Marketers say AI adds work, not value, to their roles

The news: Many marketers and salespeople doubt AI’s ability to boost company revenues or customer satisfaction. Some even believe it adds to their workload, signaling a disconnect between AI adoption and employee confidence.

• Only 39% of marketers and sales professionals in the US and UK are confident that their departments’ use of AI drives revenues, per General Assembly’s AI in Marketing & Sales report.
• Nearly half (46%) believe AI only somewhat improves the customer experience or doesn’t at all.

How are marketing and sales departments using AI?

• Creating content: 57%
• Research and analytics: 49%
• Sales processes: 47%
• Relationship management among customers: 42%
• Managing social media: 36%

Broad doubts: Beyond skepticism around AI’s organizational benefits, marketers are doubtful of its impact on their own work. That underscores a growing gap between executive enthusiasm and employee experience, suggesting leadership may be overselling AI’s potential based on hype while underestimating on-the-ground challenges.

• 15% said AI has had little or no impact on their day-to-day work, and 18% said it has created more work and pulled them away from strategic priorities.
• 21% said their companies have had to hire more people or they have become less productive since adopting AI.
• 24% of Gen Z employees work against their company’s AI strategy because it adds to their workload, per Writer.

The risk: One possible reason for the underwhelming impact is a lack of proper training, because many marketers are being handed powerful tools with little instruction on how to use them. Without guidance, employees may use AI inefficiently—or not at all—due to uncertainty over how AI tools work and which ones best fit their tasks.

• Only 17% said they’ve received comprehensive, role-specific training that prepared them to use AI effectively, per General Assembly.
• 35% said their training was too generic or focused on concepts rather than practical applications.

Our take: If teams don’t fully trust AI to improve performance, they’re less likely to apply it in high-value scenarios where its benefits could be greatest. And without the right training, they may not even know where to start.

Organizations that prioritize tailored training and tie outcomes to KPIs like team efficiency and customer satisfaction could help employees feel empowered and translate AI investments into measurable impact.