The fifth annual Women CMOs in Fintech Report examines what happens now that AI is part of everyday marketing work. Based on conversations with fintech marketing leaders, the research looks at the CMO’s growing influence across the business, how teams are using AI in practice, the rise of AI search, and why experience and judgment carry significant weight as the technology takes on a larger role.
Five years ago, when we launched our Women CMOs in Fintech Report, we wanted to understand who was leading marketing at some of fintech’s most ambitious companies and what we could learn from them. The job has expanded considerably since then.
Today, fintech CMOs are involved in revenue, company strategy, and technology decisions alongside the work they have always owned around brand and communications. And in 2026, AI sits squarely in the middle of many of those responsibilities.
Every CMO we interviewed is using AI for research and data analysis. Nearly nine in 10 have structured AI workflows in place. Half now have direct influence over AI strategy and implementation within their companies. Our conversations also surfaced harder questions about how buyers find brands, what companies should automate, how teams need to change, and which skills become increasingly important when AI can handle a growing share of execution.
Here are four findings that stand out:
1. The CMO’s job keeps getting closer to the center of the business
Eighty-eight percent of CMOs say their role expanded over the past 12 months, and 38% say it expanded significantly. Three-quarters now report directly to the CEO.
Their areas of influence also tell an important story. Seventy-five percent have direct influence over demand generation, 63% over sales, revenue, or growth, and 56% over business strategy. Half are involved in AI strategy and implementation.
Marketing leaders are increasingly working on decisions that affect the full organization. They understand how buyers behave, see what is happening across the customer journey, and have access to signals from brand, demand generation, sales, and the market itself. Several CMOs we interviewed believe that a closer connection to revenue could eventually bring the CMO and CRO roles together under a broader go-to-market leader.
At the same time, greater influence comes with greater accountability. Eighty-eight percent of CMOs say they are effectively demonstrating marketing’s revenue impact or making strong progress toward it. Teams are moving toward multi-touch attribution, qualified pipeline, influenced opportunities, and cohort performance as they work to give CEOs and CFOs a clearer picture of what marketing contributes.
The expectation is increasingly straightforward: marketing leaders need to understand the business well enough to help make better decisions across it.
2. AI is becoming routine while judgment is becoming more critical.
In 2024, many fintech marketing teams were experimenting with AI for brainstorming and content. More adoption and testing followed in 2025. This year, 100% of the CMOs we interviewed use AI for research and data analysis, 94% use it for content creation and search optimization, and 88% have structured AI workflows in their daily operations.
Teams are applying AI to competitive intelligence, audience research, campaign analysis, sales support, and other work that previously required considerably more manual effort. That increased use has also helped CMOs get clearer about where they want people making the decisions.
All leaders reported that there was at least one high-stakes area of marketing they would not allow AI to lead. More than half draw the line at regulated or compliance-sensitive communications. Others keep crisis response, reputation management, brand voice, and positioning firmly under human control.
Those boundaries are practical because a reputation issue requires context and experience that may span years. Strong positioning depends on understanding a company, its customers, its competitors, and the nuances that make its value credible.
AI can accelerate a tremendous amount of work, but the people who know when to question an output, add context, or reject it altogether become increasingly important as its use grows. As Sunbit CMO Shachar Scott told us, the work still requires “strategic thinking, judgment, relationships, trust, intuition, and decision-making” built through experience.
3. AI search is forcing brands to rethink how they get discovered
For marketers, one of AI’s biggest implications is happening before a prospect ever reaches a company’s website. Buyers are using ChatGPT and other LLMs to research markets, compare solutions, and build vendor shortlists. Several CMOs told us those prospects are arriving at sales conversations later and with a much stronger point of view about the companies they are considering. That creates a new visibility challenge.
Sixty-nine percent of CMOs are already investing in answer engine optimization or generative engine optimization, and every CMO we interviewed plans to increase GEO investment heading into 2027.
Teams are restructuring website content so it is easier for LLMs to interpret, investing in executive thought leadership, and starting to track how often their brands appear within specific AI tools.
Earned media also takes on a much more influential role in that environment. Third-party coverage has always helped companies establish credibility with buyers, but CMOs are now recognizing its significant influence on how LLMs cite sources and recommend brands. In response, they are beginning to track the questions buyers are asking AI systems and shape their earned media strategies around the topics influencing those answers.
That connection could give PR and thought leadership a clearer role in the buyer journey. Vanita Pandey, CMO of Microblink, put it simply, “the days of churning content out to get ranking are over. A lot of the ranking is going to come from earned media. I’ve spent years trying to justify the PR spend, and now it’s going to be very directly attributable.”
Measurement, however, is still developing. CMOs described GEO today in much the same way marketers once talked about early SEO: the opportunity is visible before the measurement standards are fully settled.
4. Marketing teams are evolving around the work AI can actually do
The assumption that AI would quickly translate into smaller marketing teams does not match what most of the CMOs in our research are planning. Fifty-six percent expect to add headcount, while only 6% anticipate reductions. At the same time, half are consolidating or redesigning roles as AI changes the skills teams need.
SEO leaders are taking on GEO. Content teams are building and maintaining AI tools trained around company voice. New roles are appearing around go-to-market technology, automation, and AI search. Some CMOs are also testing AI proficiency during the hiring process.
Training is following a similar path. Much of it is happening through experimentation and knowledge sharing inside teams, with some companies creating AI task forces, hackathons, or outside training programs.
Budget planning suggests CMOs expect that experimentation to continue. Seventy-five percent anticipate larger marketing budgets in 2027, and none expect a reduction. Investment is moving toward AI tools, GEO, analytics, and brand building. Meanwhile, 94% are maintaining or increasing event investment, often with greater emphasis on smaller executive gatherings and customer experiences.
CMOs are making these choices under increased scrutiny from the rest of the C-suite. Some told us that CEOs and CFOs expect AI to help marketing teams accomplish more without corresponding increases in resources. That puts pressure on leaders to separate genuine efficiency from work that still requires time, expertise, and thoughtful review.
Five years in, experience takes on a different role
Five years of conversation with marketing leaders have shown us a role that continues to broaden. The women we spoke with this year are making decisions about revenue, technology, team design, and how their companies will be found by the next generation of buyers. They are also deciding where AI genuinely improves the work and where human involvement remains critical.
AI will keep changing the tools available to marketers. The findings in this year’s report suggest that knowing what to do with those tools requires a deep understanding of the customer and the market.
Click here to read the 2026 Women CMOs in Fintech Report to explore the full findings and hear directly from the leaders participating in this year’s research.
