AI helps marketing and sales pros work smarter, but does it drive revenue?

AI usage is widespread in revenue organizations, with 68 percent of sales and marketing professionals using AI at work and 51 percent using AI agents, according to a new survey.

The survey, published by talent and upskilling community General Assembly, found mixed opinions on whether AI helps grow revenue at their organization.

Sixty-one percent of the marketing and sales professionals surveyed said they are not very confident that their use of AI increases revenue, and 46 percent aren’t very confident it improves the customer experience.

As for productivity, 22 percent of respondents said AI has not impacted their team’s productivity, and 18 percent said AI actually created more work for them and pulled them away from other strategic priorities.

The problem might be in the training — or lack thereof. Fewer than one in five (17 percent) of respondents said they received comprehensive, job-specific training on AI, creating risks related to governance and brand safety.

Nearly one-third (32 percent) of sales and marketing professionals said they received no formal AI training, while 20 percent said the training they did receive was too generic. Fifteen percent reported their training was too focused on concepts over real applications, and 16 percent sought out AI training on their own.

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The survey also found that a lack of training serves as a barrier to adoption for those who don’t use AI.

More than two-thirds of those respondents said they have received no formal AI training. Nearly 40 percent of sales professionals said they want hands-on training specific to sales tasks and workflows, while 49 percent of marketers want clear examples of how AI can help with daily responsibilities.

But those who are using AI in sales and marketing are reporting positive outcomes: 67 percent said AI frees up their time to focus on more strategic work, and 56 percent said their teams have become more productive.

General Assembly surveyed more than 300 marketing and sales employees in the United States and the United Kingdom for the report.

More than half (55 percent) of respondents use AI fewer than five times a day, while 20 percent use it more than 10 times per day. Respondents said they use AI for content creation (57 percent), market research and analytics (49 percent), sales operations (47 percent), customer relationship management (42 percent), and advertising (41 percent).

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