CMOs lean on AI, but human ingenuity still holds ground

Artificial intelligence has moved from ‘emerging’ to embedded in global marketing practice. However, senior marketers believe its rise has only heightened the need for creativity, empathy and cultural intelligence.

That is the central finding of The 2025 CMO Report: Agents of Reinvention – Marketing at the Intersection of AI and Human Ingenuity, released by Dentsu Creative this week.

Based on inputs from more than 1,950 senior marketing leaders across 14 markets, the study identifies 10 themes shaping marketing in 2025, ranging from algorithm management and intimacy-driven engagement to trust, taste and the rise of agentic AI.

The results highlight contradictions that define the modern marketer’s role. While almost every CMO surveyed has integrated AI into their personal workflow—and over 30% use it daily—most also emphasise that brand strategy will require more human imagination than ever.

AI as enabler, not replacement

Marketers are leaning heavily on AI to scale content and drive efficiency. According to the report, 90% of respondents want to combine agile production with intelligent data to deliver the right message at the right moment. Yet 76% say their ability to create content quickly remains a barrier to true personalisation.

This efficiency-versus-creativity tension is one of several paradoxes highlighted in the findings. While 87% of CMOs believe modern strategy requires more creativity, empathy and humanity, 78% assert that generative AI will never replace human imagination—a rise of 13 percentage points from 2024.

Patricia McDonald, global chief strategy officer, Dentsu Creative, described the dilemma bluntly. She opined that contemporary marketers face an extraordinary series of paradoxes and contradictions.

“Automation is vital to keep up, humanity is vital to stand out. They must win with the algorithm or be invisible, but optimise too closely and they become indistinguishable,” she noted. “If every brand chases the same signals with the same tools, we are simply running harder to stand still. The result is that the more we embrace AI, the more human we must become; unearthing the deeply personal truths, grounded in culture, that resonate, differentiate and scale.”

Algorithms and the risk of sameness

The report finds that 71% of CMOs agree that if they don’t win with the algorithm, they will become invisible. At the same time, 79% worry that tailoring too closely to algorithmic signals risks creating a ‘sea of sameness’.

For many, winning in culture appears to be the counterbalance. About 84% of CMOs say brands need to secure share of culture, not just share of voice.

Yet 81% acknowledge there are few proven models to achieve this. In practice, leaders are turning towards entertainment tie-ups, creator collaborations and community engagement to bridge the gap.

According to Yasu Sasaki, global chief creative officer of Dentsu, the report clearly underpins that while clients are embracing AI at pace, they remain committed to the power of human craft and creativity. “As we adopt AI at scale, it places an ever-greater premium on originality and innovation: AI is exceptionally good at prediction but creativity by its very nature is unpredictable. What is most exciting is when AI and human creativity come together to unlock new possibilities, spot new patterns and shape new futures,” he stated.

The creator economy as growth engine

The shift towards cultural integration is reflected in how budgets are being allocated. 90% of CMOs now believe social and influencer content generates more engagement than traditional advertising, while 91% agree that brand-building today happens through partnerships with creators, platforms and cultural voices.

This figure is up 14 percentage points year-on-year. Still, 82% express concern about ceding control to such collaborations.

The appetite for innovation is also increasing. More than 70% of CMOs plan to invest at least 20% of their budgets in innovation, including creator-led formats, social-first content and experimental technologies.

Abbey Klaassen, global brand president, Dentsu Creative believes that the future of marketing is about augmenting human ingenuity with AI to enable a level of pace and personalisation not previously possible. And this hinges on not about doing more with less, it’s about doing things one couldn’t do before: connecting creativity, media, data and production to meet the right customer with the right message in the right moment, leveraging the modern content supply chain to show up in more of those moments than was possible in the past.

“What we hear from our clients, and the report bears that out, is that they need seamless integration of data, AI-enabled production and their existing martech stack to realise the potential of real time creativity to accelerate growth,” she added.

Agentic AI and the question of trust

One of the most debated themes in the study is the rise of ‘agentic AI’, where autonomous systems curate travel itineraries, shopping baskets or entertainment choices. A full 89% of CMOs surveyed believe such tools will profoundly impact their businesses.

At the same time, the same proportion say trust and taste will matter more than ever in this context. The implication, according to the report, is that while AI agents may automate consumer decision-making, brands that fail to cultivate cultural relevance and emotional trust risk being filtered out altogether.

Amit Wadhwa, CEO, Dentsu Creative and Media Brands, South Asia, Dentsu, observed that algorithms may shape what we see; but it is imagination, empathy and culture that shape what we remember.

“In India’s dynamic landscape, true success will come to brands that out-human the algorithm, fusing AI with creativity, data with intimacy, and innovation with cultural trust. Those who dare to co-create authentically and build experiences rooted in trust will not only grow their brands but also shape the future of society,” he emphasised.

Local and global tensions

While the report takes a global perspective, its themes resonate strongly in emerging markets such as India. With platforms like short video and e-commerce apps competing for consumer attention, the tension between efficiency-driven automation and culturally nuanced creativity is especially stark.

The study suggests that the more marketers rely on algorithms, the more they must invest in localised insights, cultural hooks and authentic partnerships to avoid uniformity. This duality—global AI adoption combined with hyperlocal cultural differentiation—frames much of the challenge for CMOs in 2025.

Ultimately, CMOs worldwide are converging on the idea that AI will become foundational, not optional, in marketing operations. But they are equally convinced that the differentiation consumers remember will come from human qualities—creativity, originality, empathy and cultural fluency.

As McDonald framed it: “Automation is vital to keep up, humanity is vital to stand out.”

With algorithms increasingly shaping visibility and commerce, and agentic AI poised to automate more decisions, success will likely hinge on whether brands can fuse technology with cultural intelligence. The battle is not only for consumer attention, but also for trust and distinctiveness in a marketplace at risk of sameness.

With Google leaning on AI-driven search ads, Meta doubling down on AI-powered commerce, and Amazon expanding its retail media muscle, Dentsu’s findings suggest CMOs will need to sharpen their cultural edge rather than just their algorithmic chops. The battleground is not merely who has the best AI tools, but who can fuse them with trust, taste and human imagination.

In a crowded adtech race, cultural fluency may be the ultimate differentiator. So, while the CMO’s toolkit in 2025 may be governed by algorithms, but its edge will still be defined by human ingenuity.