Mumbai: India is emerging as one of the world’s most marketing-led AI transformation markets, with Indian Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) projecting the highest AI-driven revenue growth globally while taking direct ownership of AI investments and accelerating adoption across emerging areas such as agentic commerce and personalised marketing.
These findings were revealed in Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) latest annual report, How CMOs are Moving Agentic Marketing from Illusion to Reality, based on a global survey of 300 CMOs.
According to the report, 53% of Indian CMOs expect AI-led initiatives to generate incremental topline growth of 5–9%, the highest among all regions surveyed and significantly above the global average of 43%.
The report also highlights India’s leadership in agentic commerce adoption, with 73% of Indian CMOs ranking it among their top three strategic priorities, compared to the global average of 63%. In addition, 57% of Indian CMOs reported that AI investments are directly funded by the marketing function itself, ahead of the global average of 47%, signalling a decisive shift in marketing’s strategic role within organisations.
Globally, while 96% of CMOs believe AI is transforming marketing functions end-to-end, only a minority have operationalised these capabilities at scale. Just under one-third have adopted AI agents meaningfully, and only 8% are currently running campaigns where multiple AI agents operate autonomously. Meanwhile, AI investments in marketing continue to rise, with 43% of surveyed companies allocating over USD 15 million to AI initiatives this year, compared to 28% last year.
India’s AI momentum is also being shaped by strong leadership mandates. The survey found that 43% of Indian CMOs reported significantly higher expectations from CEOs over the last two years. Additionally, 27% identified accelerating AI and digital transformation as their CEO’s top priority—substantially higher than comparable regions.
Commenting on the findings, Mark Abraham, Global Leader, Marketing, Sales and Pricing Practice, Boston Consulting Group, and coauthor of the report, said, “Ninety percent of the CMOs in our survey agreed that GenAI is already reshaping how consumers discover and evaluate brands. But most marketing organizations are not yet built to compete in that environment. Investment must now move beyond individual AI tools, and towards fully connected agentic operating systems built on strong data foundations, brand intelligence layers, multi-agent orchestration, and the right talent. If established brands don’t build this first, new agentic-native attacker brands will do so.”
The report suggests that Indian CMOs are increasingly prioritising AI-led consumer engagement strategies that combine automation with real-time responsiveness.
Sharing insights on India’s distinct positioning, Parul Bajaj, India Leader, Marketing, Sales and Pricing Practice, Boston Consulting Group, and coauthor of the report, said, “There is a genuine shift underway in how marketing functions in India are leading AI transformation. Indian CMOs are projecting the highest AI-driven growth of any market we surveyed, directly owning the AI investment agenda, and placing focused bets on agentic commerce and personalisation. What is distinctive is the combination of three things: CEO conviction at the top, marketing taking on real strategic ownership of the AI agenda, and a talent base being built systematically from within. This is a meaningfully different model from what we see in most other markets, and it positions India’s marketing leaders to play a much bigger role in defining where agentic marketing goes next.”
The report identifies personalisation as another major investment area for Indian marketers, with 52% of CMOs expecting GenAI to deliver significant positive impact—again the highest among all surveyed markets. Furthermore, 88% believe GenAI will help teams identify consumer signals and act in near real time.
Talent readiness has also emerged as a differentiator. Only 13% of Indian CMOs identified AI capability gaps as a severe risk, versus 22% globally. Supporting this confidence, 42% reported fully implementing AI upskilling programs for junior and mid-level employees, while 43% are actively hiring AI-native talent and embedding AI capabilities into role requirements.
BCG notes that organisations likely to lead in this next phase of transformation will be those investing beyond isolated AI use cases and instead building integrated operating infrastructure encompassing data ecosystems, brand intelligence, orchestration capabilities, and future-ready talent.
