India CMOs Under Pressure To Deliver Profitability, See AI As Key Growth Lever: IBM Study

Chief marketing officers are under growing pressure to drive profitability and revenue growth, even as they navigate the complex demands of AI integration, ecosystem leadership and talent transformation, the IBM CMO Study 2025 shows.

The study by the IBM Institute for Business Value, which surveyed 1,800 CMOs and chief sales officers, shows that 63% of Indian CMOs are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with their global counterparts (64%). Additionally, 53% are directly responsible for driving revenue growth, underscoring the CMO's expanding role beyond traditional brand stewardship.

Indian CMOs are prioritising customer experience, tech modernisation and business model innovation, alongside scaling service delivery and marketing, and sales effectiveness. Yet, they face critical gaps in responsible AI, talent readiness, and data utilisation. The findings highlight a growing disconnect between ambition and execution in the age of generative AI.

"While the potential of AI is clear, what’s needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset, and AI augmentation," said Tuhina Pandey, director, APAC Communications & Marketing, India and South Asia, IBM.

• Responsible AI Gap: Only 26% of Indian CMOs have established responsible AI guidelines to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in automated decision-making.

• Lack Of Talent: While 44% of CMOs believe their function is ready to integrate agentic AI, only 26% believe they have the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. In India, just 23% of CMOs have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational shifts AI agents will bring.

• Untapped Data: Almost 63% agreed that generative AI’s value lies in proprietary data, yet only 1% of enterprise data is being tapped.

• Cross-Functional Silos: Only one-third of organisations have a cross-functional view of the customer journey. CMOs estimate that fully aligning marketing, sales, and operations could unlock up to a 20% increase in revenue.