Key facts
- India leads globally with 53% of CMOs expecting 5-9% AI-driven revenue growth, exceeding the global average of 43%.
- 73% of Indian CMOs prioritize agentic commerce, ranking it among their top three strategic initiatives.
- Marketing functions in India own AI investments more than in other regions, with 57% reporting ownership compared to a global 47%.
- 52% of Indian CMOs anticipate significant positive impact from generative AI on personalization, the highest globally.
- Globally, 96% of CMOs acknowledge AI's transformative role in marketing, yet large-scale AI agent deployment remains limited.
India is leading globally in expectations for artificial intelligence (AI)-driven revenue growth, with 53% of chief marketing officers (CMOs) anticipating incremental gains of 5–9%, significantly higher than the global average of 43%. This finding comes from Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) latest Global CMO Survey, which surveyed 300 CMOs worldwide. The survey, titled ‘How CMOs are moving agentic marketing from illusion to reality,’ highlights India's strong performance attributed to leadership alignment, AI strategy ownership, and workforce development. Parul Bajaj, India leader for BCG's marketing, sales, and pricing practice, noted a significant shift in how Indian marketing functions are leading AI transformation. India also leads globally in the adoption of agentic commerce, with 73% of CMOs ranking it among their top three strategic priorities, compared to the global average of 63%. Furthermore, 57% of Indian CMOs reported that their marketing function owns AI investments, surpassing the global figure of 47%, indicating a more prominent role for marketing in enterprise AI decision-making. Agentic marketing, which utilizes autonomous AI systems to manage campaigns and interact with consumers in real-time, is increasingly seen as a shift from traditional search engine optimization. Industry research points to the rise of answer engine optimization (AEO), where brands are discovered through AI-generated responses rather than search rankings. Regarding personalization, 52% of Indian respondents expect generative AI (GenAI) to have a significant positive impact, the highest percentage among all surveyed regions. Globally, while 96% of CMOs acknowledge AI's role in transforming marketing, fewer than a third have deployed AI agents at scale, and only 8% are running campaigns with multiple autonomous AI agents. This year, 43% of companies reported marketing AI investments exceeding $15 million, an increase from 28% last year. Mark Abraham, global leader of BCG's marketing, sales, and pricing practice, stated that 90% of surveyed CMOs agree GenAI is reshaping brand discovery and evaluation. However, he cautioned that most marketing organizations are not yet equipped for this environment, emphasizing the need to move beyond isolated AI tools to integrated, agentic operating systems supported by robust data and talent.