed. Without a leap in strategy and final deliverables, AI risks becoming just an accelerator of mediocrity.
The good news is that there is another path. When applied well, AI can free marketing teams from repetitive operational tasks, creating space for what really matters: thinking, creating, and connecting. Here, generative AI (GenAI) plays an increasingly decisive role. Not just as a tool for analyzing data or generating reports, but as a partner in creating images, videos, texts, and pieces that reach the audience with consistency, identity, and purpose. At Pupila, we see this firsthand every day: technology is enabling brands to create at scale without sacrificing originality.
But if there’s one lesson this moment imposes on CMOs, it’s this: efficiency without empathy does not build brands. Automation is welcome, but it cannot replace human sensibility. The challenge now is to use AI to gain agility, yes—but above all, to open space for more human decisions. It’s not enough to know what the consumer clicked. You need to understand what they feel, what drives their choices, and what can truly create a genuine emotional connection.
While some leaders will continue chasing scale at any cost, the CMOs who understand the power of humanization—supported by technology, not despite it—will be the ones who build brands with a real presence in people’s lives. Because, in the end, marketing remains, above all, about people talking to people.
The future will belong to those who know how to combine artificial intelligence with emotional intelligence.
