Marketing execs drowning in data still rely on gut instinct but hope synthetic research will help

Businesses are pouring money into market research—nearly half of senior marketing leaders say they invest over 15% of their budget toward business intelligence—yet most of that intelligence sits unused. A new Qualtrics global study of senior marketing and insights executives¹ found that two-thirds still rely on gut instinct for critical decisions.

Why are they still guessing instead of relying on the data? The research reveals five reasons, including a lack of timely, relevant insights, skepticism about data quality, and a talent gap in putting the data to work.

Marketing leaders are turning to new technology to solve these problems, expecting that synthetic research and generative AI-powered solutions will deliver the ROI they need. At a time when marketing leaders are increasingly asked to drive revenue growth through improved customer experience, capitalize on market opportunities, and prove marketing's measurable impact, they can no longer afford to spend budgets on research they can’t use.

5 key issues holding marketing leaders’ business intelligence programs back

The problem isn't a lack of data for executives. It's knowing how to turn it into strategic action, with five critical barriers identified by the Qualtrics study:

1. The data deluge
   Executives are drowning in data to the point that 56% say they are overwhelmed by fragmented and disparate sources.
2. ROI remains elusive
   Measuring the return on marketing initiatives remains the top business challenge for 30% of leaders, and half (51%) say a lack of clear ROI from their existing solutions is the biggest barrier to increasing future investment in business intelligence solutions. This makes it hard for executives to get approval for the tools they need to understand their data.
3. Garbage in, garbage out
   Even when data is accessible, it's often unreliable. Poor data quality and forecasting customer behavior are cited as top challenges by 29% of CMOs globally. The issue of data quality is particularly prevalent in the US.
4. Stakeholder skepticism
   Hesitancy around new technology and methodology is slowing adoption. Half of executives (51%) say skepticism about AI or synthetic data is their biggest barrier to increasing investment.
5. The talent gap
   Many leaders believe their teams lack the expertise to effectively use new AI-powered business intelligence solutions. Around half (49%) cite a lack of internal expertise as a top barrier to increased investment in new capabilities.

"Guesswork is one of the most expensive strategies in business," said Lynn Girotto, Chief Marketing Officer at Qualtrics. "As spending slows, companies that listen to customers and respond to real needs are better positioned to win. This is where marketing and insights leaders will demonstrate true value and they must not shy away from the tools that allow them to do this well."

Generative AI and synthetic research to the rescue

Despite these challenges, there remains a demand for quality insights. Most marketing and insights executives expect their budgets to grow in 2026: 74% forecast increases of 5–20%.

CMOs and senior marketing and insights leaders are looking to generative AI and synthetic research to improve their team’s effectiveness with 96% saying these technologies have a positive impact on their marketing intelligence capabilities. In fact, 91% say they are more confident when using generative AI for market research and 94% say it gives them a competitive advantage.

Executives in the study say they are prioritizing investments and focus in three critical areas: getting fast, reliable, actionable insights; improving customer loyalty and conversion; and hiring and developing for new AI skills.

These leaders are also pushing ahead with synthetic research at a rapid rate – 95% say they use synthetic data or plan to within the next 12 months – with many saying it is more valuable than the insights captured from human panels:

• 92% say synthetic data is more accurate and useful than traditional methods
• 84% say synthetic data improves the speed of generating market insights
• 79% percent say it improves the depth of insights.

Synthetic research is transforming core research tasks, with executives saying their teams use the technology to generate new customer and market insights (68%), fill data gaps where traditional data is limited (63%), replace or augment traditional surveys (62%), simulate customer personas and audience segments (56%) and undertake competitive analysis and market simulation (54%).

Despite rapid generative AI adoption, concerns linger

Almost every executive in the study said they plan to use the new technology even as they navigate the concerns that come with its responsible use.

Despite high adoption and plans to increase investment, nearly three-quarters of executives worry about bias in generative AI outputs affecting insight accuracy. Over 90% stress the importance of addressing demographic and ideological bias to ensure trustworthy results.

The top challenges or concerns center around data security and privacy risks (49%), integration complexity with existing systems (41%), and potential inaccuracies in AI-generated data (40%).

However, 9 out of 10 agree AI will fundamentally improve their organization’s understanding of customers and markets if limitations like bias, representativeness, and experimental validity are carefully managed.

Marketers need to pair intuition with timely data

Marketing and consumer insights leaders face a critical transition. The research shows their strategic importance is increasing while many rely only on their intuition for critical business decisions because they lack timely and relevant data.

The data indicates that nearly every company has plans to implement AI-powered marketing intelligence and many executives are adopting hybrid approaches that combine human expertise with AI-driven analytics. The leaders that can demonstrate ROI, develop AI literacy among their teams and overcome the data deluge will position their organizations for success.

Methodology:

This data comes from a Qualtrics study of more than 700 global senior marketing and insights executives, collected between July 2025-August 2025. Participants identified themselves as head of overall marketing organization, part of the senior executive team (e.g., CMO), or head of overall marketing or consumer insights organization, not part of senior executive team, or a senior leader who is on the marketing or consumer insights leadership team. Participants worked for businesses with over 1000 employees in the organization, over 50 employees in the marketing department, and over $10 million in revenue.

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