AI in marketing: companies scale technology and increase campaign ROI by up to 25%

Over the past two years, companies have consistently and securely adopted generative artificial intelligence to transform their marketing strategies, according to a Bain survey of more than 180 major U. S. companies, 27% of respondents said generative AI exceeded their expectations in the industry.

In retail, for example, technology has enabled more accurate customer segmentations, agile content creation and testing, and highly personalized recommendations. AI-driven campaigns already have a return on investment between 10% and 25% higher.

Despite initial success, scaling up these initiatives is not simple.The enterprise digital ecosystem is complex and the demand for personalization requires new processes.MoCs are under pressure to innovate with fewer resources, making it essential to accelerate the implementation of generative AI at scale.

The research shows that 25% of organizations are still in the initial phase of implementing AI in marketing, with proofs of concept and few changes in the business model created by technology. Most (65%) integrates a second wave, with value creation in product viability and expansion of IT and data teams. The remaining 10% already have autonomous tasks, redesigning processes, adding operational value and profit through the expansion of cases and innovation.

The main benefits pointed out by companies with the adoption of AI are agility, with a reduction of up to 50% in the time of launching campaigns; efficiency, since the time of content creation has fallen from 30% to 50%; and return on investment, with the increase of up to 40% in click rates in hyper-through campaigns.

Setting priorities to leverage the impact of generative AI on marketing depends heavily on the business objectives of each company. However, Bain has identified four areas that stand out in this purpose: streamlining workflows; creating and customizing content; customer intelligence and insights; and measuring and optimizing campaigns.

In addition, to accelerate the maturity in the use of technology, five actions are fundamental:

1. Set ambitious and measurable goals, setting clear objectives for operational efficiency, personalization and financial impact;
2. Prioritize big gains instead of multiple tests ''organizations that focus efforts on a few use cases with great impact scale faster.
3. Develop end-user solutions, and integrated into the day-to-day work of the teams, involving their own professionals in the development of the tools;
4. Continuously empower employees, and conducting practical training and real challenges essential to expand the adoption of technology;
5. Expand the partner ecosystem ^the vendor landscape in this area is still evolving, but companies must quickly test specialized solutions and keep up with innovations from their partners.

Generative AI is no longer new and has become a competitive need in marketing. More advanced companies are already rethinking their partner strategy, large-scale personalization and even the future of the industry with AI assistants. For those still stuck in point testing, it is time to accelerate adoption, scale initiatives and capture the real benefits of this technological revolution.