Demandbase report shows marketers face pressure to move faster in the AI era

AI is making an impact on the marketing arm of GTM teams.

A new report from GTM software platform Demandbase shows that marketers are having a tricky time keeping up as AI proliferates. According to the report, 72% of marketing teams are the same size or smaller than they were two years ago, even though 70% of marketers say they face shorter timelines.

Facing challenges: It seems organizational bottlenecks are some of the biggest challenges in workplace productivity; 56% of responders highlighted processes and cross-functional workflows as the biggest obstacle, while 21% pointed to tech stacks, data, and tools.

While teams aren’t growing, the data shows they’re also not shrinking. The report indicates that 49% of responders said junior and entry-level employee head count has remained the same over the last two years, and that 50% of responders said their company was outsourcing less and bringing more work in-house.

Teams do, however, expect their roles to keep changing as AI holds a larger presence in the workforce. Nearly three-quarters (74%) said they expect their jobs to change over the next two years than they did over the past two, while only 2% think there will be less change.

AI incorporation: Demandbase’s report shows marketers are incorporating AI into the buying journey, but it isn’t replacing their own tools. The report shows 35% of marketers track how their brands appear in AI searches, 62% have changed their AI search strategy, and 64% have attempted to influence how AI describes their brand. The latter is known either as answer engine optimization (AEO) or generative engine optimization (GEO), an area Revenue Brew will be covering more in the months to come.

“AI has already driven system-level change in areas like engineering, but marketing hasn’t made the same leap due to the complexity involved in bringing products to market,” said Demandbase CEO Gabe Rogol in a statement. “Agentic marketing is the only way to give marketers the capacity they need to move at the speed they’re expected to, by pulling them out of the weeds and freeing them to do more creative and strategic work.”