53% of Indian CMOs expect 5–9% AI-driven revenue growth

New Delhi: Indian chief marketing officers (CMOs) are projecting the highest levels of AI-driven revenue growth among markets surveyed globally, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The findings are part of BCG’s annual survey of 300 CMOs worldwide, published under the title How CMOs are Moving Agentic Marketing from Illusion to Reality. The report examines how marketing leaders are adopting artificial intelligence and integrating it into business operations. According to the survey, 53% of Indian CMOs expect AI use cases to deliver between 5% and 9% incremental topline growth, compared with a global average of 43%. The report also found that 57% of Indian CMOs said AI investments are funded directly by the marketing function, compared with 47% globally. The survey highlighted India's adoption of agentic commerce, with 73% of Indian CMOs ranking it among their top three strategic priorities, compared with a global average of 63%. Globally, the report found that while 96% of CMOs believe AI is driving end-to-end transformation of marketing functions, fewer than one-third have deployed AI agents at scale, and only 8% are running campaigns where multiple AI agents operate autonomously. At the same time, AI spending in marketing continues to rise, with 43% of surveyed companies investing more than USD 15 million this year, up from 28% a year earlier. India also ranked among the highest markets for executive-level focus on AI. According to the survey, 43% of Indian CMOs reported that chief executive expectations of marketing had increased significantly over the past two years. Additionally, 27% said accelerating AI and digital transformation was their CEO’s top priority, compared with 15% in the Europe, Middle East, South America and Africa (EMESA) region and 20% in North America. “Ninety percent of the CMOs in our survey agreed that GenAI is already reshaping how consumers discover and evaluate brands. But most marketing organizations are not yet built to compete in that environment,” said Mark Abraham, Global Leader, Marketing, Sales and Pricing Practice, Boston Consulting Group, and coauthor of the report. “Investment must now move beyond individual AI tools, and towards fully connected agentic operating systems built on strong data foundations, brand intelligence layers, multi-agent orchestration, and the right talent. If established brands don't build this first, new agentic-native attacker brands will do so.” The report found that Indian CMOs are prioritising investments in areas such as agentic commerce and personalisation. Around 52% of respondents in India said generative AI would have a significant positive impact on personalisation efforts, compared with 47% globally. A further 88% said generative AI would help marketing teams respond to consumer signals in near real time. “There is a genuine shift underway in how marketing functions in India are leading AI transformation. Indian CMOs are projecting the highest AI-driven growth of any market we surveyed, directly owning the AI investment agenda, and placing focused bets on agentic commerce and personalisation," said Parul Bajaj, India Leader, Marketing, Sales and Pricing Practice, Boston Consulting Group, and coauthor of the report. "What is distinctive is the combination of three things: CEO conviction at the top, marketing taking on real strategic ownership of the AI agenda, and a talent base being built systematically from within. This is a meaningfully different model from what we see in most other markets, and it positions India's marketing leaders to play a much bigger role in defining where agentic marketing goes next,” Bajaj added. The survey also examined workforce readiness. Only 13% of Indian CMOs identified generative AI skills as a severe risk, compared with 22% globally. Meanwhile, 42% said they had fully implemented AI upskilling programmes for junior and mid-level employees, compared with 34% globally. The report also found that 43% of Indian CMOs are actively recruiting AI-native talent and an equal proportion have incorporated AI skills into job descriptions. According to BCG, organisations that are progressing with AI adoption are investing in data infrastructure, AI talent, brand intelligence systems and multi-agent operating models to support large-scale deployment.