AI happening faster than value creation says McKinsey

16th July 2026 |   Journal Of Sales Transformation

96% of CMOs are excited about AI, yet 71% express anxiety and 80% believe AI could put their own role at risk.

Artificial intelligence could unlock up to $90 billion in improved marketing returns in the US alone, according to new research. Yet, fewer than 10% of organisations have successfully scaled AI across marketing or captured AI’s true value across marketing workflows, according to consultants McKinsey.

“AI adoption is happening faster than value creation. Nearly 60% of marketers are using AI multiple times per week, yet fewer than 10% of organisations have successfully captured value across marketing workflows,” McKinsey senior partner Kelsey Robinson, tells the Journal. “This AI adoption-value disconnect could have profound consequences on the organisations that don’t catch-up.”

McKinsey estimates that, when organisations redesign marketing to be powered by AI, where insight, creation, personalisation, and optimisation operate in real time, they see productivity gains of two to three times, 10-30% in savings, and 4-7% growth in revenue and conversion value.

The research identified five AI capabilities shaping the future of marketing:

1. As agentic commerce plays a greater role in product discovery, evaluation and purchase decisions, a new key role has emerged – the “agent whisperer”. They will ensure brands are accurately represented in AI systems to ensure they can influence the $750 billion of consumer spend that will flow through AI-powered search by 2028.
2. Marketers will shift from segment-based marketing to delivering one-to-one customer experiences delivered in real time. This AI-driven personalization can increase revenue by 5-8%, improve customer satisfaction by 15-20%, and reduce cost-to-serve by up to 30%.
3. Campaign cycles will fade away and be replaced by always-on orchestration. When properly configured, marketing ROI will improve by up to 30%. The time marketers spend on execution tasks will reduce from 60-70% to as little as 10-15%, freeing up teams to focus on higher-value activities.
4. Organisations will move to scaled creativity where large volumes of tailored content will be delivered while maintaining a consistent brand. In some cases, this is already returning two to five-fold increases in creative productivity and 10-30% reductions in creative costs.
5. Marketers will design workflows that give them the ability to translate signals from customers, markets, and channels directly into decisions in real time. One example of this is the creation of digital twins that simulate consumer personas, so they can be used to test responses to campaigns, pricing and products.

Additional McKinsey research carried out in collaboration with Google explores why AI marketing transformations have been “slowrolling”. The research among 500 global marketers uncovered an “AI marketing cognitive dissonance”. While 86% of marketers are excited about AI’s potential, 57% are anxious about its implications. Among CMOs the dissonance was more extreme: 96% are excited about AI, yet 71% express anxiety and 80% believe AI could put their own role at risk.

Two issues are slowing down AI transformations, according to the research:

• Superficial AI execution – Despite 60% of marketers using AI multiple times per week, only 28% say their companies are pursuing a fundamental rewiring of their marketing teams and workflows.
• CFO-CMO AI growth disconnect – More than half of marketers (53%) value AI more as a driver of growth than as a driver of efficiency. However, marketers believe the C-suite values AI for productivity, a concern amplified by the fact that CFOs tend to view marketing as a cost centre.

Marie Gulin-Merle, Global Vice President, Ads and Commerce Marketing at Google adds: “The lines between performance and brand marketers will continue to blur in the next era of AI, requiring us to think more holistically across the entire customer journey. This is giving rise to ‘orchestrators’ – marketers who can connect teams and AI-enabled workflows to drive real business results.”

For more information, see “From campaigns to continuous growth: “AI capabilities shaping marketing” and “From anxiety to advantage: A marketing organization that thrives with AI”. For the CIM view on AI and marketing, see “Bridging the divide” .