Be bold: Gen AI and agentic AI As the initial hype around gen AI fades, a sharp divide is emerging as a wake-up call: European companies are at risk of missing out on one of the most powerful efficiency and innovation levers. In Europe, only a few gen AI leaders (6 percent of surveyed CMOs) rank the technology as a priority (#5 of top 20 topics) and are seeing real efficiency gains, but average adopters and laggards place it near the bottom and struggle to scale. Why is this the case? Several factors are holding companies back, from a lack of understanding of what gen AI can deliver to general skepticism fueled by scattered initiatives that did not (yet) pay off, insufficient capabilities, and a lack of bold leadership relative to US executives. This is worrying, as it poses a significant risk of most European companies falling further behind globally leading organizations by not putting gen AI at the top of their marketing agendas. Yet while the implementation of gen AI increasingly appears inevitable, even high implementation maturity doesn’t guarantee efficiency gains. What’s emerging as critical is the ability to bridge the gap between experimentation and value creation, with agentic AI marking the next evolution, going from autonomous systems that move beyond task execution based on pre-defined rules to AI agents that are given a certain goal and make decisions and take actions to get there on their own. 28 Unless European marketing leaders rapidly change their attitudes, investment levels, and pace, the gap to global leaders may only widen. — The implementation divide is reflected in the disparity in CMOs’ priorities. Gen AI ranks in the lower third in importance for Europe’s CMOs overall (17th), yet companies with high gen AI maturity (gen AI leaders) rank it 5th, while those with low gen AI maturity (gen AI laggards) place it near the bottom. 29 — Gen AI is no longer a question of “if” but “how.” One in four companies have already achieved marketing efficiency gains of more than 20 percent in the past two years using gen AI, with companies with high gen AI maturity unlocking average marketing efficiency gains of 22 percent and projecting 28 percent gains in the next two years (Exhibit 15). Those saved resources can then either be reinvested into growth or reduce cost baselines. — Gen AI leaders are delivering success stories across industries. They share a common trait: They have increased their overall marketing spending during the past year and plan to increase these investments. In contrast, less mature companies failing to scale gen AI are falling behind: 89 percent of gen AI laggards have not, or barely, materialized any efficiency gains. — Many gen AI laggards operate in B2B settings, where proving gen AI’s value in marketing is harder due to complex value chains and customer decision-making processes. Still, success stories among leaders show it is feasible, making continued investments in gen AI essential to catch up. 28 “Seizing the agentic AI advantage,” McKinsey, June 13, 2025. 29 We define gen AI leaders as those with a self-reported maturity score of 5.4 or higher (at least four of nine items rated 6 or higher), and gen AI laggards as those scoring 1–2. 39 Past forward: The modern rethinking of marketing’s core