AI is making a major impact of email marketing teams, report finds

More than one-quarter (29%) of marketers believe advanced AI-driven content generation and analytics will drive the most significant changes in email marketing in 2025, while 70% predict up to half of their email operations will be AI-driven by 2026. Another 18% expect AI to handle 50-75% of their email marketing tasks.

This data, from the “2025 State of Email” report (registration required) released by Litmus from Validity, shows AI is making inroads into email marketing in many organizations. (Validity acquired Litmus earlier this year.)

In 2025, the report found, 49% of marketers will use generative AI for static copy creation, and the number of marketers using AI-powered image generation has increased by 340% in the last year.

Email marketers continue to navigate frequent mailbox provider updates, advancements in technology, complex privacy regulations and shifting consumer behaviors, the report found. The regulations for bulk email senders put in place by some of the major email providers are well chronicled in MarTech.

The research also found that while most marketers could identify ROI from their email program, 22% of respondents report struggling with measuring or proving ROI. When it comes to personalization, the top challenges are developing personalized content efficiently (17%), collecting and analyzing the data needed for personalization (16%) and measuring the impact of personalization on email performance (15%).

Companies in the report achieving higher ROI from email (36:1 to 50:1) dedicate 25-50% of their marketing team to email operations, suggesting a correlation between investment in email marketing and strong results. There is also a correlation between investment and performance: companies that dedicate more than 15% of their marketing budget to email marketing are twice as likely to have open rates of 40% or more than the average company.

Dig deeper: How to stop wasting money on personalization

“The brands seeing the strongest email marketing results moved beyond traditional tactics to create sophisticated, data-driven programs that respond to individual customer needs,” said Cynthia Price, senior vice president of marketing at Validity, in a statement. “Successful marketing teams invest strategically in both technology and talent, recognizing email isn’t just a cost-effective channel — when executed thoughtfully, it’s a high-performing business driver.”

Other key findings from the State of Email report include:

• Only 6% of teams require more than two weeks to produce an email, compared to 62% in 2024.
• 30% of marketers identify content creation as the most important skill they’re hiring for in email marketing.
• Nearly all marketers (97%) incorporate at least one interactive element in their marketing emails, with buttons or CTAs (35%) ranking as the most effective.
• 14% of marketers cite data privacy compliance as a major operational challenge, increasing to 23% among companies with larger email budgets (15%+).

The research also shows notable differences across industries. Retail and professional services companies primarily leverage email as a brand awareness channel, focusing on engagement metrics. In contrast, tech companies prioritize purchase and transaction history data, using email campaigns as lead drivers.

The report is based on a survey of 692 marketing professionals in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and Ireland from Dec. 30, 2024, to Jan. 16, 2025. The survey group was divided into 176 respondents from members of Litmus’ audience and 516 from a general panel.