Report: 53% of Asia marketers see ROI from Gen AI

While much of the world is still piloting generative AI, over half (53%) of marketers in Asia have already seen returns on investment (ROI) from using the technology to grow revenue, a report finds. This is despite data fragmentation and budget hurdles threatening to slow down momentum.

Adobe and Econsultancy’s 2025 “AI and digital trends” report, collected 3,400 qualified respondents from 11 November to 4 December 2024, including 3,270 client-side and 130 agency executives. APAC led with 37% of respondents, followed by Europe (32%) and North America (31%). Key sectors included retail (24%), B2B tech (23%), financial services (20%), healthcare (17%) and media and entertainment (10%).

The report revealed that senior executives in South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Southeast Asia are leading the region in applying AI to strategic marketing tasks, from journey orchestration to content creation.

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However, just 6% have measurable, scaled solutions in place signaling a gap between optimism and operational reality.

The report also found that data siloes remain the top blocker to real-time personalisation. Only 9% of practitioners described their digital CX as “exceptional,” and fewer than half (42%) use analytics to anticipate customer needs by persona.

Privacy and security concerns were notably the biggest challenge to connecting customer data across departments, cited by 43% of leaders. A more alarming insight: 28% of respondents said data isn’t even seen as a strategic asset by leadership. This is the highest figure across JAPAC markets.

Yet investment is coming. Over the next 12 to 24 months, 61% of executives said data integration and real-time insights will shape their tech spending, followed by AI and machine learning capabilities (57%).

Unlike markets elsewhere in JAPAC, where AI is mostly delivering ROI in chat and customer service, practitioners in Asia are seeing returns across a wider set of use cases. 

This includes 16% in journey orchestration, 14% in creative production such as virtual photoshoots and 14% in chat and customer support. 

Still, difficulty securing budget and proving ROI at scale remains a key challenge for 45% of senior leaders, said the report. The pressure is also rising internally with 87% of executives expect faster and higher volumes of content in 2025.

Meanwhile, 69% of practitioners say they’re overwhelmed by the influx of new tech. 

To relieve the strain, many are turning to agentic AI and embedding them into copilots and assistants to automate routine tasks such as database management and content delivery. When combined with generative AI, these tools promise scalable personalisation and lower support costs, said Adobe. 

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