We sat down with five marketing leaders across industries and org sizes to have a deep discussion about what’s really going on behind the data in our recent Voice of the CMO Report.
Erin Gieslig
Marketing Leader | B2B Healthcare
This marketing leader brings strategic expertise to the complex world of B2B healthcare marketing, where trust, compliance, and long-term relationships are paramount. With experience navigating heavily regulated environments, they focus on building brand authority and meaningful connections with healthcare professionals and decision-makers.
Almost 9 in 10 (89%) CMOs are using Generative AI, while almost 4 in 5 (78%) are leveraging traditional AI. Nearly 3 in 5 (58%) CMOs who have adopted AI say it has exceeded expectations and been a gamechanger. However, consumers are less enthusiastic: they are almost twice as likely to have mixed feelings about AI (31%) than they are to be excited and optimistic (16%). There is also a clear disconnect between the extent to which CMOs use Generative AI and how comfortable consumers are with it.
I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding about what AI actually is as a tool for marketers. It’s critical, absolutely. But it’s not a creative tool, and I think the people who are heralding it as this revolutionary creative force are often not creatives themselves. They’re technologists, they’re investors, they’re people who have the most to gain from everyone believing that AI is going to change everything.
For us, AI is invaluable for efficiency. We use it to analyze data sets, to identify patterns in customer behavior, to optimize campaign performance. Those are the things it does exceptionally well. But when it comes to the actual creative work — understanding the nuanced needs of healthcare professionals, crafting messaging that builds trust in a regulated environment, developing positioning that resonates with clinical decision-makers — that requires human insight, experience, and empathy.
In healthcare, trust is everything. Our buyers are making decisions that impact patient outcomes. They’re not going to be moved by AI-generated content that sounds generic or lacks depth. They need to feel that you understand their specific challenges, that you’ve done the work to truly know their world. AI can help us get there faster, but it can’t replace the strategic thinking and creativity that goes into building that understanding.
The disconnect between how CMOs use AI and how consumers feel about it doesn’t surprise me at all. We’re using it behind the scenes as an efficiency tool, which is appropriate. But when brands put AI front and center in their customer-facing work, people can tell. And in healthcare especially, that erodes trust rather than building it.
High percentages of CMOs surveyed expect PR (72%), marketing (85%), brand awareness (79%) and market research (75%) budgets to increase in the next year. However, 89% still face budget challenges. CMOs are most likely to be measuring brand awareness (62%), over content engagement (59%) and sales data (54%). Almost 7 in 10 (69%) CMOs who measure effectiveness using market research also state stakeholders at their business are fully invested in the marketing strategy; whereas significantly fewer (45%) CMOs who don’t employ market research say the same.
That market research statistic is incredibly telling, and it’s something I’ve been saying for years. When you’re being asked to do more with less — which all of us are — market research becomes even more important, not less. Yet I still see companies cutting research budgets first because they see it as a nice-to-have rather than mission-critical.
Here’s the reality: understanding your audience through rigorous research is the only way to create positioning, content, and campaigns that truly resonate. In B2B healthcare, we can’t afford to guess. We need to know what keeps our customers up at night, what their decision-making process looks like, what clinical evidence they need to see, what concerns their procurement teams have. Without that research foundation, you’re just throwing budget at tactics and hoping something sticks.
The fact that CMOs who use market research have much higher stakeholder buy-in makes perfect sense. When you can walk into a room and say, “Based on our research with 200 healthcare administrators, here’s what we know about their priorities,” that’s compelling. You’re presenting evidence rather than relying on your gut instinct. And in healthcare, where everyone is trained to make evidence-based decisions, that resonates.
I’m encouraged to see brand awareness coming back as a priority metric, because in tech especially, brand is the only real moat you have. Features can be copied in six months. Your competitors can build the same functionality you have. But strong brand trust and authority that you’ve built over several years? That cannot be replicated quickly. In healthcare, where buying cycles are long and switching costs are high, that brand equity is invaluable.
The challenge is that brand building requires patience and consistent investment. You can’t turn it on and off based on quarterly results. So when I see 89% of CMOs still facing budget challenges while trying to increase brand awareness spending, I worry. Because the first thing that gets cut when budgets tighten is often the long-term brand work, even though that’s what will sustain you through market cycles.
What gives me optimism is that shift toward brand awareness as a primary metric. It suggests that more marketing leaders are having the difficult conversations with their CEOs and boards about the importance of long-term thinking. Especially in categories like ours, where trust takes years to build but seconds to destroy, that brand foundation is everything.
The key is connecting that brand work back to business outcomes through smart measurement — which, again, requires market research. When you can show the correlation between brand awareness in your target segments and deal velocity, or between brand preference and win rates, you build the business case for continued investment even when times are tight.
