The Campaign Is Dead: 5 Hard Truths From the Tenth State of Marketing Report

Let’s be honest: For years “personalization at scale” was a pipedream for marketers.

The intent was there, but the infrastructure wasn’t. We bought the tools. We integrated the clouds. But at the end of the day, we were still just guessing. We were broadcasting messages, not having conversations. We were sending “do not reply” emails because we couldn’t answer if a customer wrote back.

Our new Tenth State of Marketing report confirms that the old playbook of “broadcast and hope” marketing is broken. Customers have moved on. They aren’t clicking 10 blue links after searching Google anymore – they’re getting answers from AI. They aren’t reading generic newsletters – they want content that’s just for them.

The gap between what marketers do (campaigns) and what customers want (conversations) has never been wider. But for the first time, we have the technology to close it. AI agents can now interpret nuance and deliver truly personalized content at scale. Brands no longer have to send messages into the void. They can have meaningful two-way conversations with customers at scale across channels.

The personalization pipedream of the past decade has now become a real live thing. Yes, we’re still in the early stage – according to our survey, implementing or operationalizing AI is both the top priority and top challenge for marketers – but the capabilities and the possibilities are crystal clear.

On that note, here are the five hard truths about this marketing shift to agentic AI — and why 13% of your competitors are already leaving the rest behind.

1. It’s time to stop generating noise and start taking action

If you’re only using AI to churn out copy and images, you’re playing the 2024 game. Seventy-five percent of marketers are “using AI,” but many are not getting the most out of its capabilities. The real line in the sand is agentic AI. While only 13% of marketers have made the leap, the difference in performance is staggering: high performers are twice as likely to use agents than underperformers. 

These marketers aren’t just drafting emails. They’re deploying agents that use real business data to solve customer problems autonomously. They’re able to use data to understand customer detail and nuance, so the AI can augment the human marketer. With a 20% average bump in ROI, the math is simple: you’re either agentic, or you’re way behind.

You can learn more about how to hone your agentic setup from Pratik Desai of ListEngage, who has deployed more than 50 Agentforce implementations.

2. Your data isn’t a “foundation” – it’s your moat

We’ve spent a decade talking about “breaking down silos,” and agentic AI has now made that a survival requirement. An agent is only as smart as the data it can see. If it can’t access things like service history or an abandoned cart, it’s just another hallucinating chatbot. And that’s not good for anyone.

Our survey found only 26% of marketers are completely satisfied with their data unification. That’s a massive vulnerability. In the agentic era, your unified data isn’t just a technical asset – it’s a competitive moat. If your data is not in order, your agents are useless, and your competition is currently trying to build a bridge over your empty moat.

3. SEO is over – welcome to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

The era of “renting” traffic from Google is gone. With ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews, the “click” is obsolete because the answer is already on the page. SEO strategy has always been a moving target but now it needs to be overhauled.

If your strategy relies on a person clicking the third blue link down after a Google search, you’re in trouble. Eighty-eight percent of marketers are already pivoting to optimize for AI-driven search. This isn’t about keyword stuffing to show up high in search rankings. It’s about providing high-quality, structured content that AI models want to summarize. If you aren’t the source of the AI’s answer, you don’t exist.

4. It’s time to end the “Do Not Reply” email once and for all

There are few things that stunt a relationship more than telling a customer they aren’t allowed to talk back. Yet this has long been the case in brand email and text communications. 

Our survey found 83% of customers want a two-way dialogue, yet most brands are still sending one-way SMS and email blasts (69% of marketers admit they struggle to respond promptly to inquiries). The “tech isn’t there” excuse has expired. With 81% of marketers now trusting AI to handle inquiries, there is no reason to send a “do not reply” message ever again. The bottom line is, don’t bother speaking if you aren’t willing to listen.

5. Efficiency is a trap – focus on “found time”

There is a big gap between the desire for personalization and the ability to execute it. Seventy eight percent of marketers say they need more personalized content than they can currently produce. Siloed data, poor data quality and privacy regulations are the top three obstacles to personalization. 

The results are strong when these blockers are overcome. Our survey found that high-performing marketing teams are 1.5 times more likely to frequently reply to customers over email and text. Plus, by using AI agents to automate the “busy work” of content variation and data analysis, marketers expect to reclaim roughly eight hours per week. This time is being reinvested into high-value creative work and developing deeper customer insights – the reasons we became marketers in the first place, right?

The transition to agentic AI isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. It requires a strategic commitment to upskilling — specifically in data analysis and AI tool management — and a relentless focus on data integration. For those brands that take the right steps, the future of marketing will see a more productive workforce and more meaningful relationships with customers. Every single one of them.