55% global B2B marketers to up spend on AI bots in 2025: Forrester

Artificial intelligence (AI) can undoubtedly simplify our lives but not before complicating it just enough to create panic about taking away jobs and being reliable enough for carrying out end-to-end tasks. The marketing function is not immune to the wave of AI sweeping through organisations.

A study by market research firm Forrester reveals that only 12% marketing leaders believe their current organisational design will help them meet revenue targets. Even more concerning, just 7% believe they have the right skills and competencies to tackle the demands of their jobs.

Subhendu Pattnaik, principal analyst, Forrester, points out that this rapidly evolving landscape will lead CMOs to frequently reorganise their teams, yet may still fail to fix what truly ails them. Giving an example of potential restructuring, he says, “Take sales development or business development representatives who might be aligned with the sales team in the organisation. They might be realigned with the marketing team if they are not achieving their objectives in the sales department.” 

The two teams aim to achieve the same goal but do things differently. Sales reps speak one-to-one, while marketing is one-to-many communication. Sometimes the situation demands the marketing team to be turned into a sales support function. “But these superficial team reallocations and restructuring alone won’t solve the problem,” says Pattnaik.

Referring to the sales function muscling out marketing, he says, campaigns need to be structured in a hierarchy. “A brand campaign at the top level, followed by campaigns of different business units and the specific services or offerings. Unless a brand follows this strategy at the grassroots level, all they are doing is superficial team reallocation—that won’t fix the underlying issues.” Further, upskilling talent to blend human and machine competencies will be a key focus area for marketing teams in 2025.

91% of B2B buyers who have used GenAI technology or planning to use it say that it is helping them make better buying decisions

Forrester predicts that by 2025, AI coworkers will become valued marketing team members in two out of five organisations; however, this won’t impact marketing departments’ headcount. The report adds that although adoption is on the rise, GenAI tools are not seen as trustworthy enough to cause workforce contraction just yet. Around 55% global B2B marketing leaders plan to increase spend on AI-powered assistants and conversation automation solutions in the next year.

The big shocker for Pattnaik from the Forrester predictions for 2025 is the widespread and surprisingly highly-effective use of AI in B2B buying. “Generative AI is a new technology. The effectiveness of AI is yet to be proven. But we see that people are using it and figuring it out. It was surprising to learn that 91% of B2B buyers who have used the technology or planning to use it say that it is helping them make better buying decisions.” 

As per the study, 65% of buyers say that GenAI is helping them reduce time to research and helping them look at more vendors. The report finds that GenAI will drive 50% B2B buyers to consider five or more providers for large purchases but will shrink buying cycles.

65% of B2B buyers say that GenAI is helping them reduce time to research and helping them look at more vendors

The other significant finding for markets is that while the buying cycle has become shorter, marketers have less control over it. “Reducing the buying cycle was always a marketer's dream, but now that has happened, we are feeling that it is suddenly out of control. Earlier, a marketer had 20 interactions with a buyer and if 3-4 went wrong, you had several more as leeway.” 

But now the same 15-20% error margin is down to one interaction going wrong in five interactions. “That's a big shift for a marketer. CMOs have to start looking at or engaging buyers way before they have made up their minds that these are the five providers I work with,” says Pattnaik.