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Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are under growing pressure to drive profitability and revenue growth, even as they navigate the complex demands of AI integration, ecosystem leadership, and talent transformation, according to the latest IBM CMO Study 2025.
The findings from the global study by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) show that 63 per cent of Indian CMOs are now accountable for delivering profitability, closely aligned with their global counterparts (64 per cent). Additionally, 53 per cent are directly responsible for driving revenue growth, underscoring the CMO’s expanding role beyond traditional brand stewardship.
Additionally, Indian CMOs are prioritizing customer experience, tech modernization, and business model innovation to future-proof their organizations, alongside scaling service delivery and marketing, and sales effectiveness. Yet, they face critical gaps in responsible AI, talent readiness, and data utilization. The findings highlight a growing disconnect between ambition and execution in the age of generative AI.
“As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate, and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly,” said Tuhina Pandey, Director – APAC Communications & Marketing, India and South Asia, IBM. She added, “While the potential of AI is clear, what’s needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset, and AI augmentation.”
Some of the key India findings suggest that CMOs are focusing on Customer Experience (41 per cent), scalability of delivery of services (37 per cent), technology modernization (37 per cent), marketing & sales effectiveness (34 per cent), and business model innovation (32 per cent) to drive future readiness.
There is a responsible AI gap wherein only 26 per cent of Indian CMOs have established responsible AI guidelines to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in automated decision-making.
In terms of skills, while 44 per cent of CMOs believe their function is ready to integrate Agentic AI, only 26 per cent believe they have the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. In India, just 23 per cent of CMOs have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational shifts AI agents will bring.
There is humongous amount of untapped data as 63 per cent agreed that generative AI’s value lies in proprietary data, yet only 1 per cent of enterprise data is being tapped.
Only one-third of organizations have cross-functional view of the customer journey. CMOs estimate that fully aligning marketing, sales, and operations could unlock up to a 20 per cent increase in revenue. There is increased focus on the ecosystem wherein 62 per cent of Indian CMOs prioritize partnerships, well above the global average of 47 per cent.