Conversica, Inc, the leading provider of AI-powered Conversation Automation solutions for enterprise revenue teams, announced the results of its latest research study The 2024 Marketing Executive AI Sentiment Report.

“Conversica’s latest Report shows businesses have moved past the ChatGPT frenzy and beyond the experimental stage to understand how AI becomes their competitive advantage”

The Report explores the advantages marketing leaders believe AI brings to revenue growth and their brand over the past year, and plans for its use in the next 12 months by CMOs, VPs, and marketing executives. The Report also reveals top use cases where marketing leaders are leveraging AI for revenue growth, and highlights their general AI trust sentiment.

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Key Findings:

• 89% of marketing leaders reported AI-driven initiatives have directly contributed to an increase in revenue within the last year
• 90% plan to increase investment in AI by expanding the use of current tools or exploring new AI applications in the next year
• Marketing leaders believe AI technologies have the greatest potential to impact the middle of the funnel (44%), with lead nurture and qualification topping their list of use cases with the greatest impact on conversion rates and revenue (45%)
• 69% of respondents reveal their top concern is AI’s ability to deliver trustworthy, brand-accurate information
• 53% of marketing leaders are concerned about losing human oversight in customer interactions with the use of AI

Download the full survey report here.

AI Adoption in Marketing

With fewer than 5% of marketing executives reporting no AI usage in the past 12 months, The 2024 Marketing Executive AI Sentiment Report confirms AI has been widely adopted for marketing in the last year. Data on respondents’ plans for the future show that AI for marketing use will continue to grow over the next 12 months, with 46% planning to increase investment in AI technology they already use and 44% planning to experiment with new applications.

“Conversica’s latest Report shows businesses have moved past the ChatGPT frenzy and beyond the experimental stage to understand how AI becomes their competitive advantage,” said Jim Kaskade, CEO of Conversica. “Savvy marketing leaders who strategically adopt comprehensive AI-powered Conversational Automation solutions for revenue-centric business operations such as lead generation, engagement, and conversions are already experiencing steady growth and concrete revenue-generating results. In fact, I’ll be as bold to say, ‘adopt or die’. For CMOs executing on the status quo, get ready for the unemployment line.”

A key finding from the Report identified a correlation between specific AI use cases and sales conversions that resulted in revenue. Marketing leaders who plan to prioritize AI use for inbound lead engagement and outbound lead generation next year were more likely to have experienced a direct increase in revenue attributed to AI use within the last year.

Looking beyond their own immediate plans, nearly half (45%) of Marketing leaders rated lead nurture and qualification as the AI use case with the highest potential to impact conversion rates and drive revenue growth.

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Over the next 12 months, respondents’ plans for AI use cases to impact the funnel include:

• Improving real-time engagement and responsiveness to leads (65.5%)
• Scaling outbound marketing for lead generation (59.5%)

Inbound follow-up, which the group selected as their top planned use case for the next year, was a distant second when compared to potential conversion rate impact, with less than a quarter placing it at the top of their list.

“As new tools are launched and marketing use cases continue to expand across businesses and industries, we expect to see organizations focus on refining their AI strategies and applications to harness their full potential. In the next year, AI will deliver even more revenue opportunities and impact growth as marketing executives scale their use cases and reap the benefits,” added Kaskade.

Overall Trust in AI is High, With Brand Accuracy a Top Concern

The Report revealed that 89.5% of marketing leaders trust AI at least somewhat to act autonomously within their organizations, with 44.5% reporting complete trust and 44.5% some trust. When asked to highlight their specific concerns for Conversational AI use cases, respondents cited AI’s ability to deliver trustworthy, brand-accurate information most (69%), followed by losing human oversight in customer interactions (53%).

Given these concerns, to ensure a reliable AI integration process within a company, leaders must create a transparent process that allows human oversight and only acquire solutions from trusted AI providers that have proven track records for success in the specific use cases they’re seeking to deploy. Learn more about the ethical use of AI in Conversica’s AI, Ethics and Corporate Responsibility Report.