IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Chief Marketing Officer 2025 Predictions

IDC FutureScape Figure

• Figure: IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Chief Marketing Officer 2025 Top 10 Predictions

Executive Summary

IDC FutureScape Predictions

• Summary of External Drivers

• Predictions: Impact on Technology Buyers

• Prediction 1: By 2027, IDC Predicts Companies Will Spend More than $150 Billion on AI-Related Infrastructure, Platforms, Software, and Services to Support Their Ability to Compete on Highly Personalized CXs

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 2: By 2029, All Companies Will Spend Up to Five Times More on LLM Optimization than Search Optimization to Influence GenAI Systems and Raise the Priority and Ranking of Their Brands

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 3: By 2026, if Marketers Fail to Implement Digital Trust Practices for AI/GenAI Transparency and Ethical Data Handling, They Will Risk Losing Over 79% of Customer Loyalty and Damaging Their Brand Reputation

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 4: By 2028, 55% of Midtier B2C Brands Will Use Autonomous Agents to Establish Aspirational Luxury Marketing Experiences with Curated Offerings and White-Glove Service

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 5: By 2028, 62% of Traditional B2B Lead and Demand Generation Efforts Will Transition to Automated Sensing, Personalized Engagement, Content Creation, and Fast-Pathing Customers to Transactional Commerce

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 6: By 2026, 65% of Individuals Will Search for Information and Engage in Dialogue with Brands via GenAI, Forcing Marketers to Build and Optimize for Humanized Digital AI as the Primary Customer Interface

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 7: By 2028, Traditional Agencies Will Reduce Staff by 55%, Migrating Execution to Limited, AI-Enabled Contractors and Focusing the Remaining Resources on Advanced Data Governance, AI Services, and Strategy

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 8: By 2029, 30% of Enterprise Conferencing and Virtual Events Will Use Lifelike Experiences with Holographic Copresence

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 9: By 2028, Three of Five Marketing Roles or Functions Will Be Held by AI Workers, Shifting Humans and Their Expertise Toward Strategy, Creativity, and Ethics and Managing a Blended Human and AI Workforce

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

• Prediction 10: By 2027, 50% of G2000 Companies Will Miss Out on Customer and Partner Engagements and First-Party Data from Blended Communities — Hiding in Plain Sight

• Associated Drivers

• IT Impact

• Business Impact

• Guidance

Advice for Technology Buyers

External Drivers: Detail

• AI-Driven Business Models — Moving from AI Experimentation to Monetization

• The Drive to Automate — Toward a Data-Driven Future

• AI-Driven Workplace Transformation — Building Tomorrow’s Workforce Today

• Expanding Digital Security Frontiers — Fortification Against Multiplying Threats

• Responsible and Human-Centric Technology — Ethics in the Enterprise

• Customer Experience Squared — Consumer and Citizen Expectations for Digital Services

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• Related Research