Artificial intelligence is no longer a distant horizon – it’s here, reshaping how marketers engage with audiences and create experiences that last.
Over the past year, generative AI (GenAI) has become the new status quo. More than 85% of marketing teams worldwide are already using it, with 93% having dedicated budgets for GenAI.
At SAS, we’ve recently launched two global surveys with our research partners IDC and Coleman Parkes – Data and AI Impact Report: The Trust Imperative and Marketers and AI: Navigating New Depths. Together, these studies capture the current state of AI adoption across various industries and functions, highlighting both the opportunities and the challenges that lie ahead. Their findings are clear: the conversation about AI can’t just be about speed and scale – it must also be about trust.
As we move into the deeper waters of AI, truth stands out: AI without trust isn’t progress. It’s a risk.
As a CMO, I see this moment as both exciting and urgent. We’ve proven that AI delivers ROI. Now, we must prove that it delivers responsibly – because trust, not technology, will determine the future of brand reputation and customer loyalty.
Marketers are moving fast – but trust is lagging
The pace of adoption is staggering. Marketers report strong ROI from AI investments, with more than 90% of CMOs seeing measurable returns on GenAI initiatives. Use cases have quickly matured, with chatbots, personalized content, audience targeting, and customer journey mapping now becoming common practices.
Yet across industries, a clear “trust dilemma” has emerged. The Trust Imperative report shows that while 78% of organizations say they trust AI, only 40% have invested in making their systems demonstrably trustworthy through governance, explainability, and ethical safeguards.
That gap has real consequences. Nearly half of organizations worldwide are either underutilizing reliable AI systems because they lack confidence or over-relying on unproven ones because they’re blinded by hype. Both extremes erode the very outcomes AI promises: better experiences, deeper loyalty and stronger reputation.
And here’s the paradox: GenAI, the most error-prone form of AI, is also the most trusted. People are nearly 200% more likely to trust GenAI than traditional machine learning, even though the latter is more transparent and explainable. In other words, we’re trusting the flashiest tool more than the most reliable one – a brand risk in the making.
From productivity to performance – the real ROI of trusted AI
At SAS, we’re becoming an AI-first marketing organization – one that delivers customer value with agility at scale. Our focus has evolved from using AI to enhance individual productivity to transforming our people, processes and technologies to increase speed to market and improve customer experience.
GenAI has been central to that journey. It’s not just helping us work faster; it’s enabling us to think bigger – streamlining campaign development, optimizing engagement, and shaping smarter content strategies that demonstrate real ROI.
The data support this transformation. Eight in 10 marketers report that GenAI has already boosted performance, with clear gains in personalization, efficiency and customer loyalty. But the real opportunity lies in using AI responsibly. Companies that align AI with trust, governance and ethics consistently outperform those focused solely on cost savings.
Loyalty, after all, is built on trust. Customers want personalization, but they want it to be transparent and respectful. They welcome efficiency, but only if it feels authentic. They expect speed, but not at the expense of fairness.
Trust is loyalty’s currency in the age of AI.
The next frontier: Agentic AI and quantum AI
GenAI has taken us far, but it’s still reactive, generating outputs in response to human prompts. The next leap is agentic AI, which is proactive by design. It can optimize campaigns in real-time, orchestrate end-to-end customer journeys, and dynamically design offers. Already, 21% of marketers are testing agentic AI in live environments and more than 70% plan to adopt it within the next two years.
The potential is enormous, but so are the risks. Agentic AI requires stronger data foundations, more robust governance, and deeper human oversight. Without these, adoption will stall. Nearly half of organizations cite non-optimized cloud environments as a barrier, while 44% point to insufficient governance and 41% to talent shortages.
Trust remains conditional: 9 in ten marketers say they will only trust agentic AI if humans remain in the loop. Oversight, transparency and explainability are not optional – they are prerequisites for acceptance.
And just beyond agentic AI lies an even more transformative horizon: quantum AI. What once felt like science fiction is fast becoming real. Already, 31% of decision-makers expect quantum computing to impact marketing within two years. Quantum’s ability to process massive datasets at unprecedented speed could enable hyper-personalization, advanced analytics and real-time journey simulation – redefining what’s possible for marketers.
Preparation must start now. Those who are upskilling teams, building partnerships and embedding quantum thinking into their innovation roadmaps will be best positioned to seize its potential. Marketers who first master GenAI and agentic AI will be the ones ready to unlock the full impact of quantum.
Looking ahead: Trust as a strategic advantage
AI’s trajectory is clear – from GenAI to agentic AI, and soon to quantum AI. Each step raises the stakes for capability, and more importantly, for trust.
Marketers are uniquely positioned to lead this journey. We are the stewards of brand, reputation and loyalty. Our customers don’t just experience AI through a product; they experience it through us – through the stories we tell, the personalization we deliver and the transparency we demonstrate.
As marketing leaders, we must ensure that AI is not only powerful but principled. Fast, but fair. Intelligent, and above all, trustworthy.
Ultimately, AI may fuel growth, but trust fuels longevity. The brands that recognize this will be the ones that survive the AI revolution – and thrive because of it.
The AI era will belong to the brands that lead with trust. At SAS, we’re committed to showing what responsible innovation looks like – and helping marketers everywhere turn AI into not just a growth driver, but a loyalty engine.
