Irish marketers embrace AI but struggle to deliver the personalised conversations customers expect.
New Salesforce research shows widespread adoption of AI in Ireland, yet brands remain held back by fragmented data and one‑way communication habits.
Irish marketers have rapidly adopted artificial intelligence, but many remain unable to deliver the personalised, two‑way conversations customers increasingly expect.
“We are using the most powerful technology in history to send more one‑way spam, faster”
New research from Salesforce’s Tenth Edition State of Marketing report finds that while 84% of marketers in Ireland are using AI tools, 82% say they still rely on generic, one‑direction campaigns.
Data oils the marketing machine
The study, based on responses from 100 Irish marketers within a global sample of 4,450, paints a picture of an industry eager to modernise but constrained by disjointed systems and inaccessible data.
According to the report, 89% of marketers in Ireland struggle to respond promptly to customers, and only 49% have complete access to service data. Access to sales and commerce data is even lower, at 59% and 39% respectively.
Bobby Jania, CMO at Salesforce Agentforce Marketing, said marketers risk misusing powerful tools by relying on outdated practices. “We are using the most powerful technology in history to send more one‑way spam, faster,” he said. “You cannot give a customer a personalised recommendation or reply if your AI does not actually know who they are.”
Marketers surveyed said the main barrier to delivering personalised experiences is not the technology itself, but the quality and availability of the data feeding it.
All Irish respondents reported running into data‑related obstacles when trying to personalise campaigns. Eighty‑two% said they need more personalised content than they are able to produce, prompting almost 84% to turn to AI to help fill the gap.
The research suggests that organisations that have unified their customer information are beginning to pull ahead. Marketing teams that have brought disparate datasets together are 42% more likely to respond to customers regularly and 60% more likely to use AI agents to support their work than those still wrestling with legacy data structures.
Context is king
Jania said marketers have a significant opportunity if they can align their systems. “Every marketer has access to the same AI models. So what separates the winners? Relevant context. Being able to harness the right context is the difference between an AI that automates the status quo and an agent that actually grows your business.”
High‑performing teams appear to be showing what this future might look like. 75% of marketers using AI agents said they were satisfied with their ability to connect customer touchpoints, compared with 62% of those without AI support. The report also finds that high performers are more likely to have unified data sources and to use customer data to shape more relevant experiences.
Customer expectations are shifting quickly. 89% of Irish marketers say customers now want the option to reply to marketing messages and receive a meaningful response. Yet just over half of teams say they are able to reliably respond to email or SMS communication today.
AI is also reshaping how consumers find and evaluate brands, with significant implications for marketers. Over half of respondents said they are struggling to keep up with changing behaviours. The report notes that half of Google searches now show AI‑generated summaries that can bypass brand websites entirely, while large language models are becoming a key step in purchase decisions.
This shift has led to a rise in Answer Engine Optimisation, the process of tailoring content for AI‑driven platforms such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overview. Eighty‑seven% of marketers in Ireland say AI has already begun reshaping their SEO strategy, and 88% have started optimising for AI‑generated answers. High‑performing marketers are more than twice as likely as underperformers to have invested in this approach.
Jania said many organisations are still operating with assumptions from an earlier era of digital marketing. “The old playbook of broadcast and pray is broken. Customers have moved on. They are not clicking ten blue links on Google anymore. They are getting answers from AI. If you are not optimised for this answer engine world, you are invisible.”
The study suggests that marketers who can overcome internal silos and make customer data accessible stand to gain the most as AI accelerates changes in how customers search, shop and communicate. Jania described this as a turning point.
“Agentic marketing is the next great evolution in our field: marketing that stops speaking at customers and starts engaging with them. If we do not deliver that, consumers will find a brand that will.”
Top image: Photo by Zulfugar Karimov on Unsplash
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