AI is used in marketing by two thirds of B2B orgs, Forrester finds

AI is used in marketing by 67% of B2B organizations, according to the new “Global State of AI in B2B Marketing Survey” by Forrester. More than 70% of respondents plan to “moderately” or “significantly” increase their plans for using AI in marketing processes, the study found.

Despite all this adoption, doubts remain about the dependency on the technology and the quality of data used for it. Only fifteen percent of B2B marketers said their data was “optimized.”

Optimistic about AI. A full 60% of survey respondents said the adoption of AI in marketing was positive, while 28% were neutral.

The top use case for AI in B2B marketing was targeting (selected by 40% of respondents). Personalization and marketing automation/tactic orchestration came in tied for second (36%).

Behind those use cases came chatbots and virtual assistants, with 33% of B2B marketers putting them to work for their org’s services and digital experiences.

Build or buy? For those using AI in marketing at their B2B org, 50% said they are purchasing technology with embedded AI capabilities, while 35% are building in-house capabilities.

Also, 29% of respondents are leveraging pretrained AI models through services and/or platforms from third parties. Fifteen percent are purchasing packaged vertical/horizontal AI solutions, while 10% are hiring AI consultancies or other professional services firms.

Why we care. With all the ChatGTP integrations rolling out by major enterprise-level vendors, as well as smaller tech providers, B2B organizations will have more options to choose from in the coming year. This study suggests that adoption is already substantial and likely to climb.