WEBVTT

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I think the story of 2027,

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if I could leave you with one prediction,

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is that we'll be talking
about agent-native brands.

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BCG's annual CMO survey

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tracks how marketing leaders

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are dealing with AI transformation.

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What's the big headline this year,

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and why does it matter?

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CMOs this year, they're
in the driver's seat,

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and the quick stat that
illustrates it so well

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is that 50% of CMOs tell us

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that they're making the
AI investment decisions

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for their function.

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That's almost double
what it was last year.

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So with that great power

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comes great responsibility.

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They're also telling
us that CEOs and boards

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are ramping up expectations,

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not just in terms of
delivering productivity gains

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but also measurable growth gains.

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So the good news,

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we've gone from pilot purgatory last year

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to actually driving the AI transformation

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in the marketing function,

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but now we got to deliver.

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The survey sort of shows this

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widening gap between the marketing leaders

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who are pulling ahead

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and those who are being left behind.

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What is it they're doing differently

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that's leading to those outcomes?

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Well, and that's the
headline of this year.

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That's the story of our
CMO survey this year.

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We've got this wide gap

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between illusion and reality.

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Almost every CMO tells us,

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"I'm doing an AI
transformation in my function,"

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but look under the hood,

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and it's mostly a shallow transformation.

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The third of CMOs that
are doing the hard work,

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they're not just scaling up a few pilots

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here and there

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in content creation or the like.

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They're going end to end,

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transforming insights, to briefing,

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to content, to activation.

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They're also doing the hard work

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around the tech and people processes.

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And if you were to offer

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one bit of advice to a CMO

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for how you make the most difference,

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lasting impact, over the next 12 months,

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what would it be?

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Well, our survey report findings

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are chockfull of practical tips from CMOs,

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and they do center around the people

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and the technology.

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On the people front,

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I think some of the
practical bits of advice are,

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number one, how do I upskill my people?

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CMOs can't hire this
talent, it doesn't exist.

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So for example, a tech CMO told us,

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"Every Monday morning

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I send my team a simple video lesson.

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Five minutes, learn a new skill,

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and try it out right away.

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And the whole team blocks off

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50 minutes in their calendar,

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picks up that skill, and runs with it."

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Every lesson builds on the last one,

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and the team has been massively upskilled.

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You also have another pharma CMO sharing

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how she set up this team of AI wizards.

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These are curious experimenters

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who are constantly checking out

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the latest new tools in a safe environment

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and then bringing to the tech folks

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the tools that are the best ones,

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the next ones that they want
to roll out and scale up.

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And then these AI wizards

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are also the change agents

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for scaling up these new
tools and the processes.

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On the tech front,

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CMOs are also investing

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in the agentic tech stack-

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obviously in partnership
with the CIO, CTO-

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they're cleaning up the data layer,

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that's still critical.

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But I think in the agentic age,

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there's also a new bit that
they have to get right,

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what I call the brand intelligence layer.

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So this is basically competing on

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how your best marketers do the work

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and codifying that on
top of your data layer

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so that the agents can access the data

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in the right way.

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For example, with a beauty company,

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we set up a briefing agent.

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When we simply put the
agent on top of the data,

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it was basically useless,

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less than 50% accurate.

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When we put in place

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this brand intelligence layer,

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which was understanding

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which data sources to look at,

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which ones to trust,
which ones not to trust,

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what questions the best
marketers were asking

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to verify and improve the
quality of the briefs,

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all that was coded in,

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the draft was 85% accurate and useful.

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So now we could work with that.

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We got real productivity gains.

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The campaigns got better.

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There was less back and forth

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between the agency and the internal teams.

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So you really do have to do the hard work,

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and the devil's in the details

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on the AI transformation.

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And I can't wait for next year

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because I think the story of 2027,

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if I could leave you with one prediction,

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is that we'll be talking
about agent-native brands

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and how, just like we had
digital-native brands,

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brands will figure out a way

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to build these processes from the start

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and grow faster than ever.

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And the established brands

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that don't adopt these processes,

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they'll be left behind.

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So the race is on.

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So much more to come.

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Thanks, Mark.

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That's right.

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(upbeat music)