September 08, 2025
CMOs Still Make Decisions on Gut Feeling, But Synthetic Research Could Change That
Marketing professionals are used to operating on gut, even in a data-heavy world. As their organisation grows, following that instinct can remain natural as they become senior leaders.
Changing the need to rely on the old gut, Qualtrics has been talking a strong synthetic data story this year and the results are coming in.
Businesses continue to pour money into market research. Around 50% of senior marketing leaders say they invest over 15% of their budget toward business intelligence, yet much of that insight remains on the sidelines when it comes to decision making.
A new Qualtrics’ global study of senior marketing and insights executives found that two-thirds still rely on gut instinct for critical decisions.
Why are they still guessing instead of relying on the data? The research reveals five reasons, including a lack of timely, relevant insights, skepticism about data quality, and a talent gap in putting the data to work.
At a time when marketing leaders are increasingly asked to drive revenue growth through improved customer experience, capitalize on market opportunities, and prove marketing’s measurable impact, they can no longer afford to spend budgets on research they can’t use.
Key Issues Holding Back Marketing Leaders’ BI Programs
According to the research, a lack of data isn’t the problem. It’s knowing how to turn it into strategic action, with five critical barriers identified by the Qualtrics study:
- The data deluge: Executives are drowning in data to the point that 56% say they are overwhelmed by fragmented and disparate sources.
- ROI remains elusive: Measuring the return on marketing initiatives remains the top business challenge for 30% of leaders, and half (51%) say a lack of clear ROI from their existing solutions is the biggest barrier to increasing future investment in business intelligence solutions.
- Garbage in, garbage out: Even when data is accessible, it’s often unreliable.
- Stakeholder skepticism: Hesitancy around new technology and methodology is slowing adoption.
- The talent gap: Many leaders believe their teams lack the expertise to effectively use new AI-powered business intelligence solutions.
“Guesswork is one of the most expensive strategies in business,” said Lynn Girotto, Chief Marketing Officer at Qualtrics. “As spending slows, companies that listen to customers and respond to real needs are better positioned to win. This is where marketing and insights leaders will demonstrate true value and they must not shy away from the tools that allow them to do this well.”
Generative AI to the Rescue?
Generative AI is the posterchild technology that most marketers hope will develop useable insights. Synthetic research can improve their team’s effectiveness, with 96% saying these technologies have a positive impact on marketing intelligence capabilities.
Some, 91% say they are more confident when using generative AI for market research and 94% say it gives them a competitive advantage.
Executives say they are prioritizing investments and focus in three critical areas:
- Getting fast, reliable, actionable insights
- Improving customer loyalty and conversion
- Hiring and developing for new AI skills.
These leaders are also pushing ahead with synthetic research at a rapid rate – 95% say they use synthetic data or plan to within the next 12 months – with many saying it is more valuable than the insights captured from human panels:
- 94% say synthetic data is more accurate and useful than traditional methods
- 84% say synthetic data improves the speed of generating market insights
- 79% percent say it improves the depth of insights.
Synthetic research is transforming core research tasks, with executives saying their teams use the technology to generate new customer and market insights (68%), fill data gaps where traditional data is limited (63%), replace or augment traditional surveys (62%), simulate customer personas and audience segments (56%) and undertake competitive analysis and market simulation (54%).
“The Era of Intuition and Gut Instinct is Over”
Marketing and consumer insights leaders face a critical transition. The research shows their strategic importance is increasing while their reliance on intuition becomes unsustainable.
The data indicates that nearly every company plans to implement AI-powered marketing intelligence, With executives adopting hybrid approaches that combine human expertise with AI-driven analytics. The leaders that can demonstrate ROI and overcome the data deluge will position their teams for success.
While Qualtrics and other software vendors would love to make that claim. Every business and marketing leader at some stage will face a go/no-go situation where there’s no clear winner. Don’t expect genetics to remove the human sense for gut instinct over coming generations, it has served many of us well in the past, and should in the future, whatever the data says.
