Marketing Has Stopped Waiting for Permission on AI

The headlines and the conversations over the last few years have circled around whether and how much AI would hollow out the marketing function. The more useful question turned out to be who would control it and how quickly.

Roughly half of CMOs now hold AI investment authority inside their own function, deciding what to fund and deploy without having to wait for sign-off from other departments or the CEO. For a function long accustomed to having to make the case and await approval, that is a tangible shift.

The marketing executive pulling ahead are treating ownership as the mandate to build and deliver, connecting AI activity to business outcomes rather than waiting for to collaborate across the C-suite.

Source: BCG, June 2026