Gartner CMO Spend Survey: Budgets Reflect Increase in Consumption-Based Martech, Paid ...

Everyone's buying AI tools. Almost nobody's using them. That gap? That's where the money disappears. If you've paid for an AI subscription that quietly died because your team never touched it, you'r

Everyone's buying AI tools. Almost nobody's using them.

That gap? That's where the money disappears.

If you've paid for an AI subscription that quietly died because your team never touched it, you're not alone — and you're not behind. You made the same mistake most smart business owners make: you bought a tool before you knew the job it was supposed to do.

Here's what Gartner's latest CMO spend data quietly confirms. Even large marketing budgets are shifting away from big AI software commitments toward consumption-based tools — meaning pay for what you actually use. The era of "buy the full platform and figure it out later" is ending, even at the enterprise level.

That's actually good news for you. It means smaller, focused AI tools — ones that do one specific thing well — are now the smarter bet. Lower risk. Faster results. Easier for your team to actually adopt.

Start here: Pick one repetitive task your team does every week. Just one. Find a tool built specifically for that task. Run it for 30 days and measure the time saved. That's your first AI win — no overhaul required.

What's the one AI tool you bought that nobody on your team ended up using?

#AIStrategy #SmallBusiness #BusinessGrowth #AIImplementation

Original Source

Given the continued emphasis on AI tools as a marketing essential, you might expect CMOs to be dedicating a higher percentage of their budgets ...