51% of marketers adopt AI despite concerns over accuracy and data

Nearly three quarters of marketers are using or have plans to use generative AI in their roles, despite concerns over its accuracy, research has found.

The survey by Salesforce found that 51% of marketers are already using the technology, with an additional 22% planning to implement it soon.

Of those using the technology, the main reported uses of AI were in content creation and copywriting, both cited by 76%. 71% were using it to inspire creative thinking, while 63% were using it to analyse market data and 62% to generate image assets.

On average, respondents believed that they could save over five hours per week using generative AI, adding up to a month per year of working time.

However, there were reservations about the technology. The greatest concern was accuracy and quality of AI output, cited by 31%, while trust was cited by 20%. 67%, meanwhile, said their data was not properly set up to take advantage of generative AI.

In addition, 39% of those surveyed felt they lacked the knowledge to use AI safely, while 43% felt they wouldn’t be able to get the best use out of it.

The overwhelming majority (66%) believed that human oversight was still needed for AI to work successfully.

Stephen Hammond, EVP and GM, Marketing Cloud at Salesforce, said: “Generative AI has the potential to transform how marketers connect with their customers by powering more personalized, automated, and effective campaigns — quickly and at scale.

“But as companies look to adopt the technology, they need to unify their first-party data and leverage trusted AI innovations to ensure safety and accuracy.”

Clara Shih, Salesforce’s CEO of AI, said: “Data is fuel for AI — without high-quality, trusted data, it becomes ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ AI pulling from data sources that are irrelevant, unrepresentative, or incomplete can create bias, hallucinations, and toxic outputs.”