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5 Key Findings on the State of Artificial Intelligence in B2B Marketing

Erica Perng | April 3, 2019

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a big buzzword in B2B marketing for several years now, but how are marketers really using AI? And does the hype match up to reality?

To answer these questions and get a better sense of marketers’ understanding, usage, impact and optimism surrounding AI, we teamed up with Demand Metric and Salesforce Pardot to conduct a survey of over 100 B2B marketing and sales people. Below, we’ve highlighted five of our key findings.

1. There is strong interest in AI among marketing and sales.

84 percent of study participants are currently planning, evaluating, implementing or using AI.

2. AI is expected to deliver benefits that check off some long-standing items on the sales and marketing wish lists.

  • 67 percent listed higher quality leads/opportunities
  • 56 percent listed better engagement with prospects and customers
  • 52 percent listed better understanding of buyer intent

3. Study participants planning for AI list top-of funnel applications as priorities.

  • 64% list identifying the right accounts or individuals to target
  • 54% list improving the reach or efficiency of digital advertising
  • 46% list capturing intent signals from accounts or individuals

 

4. The B2B marketers in the study’s overall sample had high expectations on the time-to-value for AI.

84% of study participants expect to see value from AI in less than a year.

5. The biggest barriers to AI implementation and usage are skills and cost.

  • Cost/budget constraints (55%)
  • Skills/team (52%)
  • Unsure how to start (31%)

Interested in learning more about these findings? Check out our webinar, “The State of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in B2B Marketing” on Wednesday, April 24, 2019 at 9 a.m. PT/12:00 p.m. ET, where we discuss these results in greater detail. You can also download an abridged version of the benchmark report here.

Survey Methodology

The survey was administered online from Dec. 8, 2018 to Jan 25, 2019. 315 responses were collected, 112 of which were complete enough and qualified for inclusion in the analysis.

While the survey collected data from all types and sizes of organizations, only data from B2B organizations with annual revenues of $25 million or more were included in the analysis.