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Artificial intelligence is entering a new phase in marketing in the United States: companies are no longer focused solely on experimenting with the technology, but on using it to achieve tangible financial results. 25% of marketing professionals in the United States and Canada believe that improving return on investment (ROI) will be the biggest opportunity offered by AI over the next 12 months, ahead of increasing revenue, conversions, or product sales, according to Statista’s Marketing in the United States report.
The figure reflects a shift in the conversation surrounding artificial intelligence in marketing. Following an initial phase characterized by content generation and experimentation with generative tools, marketers are increasingly focused on how to use the technology to optimize campaigns, better understand consumers, and maximize the performance of their marketing budgets.
This trend is unfolding as the U.S. marketing market reaches historic levels. Spending reached approximately $607.3 billion in 2025, nearly 10% more than the $551.9 billion recorded the previous year. Of that total, $395.7 billion went to online channels. study_id108536_marketing-in-the…
Improving ROI Becomes AI’s Biggest Opportunity
Statista’s report shows that improving ROI ranks first, at 25%, among the opportunities marketing professionals identify for artificial intelligence over the next 12 months.
The second priority is driving revenue growth, at 19%, followed by increasing conversions, also at 19%.
Another 18% believe AI offers an opportunity to increase product sales, while the same percentage highlight its potential to accelerate campaign execution.
Overall, four of the five leading opportunities are directly linked to business outcomes or to improving the efficiency of achieving them.
This places ROI at the center of a broader transformation: artificial intelligence is increasingly being evaluated not only on what it can produce, but also on how much value it can generate from marketing investments.
AI Is Already Doing Much More Than Generating Content
Current use cases also reveal that artificial intelligence adoption is expanding into areas related to data, consumers, and optimization.
In February 2026, 38% of marketing professionals surveyed in the United States and Canada were using AI to generate insights and recommendations, making it the most frequently cited application.
Content and idea generation ranked slightly lower, at 35%. Another 34% use artificial intelligence to predict customer behavior, 32% to automate audience segmentation, and 31% to personalize strategies at scale.
Additionally, 30% use these tools for SEO and content optimization, while 29% employ them to optimize campaign journeys. Only 13% reported that they were not actively using artificial intelligence.
These percentages show that AI applications are becoming increasingly diverse. Content remains important, but it now shares the spotlight with functions related to analytics, prediction, segmentation, and personalization.
In B2B Marketing, Companies Want Better Insights and More Content
Priorities shift somewhat when looking exclusively at B2B marketing.
Among U.S. B2B marketers surveyed in October 2025, 29% identified obtaining better insights as one of their main objectives for using AI, while 26% aimed to generate more content.
Improving personalization was cited by 15%. Further down the list were improving lead quality and streamlining workflows, both at 8%; automating engagement, at 6%; and reducing spending, at 5%.
Only 2% mentioned experimenting with new formats.
This finding is particularly significant: within this group, experimentation ranks last among the objectives mentioned, while insights, content production, and personalization attract the greatest interest.
CEOs Also Want Marketing to Demonstrate Results
The pressure to achieve clearer returns from AI coincides with the expectations that company leaders have for marketing.
According to the same report, 65% of CEOs expect marketing to help drive sales and increase market share.
Another 54% want to improve brand image and reputation, while 51% seek to acquire and retain customers and drive revenue growth.
These expectations increase the need to connect technologies such as artificial intelligence with financial and business performance indicators.
Some progress has already been made in this direction: 70% of CEOs believe that business metrics are fully or mostly aligned with the metrics used by marketing.
Privacy and AI Hallucinations Temper Enthusiasm for the Technology
The pursuit of higher ROI does not eliminate the risks. Among U.S. B2B marketers, 57% identify data privacy and security as concerns related to AI, the highest percentage recorded in the study.
These are followed by brand and tone consistency, at 52%; misinformation and AI hallucinations, at 45%; bias, at 40%; overreliance on automation, at 31%; and job displacement, at 29%.
The challenge for companies, therefore, will be to strike a balance between speed, automation, and control.
Statista’s data suggest that artificial intelligence in marketing is beginning to move beyond its purely experimental phase. Content generation remains part of the strategy, but marketers are shifting the conversation toward a different set of priorities: better insights, consumer behavior prediction, personalization, sales, and, above all, ensuring that every dollar invested in marketing generates a higher return.
