AI helps marketing and sales pros work smarter, but does it drive revenue?
A new report finds mixed opinions on whether AI drives revenue or improves customer experience.
AI usage is widespread in revenue organizations, with 68% of sales and marketing professionals using AI at work and 51% using AI agents, according to a new survey.
The survey, published by the talent and upskilling community General Assembly, found mixed opinions on whether AI helps grow revenue at their organization.
Sixty-one percent of the marketing and sales professionals surveyed said they are not very confident that their use of AI increases revenue, and 46% aren’t very confident it improves the customer experience.
As for productivity, 22% of respondents said AI has not impacted their team’s productivity, and 18% said AI created more work for them and pulled them away from other strategic priorities.
The problem might be in the training, or lack thereof. Fewer than one in five (17%) respondents said they received comprehensive, job-specific training on AI, creating governance and brand safety risks.
Nearly one-third (32%) of sales and marketing professionals said they received no formal AI training, while 20% said the training they did receive was too generic. Fifteen percent reported their training was too focused on concepts over real applications, and 16% sought AI training independently.
Dig deeper: How to get the AI training you need to succeed
The survey also found that a lack of training is a barrier to adoption for those who don’t use AI.
More than two-thirds of those respondents said they have received no formal AI training. Nearly 40% of sales professionals said they want hands-on training specific to sales tasks and workflows. In comparison, 49% of marketers want clear examples of how AI can help with daily responsibilities.
However, those using AI in sales and marketing report positive outcomes: 67% said AI frees up their time to focus on more strategic work, and 56% said their teams have become more productive.
General Assembly surveyed more than 300 marketing and sales employees in the United States and the United Kingdom for the report.
More than half (55%) of respondents use AI fewer than five times a day, while 20% use it more than 10 times daily. Respondents said they use AI for content creation (57%), market research and analytics (49%), sales operations (47%), customer relationship management (42%), and advertising (41%).
Dig deeper: Why active sponsorship is the only way to make AI work
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