What CMOs are actually prioritising (and worrying about) right now

Each quarter I want to share insights I have gleaned based on conversations I’m having directly with clients.

Not the conference version. Not the PR version. But the version you hear in smaller rooms, after the slides are closed.

Over the last quarter, across boardrooms, working sessions and a few honest one-on-ones, three themes came up again and again.

What struck me wasn’t the trends themselves. It was the tension behind them. Here's an outline of my key takeaways around marketer's realities.

AI is everywhere… but it’s not in the P&L

Almost every CMO I spoke to is “doing AI.”

Very few feel they’re getting value from it.

One put it bluntly: “We’ve got more AI pilots than we have actual results.”

The shift this quarter has been decisive.

Clients are moving from:

• experiments to  integration

• tools to systems

• innovation pilots to operational impact

What’s becoming clear is this:

AI only creates value when it’s embedded end-to-end. From audience insight to activation.  Not sitting on the side as a capability  

The blocker isn’t the model.  It’s the plumbing.

Fragmented data. Disconnected teams. Multiple AI initiatives running in parallel with no shared infrastructure  

The CMOs making progress aren’t the most advanced technically.

They’re the ones making hard decisions:

• consolidating data

• forcing integration

• and aligning marketing with technology leadership

One client said it best: “The real shift? My CMO now thinks like a CIO.”

We’re no longer marketing to people alone

This one came up more quietly but it’s bigger than most realise.

Several clients are starting to see traffic, discovery and even conversion being influenced by AI agents, not humans. Not in theory. In reality.

As one eCommerce lead told me: “We’re optimising for Google… but our customers are asking ChatGPT what to buy.”

This is the early shape of something much bigger: AI is becoming an active intermediary between brands and customers — creating a new dynamic often described as Business-to-Agent (B2A)  Which creates a new question for every brand:

Are we structured to be understood by machines?

Because increasingly:

• AI decides what gets surfaced

• AI summarises brand choices

• AI influences purchase decisions

And when that happens: if you’re not structured… you’re not seen.

This is why some of the more forward-leaning clients are starting to rethink:

• content structure

• product data

• signal consistency across channels

Not as SEO. As machine discoverability. This is the future of the customer journey. Today. 

Trust is now a margin driver

This was the most unexpected theme. Not brand.  Not performance. Not media. Trust.

But not in a soft, brand-led way. In a very commercial way.

One CMO said: “We’ve realised trust is the only thing protecting our pricing.”

Across sectors, clients are seeing the same pattern:

• Consumers are more selective

• Data sensitivity is increasing

• Brand claims are being scrutinised

And the implication is clear: Trust is no longer a brand outcome. It’s a growth lever. The best-performing businesses this quarter weren’t just personalising.

They were:

• making data usage visible

• being explicit about value exchange

• and removing friction from customer decisions

What clients are preparing for next? If Q1 was about recognising the shift, Q2 is about responding to it.

Three things are coming up consistently:

From pilots to operating models

No one is asking for more AI pilots anymore.

They’re asking: “How do we restructure around this?”

The real impact of AI comes from embedding it into core workflows. Not increasing the volume of experimentation  

That means:

• new roles

• new processes

• and in some cases, new org structures

The winners won’t be the fastest adopters.

They’ll be the ones who re-architect the business.

The shift from acquisition to access

Several CMOs raised the same concern: “We’re paying more to reach fewer people.”

Between:

• privacy changes

• subscription models

• and platform control

Access to audiences is tightening.

Which is driving a shift from buying reach  to earning access. This shows up in: first-party data strategies and a renewed focus on retention

Leadership is becoming the constraint

This was the most honest part of the conversations.

Not technology. Not budget. Leadership capacity.

As AI and automation remove operational load, leadership advantage comes from creating space to think, connect and set direction.

But many leaders are still:

• stuck in execution

• overwhelmed by change

• and reacting instead of directing

One client said: “The problem isn’t the strategy. It’s that we don’t have time to think.”

The bottom line: If I had to summarise the quarter in one sentence:  Growth isn’t being limited by tools. It’s being limited by how organisations are structured to use them.

The companies pulling ahead are doing three things:

• Embedding AI into systems, not pilots

• Structuring themselves for machine-mediated growth

• Treating trust as a commercial asset, not a brand metric

Everything else is secondary.

Andrew Dimitriou is the global chief client and growth officer for DEPT