61% of Marketers Face C-Suite Pressure to Prove ROI as AI Gets a Bigger Share of 2027 Budgets, Validity Research Finds

As budgets grow, marketers would protect AI ahead of headcount, events in mid-year cuts

BOSTON, Nov. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Validity, the leading provider of Enterprise AI solutions for digital marketers, today released findings from its Winter 2026-2027 Marketer Survey revealing competing priorities between increasing investment in AI and facing pressure to demonstrate measurable financial returns as brands allocate resources for the year ahead.

• For more information and to download the full report, visit www.validity.com/resource-center/planning-for-2027-marketing-budgets-and-decisions.

Based on a survey of more than 250 B2B and B2C marketing professionals, the research shows that 66% of organizations expect their overall marketing budgets to increase in 2027, and 53% plan to allocate at least 10% of that budget to AI, underscoring the need for leaders to measure returns and prioritize spending.

This disconnect between how marketing teams use AI and how executives evaluate its success creates a challenge as 61% report pressure from the C-suite to demonstrate measurable AI gains. Executives prioritize marketing ROI and return on ad spend (25%), revenue and pipeline contribution (19%) and customer acquisition cost (16%). Just 6% say efficiency gains are the metric their C-suite cares about most.

"Marketing leaders are being asked to do two things at once: move quickly to put AI to work and prove that investment is making a measurable difference to the business," said Cynthia Price, SVP of marketing at Validity. "Saving time matters, but it is only part of the equation. As budgets come under scrutiny, marketers need to connect what AI helps them do with the outcomes leadership is ultimately measuring, from conversion and customer acquisition to revenue and pipeline."

Early results offer a mixed picture of AI's financial return. Half of respondents said their 2026 AI investments met or exceeded ROI expectations, while 26% said returns fell below expectations or that they saw no measurable return. Another 24% could not yet say whether their investments had paid off. Among respondents who reported some measurable return, cost savings (41%), improved engagement (39%), time saved (35%) and increased conversions (35%) were more commonly cited measures than comparing revenue generated with the cost of AI (26%).

For marketing leaders setting 2027 priorities, the findings highlight three areas to watch: 

• Protecting investment while reallocating resources. If forced to make mid-year cuts, 16% of respondents would protect AI tools and agents, ranking them second only to paid media (20%) and ahead of in-house headcount (15%), email marketing (15%) and events (11%).
• Planning for uncertainty. While 88% feel at least somewhat confident their 2027 plans will hold, economic conditions and consumer spending (17%) and AI's impact on how customers discover and evaluate brands (15%) are the leading sources of uncertainty. To prepare, 32% are reserving some of the budget for mid-year reallocation, another 32% are investing in scenario planning or forecasting tools, and 26% are shifting to quarterly or rolling planning.
• Preparing for greater AI autonomy. Only 7% of marketing teams currently use AI agents to run workflows with minimal human oversight. By the end of 2027, 42% expect performance reporting and analysis to operate with minimal human supervision, followed by marketing and competitor intelligence (38%) and content and copy creation (31%).

The findings point to a year of continued AI investment alongside greater scrutiny of performance and more flexible planning. Marketing leaders will be challenged to demonstrate business value while deciding where AI can deliver meaningful results and where human oversight remains essential.

About Validity
Validity created Engage, the Enterprise AI platform behind the world's most successful email programs. For nearly 30 years, Validity has operated at the center of the email ecosystem — shaping how it works, setting the standards others follow, and earning the trust of the world's biggest brands and mailbox providers. 

That trust is built on the world's largest email data network: proprietary signals from ISPs, exclusive mailbox provider partnerships, and more than 2.5 billion behavioral data points processed daily. This data-driven foundation powers Validity Engage, the Enterprise AI email platform for digital marketers that helps enterprise teams know what to send, when to send it, and who's ready to receive it—so every send is smarter than the last. For more information, visit validity.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.

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SOURCE Validity