AI Integration in Marketing: 73% Report 'Measurable' ROI

Marketing teams use synthetic customer personas to test assumptions before campaigns reach real audiences. AI scans competitor positioning. The technology identifies patterns and opportunities. Shultz says the creative leap still belongs to humans. "AI can tell us what's typical," Shultz says. "Human creativity tells us what's possible. The difference between those two defines great marketing."

Internally, Shultz's group builds AI-powered assistants to help marketers plan and train more efficiently. The tools also handle measurement. For lean teams, he says, it offers a significant advantage. "AI helps us scale what we can deliver without sacrificing the quality of the thinking or the creativity behind it."

Shultz also notes a less obvious benefit. AI can be asked to act as a skeptical CFO, helping identify the financial metrics that best demonstrate campaign impact. "It enables everybody to scale up their capabilities," he says.

The report's broader finding: AI accelerates iteration and decision-making. The real differentiator is human judgment. Without it, Shultz warns, "you're just accelerating toward the average."