Observed Signal · Jul 13, 2022 · Research / Survey · Source: CMSWire · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Marketers Uneducated, Untrained for Artificial Intelligence
A survey by Drift and the Marketing AI Institute reveals significant gaps in AI education and adoption among marketers. According to the survey, 63% of marketers selected 'lack of education and training' as the dominant barrier to AI adoption out of 17 choices, and 52% cited lack of awareness as a key obstacle. Only 11% of businesses have formal AI education and training programs for employees. The majority of marketing teams remain in the early 'understanding' stage of AI transformation, while 45% of marketers describe themselves as beginners in AI terminology and capabilities. Ownership of AI adoption is fragmented, with CMOs leading at 33%, followed by 'other' roles at 29% and CTOs at 19%. Experts Paul Roetzer and Aurelia Solomon call for cross-functional leadership and executive buy-in to close the skills gap.
The article highlights a significant skills and education gap hindering AI adoption in marketing, relevant to MarTech and AI-enabled advertising, but it is a survey-based insight rather than a single industry-shifting event.
Track Drift Signals & Market Shifts in Real-Time
Polaris7 autonomous intelligence agents track regulatory filings, primary sources, executive changes, and deal flow 24/7. Create your free Explorer workspace to monitor these entities.
Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Drift and Marketing AI Institute survey found 63% of marketers cite lack of education and training as the dominant barrier to AI adoption.
- 52% of marketers cited lack of awareness as a barrier, up from 46% in 2021.
- Only 11% of businesses have a formal AI education and training program for employees.
- 67% of marketing teams are in the 'Understanding' stage of AI transformation, while 15% are scaling.
- 45% of marketers classify their understanding of AI terminology and capabilities as 'beginner'.
Connected Companies & Entities
2 Entities mapped“According to findings from a Drift and Marketing AI Institute survey, 'lack of education and training' is the dominant barrier to adoption o...”
“Coursera's latest Global Skills Report found US proficiency in technology and data science skills are declining and lag behind countries in ...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Announcing Project Helix: A skills platform for the AI era
At Coursera and Udemy’s first global FWD customer event as a combined company, we previewed Project Helix, our new AI-native skills platform — along with new AI-powered capabilities across Coursera and Udemy.
Vyond Names Scott Ernst as CEO
Vyond, an enterprise video creation and communication platform used by over 17,000 customers, appointed Scott Ernst as Chief Executive Officer. Gary Lipkowitz will step down from the CEO role and transition to Vyond’s Board of Directors. The company said the leadership change will support an accelerated enterprise strategy and expansion of its AI-powered communications platform. Ernst brings more than 20 years of SaaS leadership experience, including prior executive roles at Compete, Macromill and Drift. Vyond highlighted its enterprise footprint — more than 40 million videos created for training, HR, sales enablement, compliance and other use cases — as the foundation for the next phase of growth.
Aligning Complex Customer Journeys Beyond Silos
This MarTech guidance article (published May 7, 2026) explains how martech practitioners can reduce friction and keep multichannel customer journeys aligned by taking a broad operational view across platforms, channels, data flows, QA and cross-team coordination. It outlines common platform types (CRM, CDP, DMP, DSP, SSP, ESP, CMS, analytics, attribution, personalization engines, etc.) and channel types (web, mobile apps, email, SMS, paid media, social, messaging apps, DOOH), highlights issues around platform and channel ownership, and recommends end-to-end QA/UAT and root-cause troubleshooting. The piece emphasizes timing and data propagation between touchpoints, the need to map touchpoints for QA, and the role of martech practitioners in bridging business and technical teams to prevent campaign issues before launch.
Track Real-Time Market Signals & Shifts
Set up custom watchlists to receive automated, evidence-grounded executive digests whenever material signals or shifts occur across your tracked landscape.