Customers want dialogue, and marketers can’t keep up

Eighty-three percent of marketers say customers expect two conversations. However, 69% admit that they struggle to answer questions quickly. That gap may be the most important signal in Salesforce’s latest State of Marketing report.

The AI ​​revolution in marketing is already underway. Nearly 4,500 marketers surveyed worldwide confirm that expectations are rising faster than most teams can adapt. Although 75% of organizations already use at least one form of AI, execution still lags behind ambition.

This is no longer just a CMO problem. It’s a marketing truism.

Three out of four marketing teams use AI in some way, according to the report. On paper, that sounds like a sweeping change. In practice, many teams are still layering AI tools on top of disconnected data and legacy workflows.

Marketers say AI can help them recover valuable time each week. That recovered time exceeds speed. It represents an increased capacity for strategy, creative thinking and customer insight. But value only comes when marketers develop the skills to guide, interpret and manage AI systems effectively.

Data analysis and AI fluency are quickly becoming core competencies. A marketer who can’t interpret data or program AI tools will struggle to stay relevant.

Marketers trust AI to talk to customers

Eighty-one percent of marketers now say they trust AI to answer customer questions. That represents a breakthrough moment. AI agents can provide around-the-clock responsiveness at a scale that human teams alone cannot handle.

Answering without qualification is short. To deliver meaningful conversations, AI must be powered by aggregated, contextual customer data.

Salesforce’s findings highlight an ongoing problem. Many sales teams still lack full access to customer data across departments.

If service, sales and marketing data remain anonymous, personalization suffers. AI systems cannot accurately predict behavior or recommend the best next actions without complete visibility.

As a result, personalization efforts often fail. Eighty-four percent of marketers agree that their campaigns still feel familiar. That emphasizes an important point. AI itself cannot create personalization. Connected data drives meaningful personalization.

Some improvements are evident. A growing share of marketers are using predictive behavior to segment audiences. But predictive power requires investment in data architecture, management and cross-alignment.

Agent marketing is about implementation

A clear sign that agent marketing is emerging is not something that makes sense. It works. Sixty-one percent of marketers say their organizations are experimenting with or fully utilizing AI agents. That means standalone systems are no longer side projects. They enter the live workflow.

This change is strategic, not tactical. Sixty-eight percent of marketers say productivity AI is important to their overall marketing strategy. That level of prioritization suggests that AI is becoming an infrastructure, not a campaign tool.

Independence, however, depends on time and situation. Sixty-four percent of marketers say that activating real-time data is critical to their success. Agent systems cannot operate on delayed reporting. They need real-time signals to trigger the best actions, tailor journeys and personalize responses as interactions happen.

The data base also separates the leaders from the laggards. Fifty-seven percent of the best performing marketing teams report that they have an integrated customer data platform in place. That integrated view allows AI agents to act with awareness rather than guesswork.

Taken together, these numbers point in the same direction. Marketing is moving towards systems that do more than just help people. They work alongside them, initiate journeys, adjust messages and improve communication on an ongoing basis.

Opportunity is not self-made. It is integrated automation powered by real-time data and integrated customer context.

Sales go hand in hand with income

Profit accountability is no longer desirable. It is measurable. According to Salesforce, 83% of high-performing marketers report that they have a clear view of their impact on the sales pipeline, compared to the lowest visibility among underperforming groups.

Alignment has structure. More than half of marketers say their top KPIs are now directly linked to revenue growth and pipeline contribution instead of engagement metrics alone. At the same time, 60% report that improving the orchestration of the customer journey across marketing, sales and service is a priority, reinforcing the need for lifecycle visibility.

Data integration appears as a dividing line. Fifty-seven percent of high-performing teams say they have an integrated customer data platform in place. That integrated view enables seamless reporting, clear disclosure and strong financial and executive accountability. Sales are no longer measured by output volume. It is evaluated for growth contribution.

Personalization is still a very difficult challenge

As revenue streams accelerate, personalization continues to evolve. Eighty-four percent of marketers agree that their campaigns still feel familiar, despite years of investment in segmentation and automation.

The gap is not awareness. Seventy-eight percent of marketers say they need more personalized content than they can currently produce. Meanwhile, 64% say using real-time data is critical to success, yet many teams still lack the infrastructure to consistently deliver on those expectations.

Fragmented data remains a major obstacle. Only 57 percent of top performing teams report having aggregated customer data, leaving a large portion of the market unable to personalize without full context. AI can scale content production, but without strong data management and connected systems, automation simply speeds up standard output.

The result is a paradox. Hyper-personalization tools are widely available, but the operational basis to be used at scale is not yet balanced.

Salesforce State of Marketing Report