ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Lack of AI literacy will soon be among top reasons CMOs are replaced

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2026

Study finds a disconnect between CMOs anticipating AI disruption and recognising the personal transformation required to lead it.

Sixty-five percent of chief marketing officers say advances in AI will dramatically change the role of the CMO in the next two years. Yet only 32% say significant changes are needed to the CMO profile and skill set.

This is according to a survey published by Gartner, the international business and technology insights company. Survey work was conducted in mid-late 2025 among 402 senior marketing leaders in North America and Europe.

The researchers found that, as AI becomes increasingly central to enterprise growth and competitive advantage, AI literacy is being elevated into a board-level leadership expectation at large enterprises.

Consequently, Gartner predicts that, by 2027, a lack of AI literacy will rank among the top three reasons chief marketing officers are replaced.

CMOs must build AI literacy. Photo: Tima Miroshnichenko/Pexels

“CMOs are not ignoring AI; most are expecting the role to change,” says Lizzy Foo Kune of the Gartner Marketing practice. “But the data points to a disconnect between anticipating disruption and recognising the personal transformation required to lead it.

“CMOs must build the literacy to prioritise high-impact use cases, validate outputs and manage risk. Otherwise, AI becomes something happening around them, not something they lead.”

AI is exposing a leadership fluency gap

Many CMOs first encounter AI through operational use cases – such as content generation, analytics and workflow automation. This can reinforce an ‘efficiency tool’ mindset and push AI ownership to internal teams, external agencies, or the IT department.

Gartner believes this approach fails to elevate AI into a leadership capability tied to growth strategy, decision-making and experimentation.

“CMOs can’t treat AI as something the team ‘uses’ while leadership stays on the sidelines,” comments Foo Kune.

“The leaders who will thrive will prioritise a small set of high-impact use cases tied to measurable outcomes, build fluency in model limitations, and institutionalise output validation.

“They should also hold agencies accountable for governance and demonstrated value, and convene a C-suite community of practice to accelerate experimentation and alignment to enterprise priorities.”

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