Interviews, insight & analysis on digital media & marketing

AI adoption growing rapidly among B2B marketers in US

Research from ON24, an intelligent engagement platform for B2B sales and marketing, has found that the adoption of AI tools in B2B marketing is growing, with 84% of businesses planning to integrate more AI into their marketing strategies.

From a survey of more than 500 US-based B2B marketers, “The State of AI in B2B Marketing” found that more than half of respondents (53%) are already using AI significantly in marketing and 1 in 3 (33%) are actively testing AI and building a roadmap for implementation. 

The top reasons why B2B marketers are increasingly turning to AI include a belief that it will lead to better buyer experiences (84%) and improve personalization efforts (83%). Nearly 9 in 10 organizations (85%) agree that businesses that use AI will see stronger revenue performance than those that don’t.

Financial services (67%) and technology (53%) are the industries that are using AI in B2B marketing the most. They are followed by professional services (50%), manufacturing (50%) and life sciences / pharma / healthcare (44%). Life sciences / pharma / healthcare are the industries that are planning to up their adoption of AI the most, and are expected to double their usage of AI the next year, with 86% of companies planning to invest in AI.

The study found that marketers are currently using AI primarily for content development – Promotional content development (landing pages, email copy – 63%), analytics and measurement (59%), content development (e-books, blogs – 49%), audience segmentation (47%), and webinars and virtual events (45%) are the most prevalent AI uses of marketers today.

Increased productivity is one of the biggest drivers behind AI adoption. 91% of respondents believe that integration of AI in B2B marketing will increase productivity. 87% of businesses agree that AI will make marketing automation more efficient and effective.

Marketers believe that better data and insights (54%), efficiency (52%), time saving (50%), improved ROI (48%) and better business results (44%) will be the key reasons for investing in AI.

Medium-sized businesses are the fastest adopters of AI. Companies with revenue between $25M and $100M (61%) are using AI more than those with revenue less (50%) than $25M and $100M+ (48%).

The full report can be viewed here.