Marketing is experiencing a crisis of purpose. In a scenario of stagnant budgets, pressure for results, and increasingly fragmented customer journeys, many teams have gone into autopilot mode. The response to any problem seems to always be the same: more campaigns, more investment in performance media, more deliveries in less time. But recent numbers show the limitations of this model. The Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2025 reveals that over half of the campaigns executed globally did not generate the expected sales return.
Even with this alert, 55% of CMOs state they will increase investment in performance channels in 2025. All this while the ROAS (return on ad spend) – the measure that indicates how much profit a company earns for every dollar spent on ads – is becoming increasingly unstable. What once was a solid metric to guide decisions has now become a thermometer of volatility. Consumer behavior is changing, channels are saturated, and sticking to the same formulas is starting to cause more wear than results.
In this context, Artificial Intelligence stops being a promise and becomes a strategic necessity. The survey indicates that 41% of CMOs already use AI to automate key tasks, and another 33% are integrating advanced technologies, including AI, to enhance the efficiency of their operations. But the most critical point is not the adoption of the technology itself, but what companies are doing with this speed gain. Without a leap in quality in strategy and final deliverables, AI runs the risk of becoming just an accelerator of mediocrity.
The good news is that there is another way. When well applied, 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 only as a tool to analyze data or run reports, but as a partner in creating images, videos, texts, and pieces that reach the final audience with consistency, identity, and purpose. At Pupila, we see this up close every day: technology is enabling brands to create at scale, but without sacrificing originality.
But if there is one lesson that this moment imposes on CMOs is this: efficiency without empathy does not build a brand. Automation is welcome, but it cannot replace human sensitivity. The challenge now is to use AI to gain agility, yes, but mainly to make room for more human decisions. It is not enough to know what the consumer clicked. It is necessary to understand what he feels, what drives his choices, and what can indeed generate a true emotional connection.
While some leaders will continue to pursue scale at any cost, CMOs who understand the power of humanization, with the support of technology, and not despite it – will be the ones to 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 can combine artificial intelligence with emotional intelligence.
