India Marketing Leaders under Pressure to Deliver Profitability: IBM CMO Study 2025
Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are increasingly pressured to enhance profitability and revenue growth while managing the intricate demands of AI integration, ecosystem leadership, and talent development, according to the IBM CMO Study 2025.
The results from this worldwide study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) indicate that 63 percent of CMOs in India are now responsible for achieving profitability, which aligns closely with the 64 percent figure for their global peers.
Furthermore, 53 percent are directly tasked with driving revenue growth, emphasizing the CMO’s evolving responsibilities that extend beyond traditional brand management. Additionally, Indian CMOs are focusing on enhancing customer experience, modernizing technology, and innovating business models to secure their organizations' future, while also improving service delivery and marketing as well as sales effectiveness. However, they confront significant shortages in areas such as responsible AI, talent preparedness, and data utilization. The results underscore a widening gap between aspirations and practical execution in the era of generative AI.
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Tuhina Pandey, Director – APAC Communications & Marketing, India and South Asia, IBM says, “As AI radically transforms how businesses engage, operate, and grow, Indian CMOs are uniquely positioned to lead this shift by harnessing AI responsibly. While the potential of AI is clear, what’s needed now is a bold new playbook, one powered by trusted data, skilled talent, cultural reset, and AI augmentation.”
Key India Findings:
- Business Transformation Priorities: CMOs are focusing on Customer Experience (41 percent), scalability of delivery of services (37 percent), technology modernization (37 percent), marketing & sales effectiveness (34 percent), and business model innovation (32 percent) to drive future readiness.
- Responsible AI Gap: Only 26 percent of Indian CMOs have established responsible AI guidelines to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in automated decision-making.
- Skills Paradox: While 44 percent of CMOs believe their function is ready to integrate Agentic AI, only 26 percent believe they have the necessary talent to achieve their goals over the next two years. In India, just 23 percent of CMOs have prepared their teams for the cultural and operational shifts AI agents will bring.
- Untapped data: 63 percent agree that generative AI’s value lies in proprietary data, yet only 1 percent of enterprise data is being tapped.
- Cross-functional silos: Only one-third of organizations have cross-functional view of the customer journey. CMOs estimate that fully aligning marketing, sales, and operations could unlock up to a 20 percent increase in revenue.
- Ecosystem focus: 62 percent of Indian CMOs prioritize partnerships, well above the global average of 47 percent.
Study Methodology
The IBM Institute for Business Value, in partnership with Oxford Economics, conducted a survey involving 1,800 Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and Chief Sales Officers (CSOs) across 33 regions and 24 sectors from March to May 2025.
For the sake of clarity and relevance to the audience, the findings presented in this report are referred to as “CMOs,” although the data originates from a collective analysis of these positions and is not broken down by title.
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Therefore, when mentioning “CMOs,” it refers to the combined perspectives of these demand leadership roles unless stated otherwise. The survey covered topics such as executive priorities, growth targets, customer experience strategies, technology adoption, collaboration, and talent management.