AI has crossed from experimentation into operations for the modern CMO. Across 100 marketing leaders in Tech, FinServ, Healthcare, Consulting, and other industries, four patterns stood out, and together they change how brands get discovered, chosen, and built.
Four shifts redefining the CMO's stack
- AI is now need-to-have. 90% of CMOs use answer engines daily, and 85% say usage climbed in the past 6 to 12 months. The 10% who haven't made the shift are now the exception, not the norm.
- CMOs are building model stacks. Rather than standardizing on one tool, leaders route each task to whichever model handles it best. Claude leads for strategy and long-form work at 44%, and also leads analysis and research at 21%, while ChatGPT leads content and copy at 29% and Gemini leads Google-ecosystem and data tasks at 23%.
- LLMs are forming the consideration set. 22% of CMOs now start vendor research in an answer engine, ahead of Google or another search engine (16%) and behind only peer recommendations (49%). As one respondent put it, brands now have to worry about more than where they rank in search. What counts is how credibly they show up in AI-generated answers.
- Systems are replacing prompts. 47% of CMOs now run structured AI workflows and agents rather than one-off prompts. 28% require AI fluency when hiring, and 32% expect team restructuring or smaller teams as the marketing org gets redrawn around AI.
Access the full report for the complete task-by-platform breakdown, open-ended CMO commentary, and three recommended moves for building an AI-native marketing team.