• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, Yesterday

Some brands are using AI to create their email, but it is doubtful that they are getting the full benefit of the technology, judging by a study from Zeta, titled It’s Time to Get Serious About AI’s Business Value, conducted by Forrester. 

Of the companies polled, 62% described their AI implementation as limited or moderate. 

What’s keeping them from expanded investment in AI? They cite:

• Lack of skills and expertise — 72%
• Data quality and availability — 63%
• Privacy and regulatory concerns (e.g., compliance standards) — 62%

The study points out that marketers are now using AI to ideate, generate and iterate” text, images, audio, and video content.

In midterm development, they would use AI for analytics — i.e., to “define audiences, optimize results, conduct research, and apply AI-based guidance.”

At this stage, they would also utilize AI for marketing operations — to “align budgets, refine capacity planning, set schedules, and prepare briefs.” 

Long-term, AI will be applied to design and orchestrate customer journeys.

At whatever stage they are, marketers predict that adopting AI will deliver these benefits:

• Improved coordination across business units — 41%
• Improved personalization capabilities — 40%
• Improved understanding of customers — 40%
• Increased time-to-market spend — 39%

• Increased ROI on marketing spend — 64%
• Improved customer retention — 63%
• Increased revenue — 58%
• Improved ability to show marketing as a trusted advisor/leader in the business — 57%
• Enhanced decision-making (data driven, predictive) — 54%

In a general way, the respondents listed these key priorities for the next 12 months:

• Optimizing revenue and organizational processes — 49%
• Improving marketing alignment and collaboration with other departments — 46%
• Improving customer experience — 49%
• Improving use of implemented AI capabilities — 46%

Forrester surveyed 300 martech decision makers in March 2025.