Volatility is the new norm in 2027, and marketers are coming to the 2027 planning cycle with optimism about their budgets. Ninety-one percent of B2C marketing executives anticipate that their overall marketing budget will increase. To capture AI’s upside without risking overexposure, marketers need a stronger operational foundation, deeper marketing-specific AI expertise, and the adaptability to embrace new ways of working as AI reshapes consumer behavior and marketing execution. This report provides B2C marketers with data-driven guidance on investing their 2027 budgets — where to increase, decrease, avoid, or experiment.

Will Consumers And Marketers Follow? Three years ago, Google was on the defensive. ChatGPT reset expectations for search experiences and Microsoft gained early momentum with its investments in OpenAI. Today, the answer engine race continues, but Google is back in pole position. Even with new market diversification thanks to OpenAI and Anthropic, Google remains the […]

OpenAI’s IPO move, paired with its latest manifesto, highlights a race to win consumers, automate enterprises, and advance toward AGI. For business and technology leaders, the implication is clear: Accelerate AI adoption, avoid lock-in, and focus on capabilities, not vendors, as the competitive landscape shifts.

Consumer search habits are evolving with the availability and utility of conversational answer engines. Now that answer engines are incorporating ads into the free tiers that most consumers use, B2C marketers need to understand consumers’ receptiveness to ads in a chatbot interface. This report reviews data from our ConsumerVoices market research panel about consumer adoption of answer engines and how usage might change in response to ads.

You can use a sell-side platform (SSP) to take advantage of programmatic demand, maximize yield, and communicate their value to advertisers. But to realize these benefits, you’ll first have to select from a diverse set of vendors that vary by size, type of offering, geography, and use case differentiation. Digital publishers should use this report to understand the value they can expect from an SSP vendor, learn how vendors differ, and investigate options based on size and market focus.

Marketing, customer experience, and digital business leaders in consumer-facing businesses are navigating rapidly evolving markets, stoking uncertainty for both consumers and businesses. So far, the US economy has largely continued to grow despite upheaval. Don’t be lulled into thinking that this economy is the new normal. Instead, buckle up for the rest of 2026: Consumer business leaders must optimize their focus and spend with extreme discipline and creativity, master change management, and ratchet up their risk management discipline.

To harness the impact of AI, CMOs must navigate a fundamental tension: They need a clear, growth‑anchored vision while also making room to lead through the uncertainty this disruptive technology creates. Doing so requires CMOs to own the role of change leader in order to become a better growth leader — constantly striking the right balance between AI automation and the human touch. CMOs: This is no easy feat, but rest assured, we’ve got your back. This report helps CMOs (B2B, B2C, and B2B2C) understand AI’s current and future impact on their responsibilities and how to prepare for a new level of growth accountability.

B2C CMOs will be put to the test in a coming year that will be even more volatile than the current one. Adaptability and precision will be critical to success.

Through all the uncertainty this year, one constant persists: AI adoption and its potential to reshape B2C marketing as we know it. Find out how in this preview of a new survey and report.

B2C marketing executives report high satisfaction with their AI adoption and most plan to continue to increase their AI investments over the next year. Data from Forrester’s Q1 and Q2 2025 CMO Pulse Surveys illustrate how far marketers have come in their AI adoption journey — and where they plan to go next. B2C marketers should use this report to explore trends in AI use cases for marketing, organizational readiness, genAI concerns, and measuring AI efficacy.