Marketers say AI helps with content and campaigns, but too many can’t move beyond experimentation and individual use cases.
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There is a widening gap between AI aspiration and execution among marketing teams, according to a new report from Typeface.
The “2025 Typeface Signal Report,” found marketing teams are realizing that AI must move beyond initial experimentation to keep pace with market expectations.
The report, which is based on a survey of 200 U.S. marketers, found marketing leaders face unprecedented pressure, with 95% reporting rising content demand. This demand crisis is illustrated by an 81-percentage-point gap between what is demanded and what teams feel capable of delivering.
Despite the need for rapid output, 47% of leaders cannot deliver true campaign personalization, and only 14% feel completely confident they can keep up.
AI adoption is also creating a significant “efficiency divide,” the report found. AI users are four times more likely to keep up with content demand (66% vs. 14% of non-users), and 27% of AI users can launch campaigns in two weeks or less, a speed unattainable by non-users.
Yet, the industry lags, with 69% of campaigns currently taking three to four weeks, despite 85% of leaders desiring a one-to-two-week turnaround.
Despite the clear benefits, the report found AI adoption is stalling because of “Pilot Purgatory” — an inability to move beyond the experimental phase. While 82% of marketers use AI for campaigns, most remain stuck in experimentation. A striking 82% of these users remain in pilot or experimental phases, failing to scale transformation across the enterprise. The majority, 61%, primarily use AI at the individual level, rather than adopting collaborative platforms.
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About the author
Mike Pastore is the Head of Content & Media at Third Door Media, the publisher of the Martech and Search Engine Land websites and the producer of the SMX and MarTech Conferences. In nearly three decades in B2B marketing, Mike has worked as an editor, writer, and marketer. He first wrote about marketing in 1998 for internet.com (later Jupitermedia). He then worked with marketers at some of the best-known brands in B2B tech, creating content for marketing campaigns at both Jupitermedia and QuinStreet. Prior to joining Third Door Media as the Editorial Director of the MarTech website, he led demand generation at B2B media company TechnologyAdvice.
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