AI: Marketing’s Dual Path to Growth or Budget Cuts

Artificial intelligence is not just another technological upgrade; it is a fundamental inflection point that is currently redefining the entire function of marketing. The decisions being made today by chief marketing officers (CMOs) regarding AI implementation will determine marketing’s fate: whether it evolves into an indispensable engine of enterprise growth or regresses into a mere cost center subject to perpetual scrutiny and reduction.

New research from PwC and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) paints a definitive picture of this high-stakes moment. The core challenge facing the C-suite is clear: AI offers a dual path, and the trajectory chosen by marketing leadership will directly influence total shareholder value and the department’s standing within the organization.

If AI is adopted solely through the narrow lens of efficiency and automation, it risks shrinking budgets, diminishing influence, and fueling the perception that marketing is a luxury to be managed. If, however, AI is deployed strategically—as a tool for creativity, innovation, and accelerated growth—it promises to cement marketing’s role as the essential driver of long-term profitability.

The Efficiency Trap vs. The Growth Multiplier

The immediate temptation of AI lies in its ability to automate routine tasks, streamline processes, and generate content at unprecedented speed. This narrow application, focusing primarily on automation and cost reduction, makes marketing less expensive. It allows for faster content creation, supports smaller budgets, and enables leaner teams.

But this focus on productivity is precisely where the risk lies. While saving money in the short term, this approach diminishes marketing’s strategic influence. PwC warns that savings recouped purely from productivity gains rarely return to the department in the form of investment; they are simply absorbed by the wider organization, justifying future budget cuts.

The strategic path views AI differently. It uses the technology to make marketing essential—driving new forms of growth, unlocking greater profitability, and fundamentally increasing enterprise value. This approach demands that AI be integrated with a focus on innovation and market expansion, not just internal process optimization.

As one CMO cited in the research powerfully stated, “AI should be seen through a growth lens, not an efficiency lens. ... The future will honor the brave who use it to create, not just optimize.” This perspective highlights the required shift in mindset: from simply doing the same work faster to radically rethinking what marketing can achieve.

The Outsized Value of Strategic Marketing

The research provides compelling financial evidence to support the growth-oriented approach. Leading marketers—those who successfully link creativity, brand strength, and financial performance—deliver an astonishing 79% greater total shareholder value (TSV) than their peers.

This outsized value creation is not accidental. It is the result of marketing leaders who understand that their function is not merely a service provider but a key asset manager, responsible for the intangible value of the brand. When AI is used to enhance creative effectiveness and build stronger brand connections, the financial results become undeniable across diverse industries.

Furthermore, the profitability impact of this strategic utilization is massive. Deploying AI for purposes beyond just speed and cost reduction can more than double marketing-driven profitability when compared to organizations that limit AI use only to efficiency gains. This delta proves that the real financial reward lies in leveraging AI to generate new revenue streams and improve the quality and relevance of consumer decisions, not just cutting the cost of production.

External Pressures and the CFO Challenge

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The decision to embrace the growth lens is made more difficult by persistent external pressures. Global economic headwinds, including high inflation, slow growth projections, and higher capital costs, have put immense pressure on corporate budgets. In these environments, marketing is often the first function scrutinized by the finance department.

Many chief financial officers (CFOs) still operate under the traditional assumption that marketing is a cost to be managed, rather than an investment to be maximized. This perception creates a dangerous feedback loop. When AI is framed predominantly as a tool for automation—doing the same work with fewer people and resources—it inadvertently provides CFOs with the justification they need to mandate budget reductions.

Marketing leaders must preempt this narrative. If they allow AI to be defined simply as a productivity enhancer, they risk being sidelined in critical C-suite decisions. The imperative is to shift the conversation immediately, demonstrating how AI-enabled investments generate superior enterprise value that offsets, and ultimately supersedes, short-term cost-cutting goals.

The Brave CMO: A Strategic Leadership Mandate

To fully realize AI’s transformative value, marketing leaders must step up as strategic enterprise leaders. This requires a commitment to three crucial pillars of leadership.

First, marketing leaders must rigorously provide evidence of marketing’s direct role in value creation. This means moving beyond vanity metrics and linking every AI-enabled activity to measurable business outcomes, such as customer lifetime value, market share gains, and, ultimately, profitability.

Second, building powerful cross-C-suite alliances is non-negotiable. The modern CMO must partner closely with the CFO and CEO to demonstrate how marketing investments drive the overarching business growth strategy. This collaboration ensures that marketing’s narrative aligns with the company’s strategic financial goals, moving it from a departmental expense to an enterprise investment.

Finally, strategic leadership requires resisting the constant temptation for short-term, cost-cutting gains. Marketing leaders must champion a culture of reinvestment, ensuring that the efficiencies gained through AI automation are plowed back into long-term growth initiatives, such as brand building, creative experimentation, and deep consumer insights, rather than being surrendered to the corporate cost structure.

AI’s Tangible Proof Points Beyond Savings

When AI is embedded with a clear strategic purpose and governed by responsible guardrails, the benefits extend far beyond simple headcount reduction. The research identifies specific, measurable improvements that strategic AI deployment delivers.

AI drives smarter spend efficiency across production, third-party vendor costs, and media placement. This is not just cutting budgets, but optimizing allocation for maximum return.

Speed is dramatically improved, reducing the time to market for campaigns, accelerating the delivery of critical consumer insights, and speeding up compliance reviews, which is vital in regulated industries.

Perhaps most critically for the modern digital landscape, AI enables content velocity. It allows for an exponential increase in content generation across multiple channels, enabling the level of hyper-personalization consumers now expect.

Ultimately, strategic AI leads to enhanced creative effectiveness. By automating tasks like segmentation, reporting, and adaptation, and even generating new creative ideas, AI ensures that the resulting creative output is better, more relevant, and highly influential in consumer decision-making processes.

The potential for automation in these insight-driven processes is significant. B2C marketing functions typically devote 20–25% of their activity to such tasks, while B2B marketing functions dedicate an even higher percentage, ranging from 35–40%. While AI promises cost savings in these areas, the leading marketers are focusing their attention on how to use the freed-up human capital for high-level creative strategy and deeper customer engagement.

Framing the Future of Marketing

The central challenge facing the marketing world today is existential. Will AI be utilized merely to manage and minimize marketing costs, thereby reducing the function's influence, or will it be harnessed as a powerful multiplier for enterprise growth and profitability?

The answer rests squarely on the shoulders of the CMO. Their ability to frame marketing’s value, build compelling business cases around AI-driven growth, and resist the gravitational pull of short-term efficiency will determine the future relevance of their entire department. The opportunity to deliver 79% greater shareholder value is real, but it requires leadership that chooses creation over simple optimization, and growth over cost control.