Marketing executives are preparing for job cuts as pressure mounts to show concrete returns from artificial intelligence investments, according to a new industry survey.
More than one-third of chief marketing officers expect to reduce headcount over the next 12 to 24 months by deploying AI tools or eliminating overlapping roles, according to a Spencer Stuart survey conducted in November among about 90 senior marketing leaders. The findings were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The outlook is more severe at the largest companies. Nearly half of respondents at firms with annual revenues of $20 billion or more said they expect staff reductions in the next two years, while 32 percent said cuts have already taken place this year, the survey showed.
Executives face growing demands from senior management to justify spending on AI, said Richard Sanderson, who leads Spencer Stuart’s marketing, sales and communications officer practice. Sanderson told the Wall Street Journal that some large companies feel compelled to deliver results quickly, even if that means blunt workforce reductions.
The survey found that 37 percent of marketers at the largest companies said their chief executives and finance chiefs expect cost cuts of at least 20 percent within two years. That pressure comes as many corporate leaders say AI investments have yet to deliver the promised savings. A separate poll by advisory firm Teneo of more than 350 CEOs at publicly listed companies found most have not seen significant financial returns from recent AI spending.
Some marketers say they are still experimenting. Bagel Brands, owner of Einstein Bros. Bagels, has used AI to create voice-overs and conduct customer polling, saving on production and research costs, said chief marketing officer Jessica Serrano. However, the company has stepped back from adopting creative AI tools, citing vendors’ inability to demonstrate consistent, high-quality output at scale.
Where headcount has not been cut, marketers have reduced costs by scaling back agency relationships, freelance spending and in-house creative roles, according to the survey.
Not all of the disruption can be attributed to AI. Tim Derdenger, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said slower economic growth and a correction from pandemic-era overhiring are also weighing on marketing teams.
Some companies are creating new specialist roles, such as prompt engineers and AI operations analysts, but hiring remains limited. Only 4 percent of respondents reported adding staff in the past year, and none described their organizations as fully AI-native
Marketing functions were one of the earliest adopters of generative AI, using it for content production, data analysis, personalization and media optimization. However, most companies are integrating AI incrementally rather than transforming operations end-to-end.
At the same time, the advertising and marketing industry is facing broader structural pressures, including slower economic growth, tighter corporate budgets and consolidation among agencies and technology providers.
These overlapping forces are reshaping how companies measure productivity, deploy talent and evaluate the return on digital and AI-led investments.
