MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence may be writing the marketing playbook, but messy data is still scribbling in the margins. Artificial intelligence has become a mainstream marketing tool in India, with 81 per cent of marketers now using AI in their operations. However, fragmented customer data and disconnected systems continue to prevent brands from delivering the personalised experiences consumers increasingly expect, according to the tenth edition of Salesforce’s State of Marketing report.
Based on responses from 250 marketing decision-makers in India, the study suggests that AI adoption alone is no longer enough. Instead, marketers’ ability to deliver meaningful customer engagement increasingly depends on how effectively they collect, connect and use customer data.
The report highlights a shift in consumer expectations, with 92 per cent of marketers saying customers now expect brands to engage in two-way conversations rather than simply broadcast promotional messages. Yet 71 per cent admitted they struggle to respond quickly because customer information remains scattered across different business functions.
Salesforce found that organisations with unified customer data are already seeing tangible benefits. Marketers satisfied with their data infrastructure are 1.4 times more likely to respond regularly to customers and 1.6 times more likely to deploy AI agents for customer engagement than organisations operating with fragmented data.
According to Nishant Kalra, Vice President – Sales, Salesforce South Asia, data quality has emerged as the critical factor separating successful AI strategies from ineffective ones.
He said the biggest barrier to personalisation is no longer AI itself but the quality and connectivity of the customer data powering it, adding that trusted, unified customer information is essential for delivering contextual, real-time engagement at scale.
The report also indicates growing confidence in AI-powered customer interactions. Around 86 per cent of marketers said they would trust AI to respond directly to customers, while 83 per cent admitted they need more personalised content than they currently have the capacity to produce. Reflecting that gap, 81 per cent are already using AI to create personalised marketing content.
Despite rapid adoption, implementation challenges remain widespread. According to Salesforce, 98 per cent of marketers reported obstacles to personalisation, with privacy regulations, poor-quality or unstructured data and limited technical expertise emerging among the biggest concerns.
Data integration across organisations also remains incomplete. Only 60 per cent of marketers reported full access to customer service data, while 61 per cent have complete access to sales data and 58 per cent to commerce data, making it difficult to build a single, unified view of customers.
The report also points to changing online discovery habits as generative AI reshapes search behaviour. Nearly half of marketers said they have yet to adapt their strategies to widespread AI adoption, while 66 per cent admitted struggling to keep pace with rapidly evolving customer behaviour.
At the same time, brands are increasingly preparing for AI-driven search. Around 91 per cent of marketers said AI is reshaping their search engine optimisation strategies, while 92 per cent have already begun optimising content for AI-generated answers on platforms such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. High-performing marketing teams were found to be 2.2 times more likely than underperforming organisations to have adopted Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) strategies.
The study also found that companies deploying AI agents enjoy stronger customer data connectivity. Around 76 per cent of organisations using AI agents reported satisfaction with their ability to connect customer interactions across channels, compared with 55 per cent among businesses not using the technology. High-performing marketers were also 1.7 times more likely to have unified customer data that supports more relevant customer experiences.
The findings are drawn from Salesforce’s global survey conducted between October and November 2025, covering 4,450 marketing decision-makers worldwide, including 250 respondents from India. Together, they underline a growing reality for marketers: while AI is rapidly becoming indispensable, its true potential depends less on algorithms and more on the quality of the data behind them.