The new Salesforce’s State of Marketing report, shared insights from over 4,800 marketing leaders across 29 countries — including 99 from the UAE. Salesforce conducted a double-anonymous survey of 4,850 marketers between February 5 to March 12, 2024. Respondents were sourced from 29 countries across North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. Additional methodology and survey demographic details can be found in the report.
The report covers the latest trends on how marketers are evaluating and implementing AI into their operations; approaching data acquisition, maintenance, and application strategies; and ensuring customer trust and security as vulnerabilities increase. Marketers are evolving their practices in a highly competitive landscape. They’re looking to AI — both generative and predictive — to help personalize at scale and boost efficiency. Also, locally, improving marketing ROI and attribution is UAE marketers’ No. 1 priority, while outdated tools and technologies is their No. 1 challenge.
“We are in a new era of AI, catalyzed by the generative gold rush, and marketers are leading the charge by embracing rapid advancements in the technology to better connect with customers and prospects. A strong data foundation will be critical to AI success for marketers as they work to bring together and unify customer data for real-time activation,” shared Ariel Kelman, Chief Marketing Officer, Salesforce.
As per the report, Marketers are intent on successfully applying AI in their operations with the right data, but are concerned about security. 83% of marketers in the UAE are already experimenting with or have fully implemented AI into their workflows. The three most popular AI use cases among marketers in the UAE are: Generate content, personalize the customer journey across channels, and drive best offers in real time.
Richard Turtle, Regional VP Salesforce Digital MENA, said, “The State of Marketing report paints a fascinating picture of the nuanced challenges faced by marketers in the UAE, and the immense opportunities open to them thanks to AI. While less than a third of UAE marketers are satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources, they are moving in the right direction, with loyalty data fully integrated across all touchpoints for more than two thirds of marketers. We look forward to continuing to help them achieve and surpass their goals in one of the region’s most dynamic markets.”
To meet rising customer expectations around personalization, marketers are graduating beyond broad audience segmentations, like location or age, to more specific identifiers like individual preferences or past interactions. There’s also a difference between how the highest- and lowest-performing marketing teams adapt. 46% of marketers in the UAE track customer lifetime value (CTV), while 91% of marketers in the UAE say they have a clear view into marketing’s impact on revenue.
