Marketing and technology have never been more intertwined than they are now. However, for many local and global businesses, meaningful and effective collaboration between the chief marketing officer (CMO) and the chief information officer (CIO) remains elusive.
Thomas Husson, vice-president and principal analyst at Forrester, says that while the pandemic temporarily accelerated cross-functional teamwork, progress has stalled due to a lack of goal alignment and conflicting budgetary priorities.
“The emergence of generative AI [GenAI] and agentic AI indicates a significant shift. The successful integration and deployment of AI initiatives will hinge on healthy collaboration and alignment between IT, marketing and other critical business functions.”
He says AI is simultaneously consolidating and fragmenting the martech landscape. On one hand, it lowers the barrier to entry for software development, driving the establishment of specialised, AI-native start-ups. On the other, it threatens to render legacy stacks obsolete.
“CMOs now face a dual challenge: navigating an overwhelming array of unproven AI-native solutions while managing a legacy infrastructure that may no longer be fit for purpose. Without a proactive partnership with the CIO, marketing risks investing in solutions that cannot scale or integrate with the broader enterprise data architecture,” says Husson.
Trust and mutual respect turn a transactional relationship into a strategic alliance
— Thomas Husson
The challenge is that most CMOs lack significant influence over AI strategy, which is often dominated by technology leaders. As marketing becomes increasingly dependent on function-specific small language models and AI agents, this misalignment becomes a liability.
The tension, says Husson, often peaks around governance.
“CIOs are rightfully imposing guardrails to protect data privacy and intellectual property — essential moves in a changing risk landscape. However, if these are viewed as rigid restrictions rather than a shared framework, they can stifle the agility marketing requires.”
To turn potential friction into a proactive partnership, business leaders need to evolve their mindset from ownership to contribution. Leading CMO-CIO partnerships that are successfully navigating the AI era are anchoring martech decisions in shared business objectives. Husson recommends that organisations move away from separate KPIs.
“When both functions co-own business-level goals and shared metrics, decisions naturally orient around customer outcomes rather than departmental boundaries.”
Given that talent gaps are often a barrier, he suggests that business leaders should jointly hire and train cross-functional teams. “This ensures that IT understands marketing processes and where to find meaningful data, while marketers gain a better grasp of technical constraints and security protocols.”
Crucially, governance and informal trust need to be formalised. “A joint governance model clarifies who makes decisions and who is responsible for implementation. However, this must be balanced with informal relationship-building. Trust and mutual respect turn a transactional relationship into a strategic alliance,” says Husson.
He adds that the integration of AI into daily workflows is an opportunity to reduce dependency on legacy agencies and internalise critical capabilities. However, this only works if there is a foundation of empathy and trust between the CMO and CIO.
The big take-out: The successful integration of AI requires CMOs and CIOs to move beyond transactional roles and embrace a proactive partnership built on co-created strategies, shared customer-centric goals and mutual trust.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.