84% of senior marketing and communications leaders feel pressure from the C-suite to prove AI adoption

Almost nine-in-10 (84%) senior marketing and communications leaders feel pressure from the C-suite to demonstrate AI adoption, according to a new Boldstream report published this week, and 48% were feeling higher levels of pressure from management.

Model Behaviour, based on research with more than 50 in-house leaders across marketing and communications, points to a market “that is convinced, but not yet organised”. 86% of senior leaders agree that AI is essential to the future of the function, while 93% expect their organisation to increase spend on AI, yet only 3% describe their current approach as process-led. By contrast, 52% say it is tool-led and 35% describe it as ad hoc.

The findings point to a widening gap between AI access and AI architecture. Many teams now use AI for drafting, summarising, editing and research, but the underlying ways of working have changed far less. This creates a risky middle ground, where teams may produce more work without stronger evidence, clearer approval routes or enhanced brand consistency.

Another key finding, which should be a significant concern for senior leaders, is the lack of judgement being applied by teams. Just 17% of leaders say junior or mid-level team members are critically evaluating AI output, while 53% say those team members mostly use AI for basic tasks.

Security, training and bias concerns remain high. 69% of senior leaders are concerned about security and data privacy, 67% cite lack of internal skills and 61% are concerned about bias. Boldstream argues that these concerns should not freeze adoption, but they do show why governance, brand knowledge and review standards need to sit inside the way work happens.

Mike Robb, Co-CEO at Boldspace, said: “Marketing and communications leaders have moved past the question of whether AI matters and the harder question now is whether their teams are set up to use it well. Too many organisations have given people access to tools without redesigning the work around them, which can make teams faster but not automatically make the work better, safer or more commercially useful.

“This reality exists while the C-suite wants to know that change and AI implementation within the function is happening, the team wants clearer guidance and the work still has to protect the brand and the organisation’s reputation. These are all challenges that urgently need addressed, but senior marketing and comms leaders are effectively having to make changes to the engine while the car is moving at 100mph. The opportunities from getting this right are significant, but the challenges to do so are equally significant.”

The report recommends that leaders move beyond measuring AI progress through licence counts and tool access, and instead start tracking whether it is improving output quality, briefing cycles, review speed, brand consistency, risk reduction and team confidence.

Download the report in full below.