The AI Readiness Gap: Why Marketing Teams Are Failing to Scale

The report, which surveyed 435 marketing leaders across five countries, identifies the primary obstacle to AI adoption not as a lack of technology, but as a failure of data governance. While leadership demands accelerated AI implementation, the teams on the ground often lack authority over data strategy and the integration workflows necessary to ensure reliability. CEO Anssi Rusi notes that AI remains ineffective without high-quality, transparent data that marketers can both understand and control.

Operational bottlenecks continue to stifle progress, with 40% of SMBs and 34% of enterprise teams struggling to bridge the gap between analytics and activation. This is compounded by persistent data quality issues, as only 11% of organizations consider their marketing data highly accurate and accessible. Furthermore, real-time data access is a rarity; half of all marketing teams wait up to three business days for answers to ad hoc queries. Ultimately, without robust infrastructure, AI risks merely accelerating existing inefficiencies rather than enhancing decision-making.