Indian Marketers Lead in AI Adoption but Face Trust Challenges: Report

Salesforce has released its latest State of Marketing report, featuring insights from over 4,800 marketing leaders across 29 countries, including 250 from India. This comprehensive study reveals how Indian marketers are integrating AI, refining data strategies, and addressing the critical issue of customer trust in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

AI Adoption and Implementation

AI is making significant inroads in the marketing strategies of Indian businesses. The report highlights that 79% of Indian marketers are either experimenting with or have fully integrated AI into their workflows. This aligns with a global trend where over half of the marketers are utilizing predictive and generative AI, with plans for nearly universal adoption in the next 18 months. Notably, high-performing marketing teams are 3.1 times more likely to have fully implemented AI compared to their underperforming counterparts.

Data Utilization and Challenges

The report also sheds light on the ongoing challenges and priorities in data management. Only 28% of Indian marketers express full satisfaction with their ability to unify customer data sources, a crucial step for delivering personalized customer experiences. While 66% of marketers have access to real-time data, 59% still depend on IT support for campaign execution.

Priorities and Challenges

Improving the use of tools and technologies stands out as the primary focus for Indian marketers. However, building and retaining customer trust remains the top challenge, especially amid growing concerns over privacy and security vulnerabilities.

Personalization and Customer Engagement

Indian marketers are striving to meet rising customer expectations by moving beyond broad audience segments to more specific identifiers such as individual preferences and past interactions. High-performing teams in India personalize across six channels on average, compared to five channels for others. Furthermore, 58% of marketers track customer lifetime value, and 92% have a clear understanding of marketing’s impact on revenue.

Strategies for Deeper Relationships

The report highlights a growing emphasis on account-based marketing (ABM) and loyalty programs as strategies for better customer acquisition and retention. However, there is still room for improvement, with only 58% of marketers fully integrating loyalty data across all touchpoints, and 50% ensuring loyalty program functionalities are accessible.

Nishant Kalra, VP - Digital, Salesforce India, said: "Data and AI hold immense potential for enhancing customer engagement, yet their full capabilities are still being realized. Marketers are deploying diverse tactics to gain deeper audience insights, underscoring the critical role of sales and marketing as growth drivers. While AI and data capabilities are top priorities for Indian marketers, the challenge of maintaining customer trust and privacy is significant. The insights from this report are crucial for helping marketers outpace the competition by leveraging AI and data, while also addressing trust and security concerns."