Ask any marketer if they’re confident with AI and most will tell you they’ve got it nailed. Yet fewer than half say their organization has a clearly defined AI strategy and many admit they’re still struggling to prove ROI.
(Igor Omilaev via Unsplash)
B2B marketing has never been accused of moving fast, but AI appears to have changed that. The Drum’s AI Marketing Pulse 2025 study, in partnership with Gut Network and drawn entirely from senior B2B marketing professionals, reveals an industry that has transitioned from experimentation to full integration in record time.
A massive 96% rate their team’s ability to use AI as ‘high’ while 92% say they’re personally confident. On the surface, that’s remarkable progress. Ask who’s actually in charge of AI in their business, however, and suddenly everyone’s looking at the tech team.
That, in a nutshell, is the paradox of the research: B2B marketers are brimming with confidence in AI, but not always in control of it. Scratch below the optimism and a more complex picture appears. While marketers feel empowered, it’s innovation leads and tech teams who are really steering the ship. Only 16% say the CMO is in charge of AI. 36% point to innovation leads, 20% to the CTO or CIO.
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In other words, AI may be transforming marketing, but marketing isn’t always transforming AI. That loss of control matters. As new budgets are being created for 40% of respondents, the rest is shifting from creative (28%) and media (22%) lines into automation tools. The risk isn’t that AI will take marketers’ jobs – it’s that it might quietly take their judgement.
Most respondents say AI is already making their marketing better, with 74% reporting improved effectiveness and 78% claiming time savings. And it’s not just about automation: 70% say AI has improved campaign performance and 66% have seen a lift in customer experience.
Three-quarters of respondents now have formal AI policies in place. That’s a big leap from a year ago. But that hasn’t stopped anxiety from creeping in: almost half still worry about ethical or reputational risk. That gap – between paperwork and peace of mind – suggests many companies have written policies but not yet embedded them.
Because this research focused entirely on B2B marketers, it offers a rare snapshot of a community often overlooked in the AI conversation.
Consumer brands grab headlines, but it’s the business-to-business world that’s experimenting at scale: embedding AI into pricing, customer data, account-based marketing and sales enablement.
If anything, B2B’s complexity makes it the perfect AI testbed – long cycles, dense data, high stakes. And that may explain the optimism. When used well, AI can finally do what B2B marketing has always wanted: make the complex simple.
B2B marketers have never felt more confident, or more exposed. They’ve proved they can use AI. The next challenge is to own it. Until CMOs reclaim a bigger share of decision-making from the tech stack, AI will keep changing B2B marketing – just not always on their terms.
The Drum’s B2B Month continues with more deep-dives, debates and data-led insights. The full findings, including a look at where AI could go next, will be featured in a report in late November in the AI Marketing Pulse hub, tracking how AI is reshaping the modern marketer’s toolkit.
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