What it is
Norwest Venture Partners with Marketbridge, a go-to-market consultancy. Third annual benchmark, drawn partly from Norwest’s portfolio.
Respondents were almost all executives, split between sales, marketing and both, at companies mostly under $50M in revenue. Marketing is ahead of sales on AI: 27% of marketing teams report several AI use cases working together across teams, against 11% of sales teams. The top marketing barrier is ownership. 30% said they need a business process owner to tell them where to start.
On who did the work, 69% said a marketing team member self-trained and led adoption, and 55% used only internal approaches. Half aim to do more with the same headcount. The report also finds measurement gaps that predate AI: 45% do not know their average cost to acquire a customer.
What marketing teams should take from it
- Self-trained marketers are a major source of the AI already in use, the people finding 01.3 asks the CMO to give an official role and technical support.
- Its “business process owner” barrier is finding 01.3 in other words. The missing piece is a person with time and a written role.
- Marketing and sales sit at different points on the same six-stage scale, which is a useful frame for the handoff conversation.
- The sample is small and skewed to venture-backed software companies, so the cross-tabs are fragile.
Where to start
Ask each functional head for the one person on their team who has already automated something without being asked, then give the first two a written role and a systems person’s time, as finding 01.3 sets out.
Name a business process owner for the next AI workflow before the tool decision, and place your function and sales on the same six-stage scale to see the gap.
Keep in mind
177 respondents, 44% from one investor’s portfolio, and the deck carries a confidentiality notice, so check citation rights. Treat the percentages as direction.