India is emerging as the world's top marketing-led AI market, with CMOs expecting 5-9% revenue growth, says a BCG report. Indian marketers are leading AI investments, focusing on agentic commerce, personalization, and upskilling talent.
India is fast emerging as the world's most marketing-led AI transformation market, with Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) reporting the highest expectations for AI-driven revenue growth globally and taking direct ownership of AI investments.
The country is expected to witness 5-9 per cent topline growth from AI, beating the 43 per cent of the global average, as per a survey report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report noted that India is channelling investments toward the highest-impact growth use cases, positioning the country as the world's most marketing-driven AI transformation story.
"53 per cent of Indian CMOs project 5-9 per cent incremental topline growth from AI use cases, against a global average of 43%," the report said. Additionally, 57 per cent of the CMOs report that AI is funded by the marketing function, against 47 per cent globally, which makes "India one of the most marketing-led AI investment markets in the world," it said.
Leadership in Agentic Commerce
It further noted that India stands out as the global leader in agentic commerce, with 73 per cent of Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) placing it among their top three strategic priorities, against the global average of 63 per cent and the EMESA average of 54 per cent. "India's quick commerce density and digital-native consumer base make agentic commerce an immediate go-to-market priority rather than a future-state concept for Indian marketing leaders," the report said.
GenAI Driving Personalization
India also tops in terms of personalization as "52 per cent of Indian CMOs expect GenAI to have a significant positive impact, the highest of any region, against 47 per cent globally. A further 88 per cent of Indian CMOs agree that GenAI will help their teams sense signals and act in near real time, underscoring the speed imperative that defines India's AI marketing agenda," the report added.
High Confidence in Talent and Upskilling
Additionally, Indian CMOs are more confident in India's talent readiness than their global peers. "Only 13 per cent view GenAI skills as a severe risk, against 22 per cent globally," the report said.
Furthermore, this confidence comes from actions, as "42 per cent of Indian CMOs have fully deployed AI upskilling for junior and mid-level employees, against 34 per cent globally, and 43 per cent are actively hiring AI-native talent, against 35 per cent globally," the report added.
Apart from this, 43 per cent of Indian CMOs have AI skills embedded in job descriptions as against 37 per cent globally.
On the other hand, around 80 per cent of CMOs are significantly investing in AI-specific upskilling programmes and adding responsible AI and ethics training, up 10 percentage points from 2025 globally. (ANI)
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