One thing has become increasingly clear: As AI transforms how consumers discover, evaluate, and buy products, today’s CMOs are emerging as some of the most consequential leaders in the C-suite. Increasingly, they are responsible not just for brand building, but for growth, technology, data, and AI strategy. That places them at the center of one of the biggest business transitions in decades.

 It’s also changing who gets considered for the top job. The traditional brand storyteller has rarely been viewed as a natural successor to the chief executive role. As their remit expands, so too does the pool of marketing leaders being considered for CEO positions.

The numbers suggest the shift was already underway before the current AI boom. Executive search firm Spencer Stuart found that while only about 10% of departing Fortune 500 CMOs move directly into CEO roles, roughly 37% of sitting Fortune 500 CEOs have marketing experience somewhere in their careers.

Now AI is raising the stakes. In a new Boston Consulting Group survey published last week, 90% of CMOs said generative AI is already reshaping how consumers discover and evaluate brands, making visibility in AI-powered recommendation and discovery systems a new competitive battleground.

The implications extend well beyond advertising. AI is reshaping insights, analytics, media planning, content production, measurement, and governance, pushing marketing deeper into technology and data. Roughly 80% of CMOs told BCG they are making significant investments in AI upskilling. 

In a recent conversation with BCG’s global CMO, Jessica Apotheker, she argued that today’s most effective CMOs combine three capabilities: art, science, and orchestration. Art encompasses creativity and brand building. Orchestration is aligning marketing with business priorities. Science includes analytics, measurement, customer data, and increasingly, AI.

“Brand building is absolutely core to what we do,” Apotheker told me. “But we need to expand the function from there.”

Her view is that many marketing organizations remain disproportionately focused on the creative side of the equation. The companies moving fastest, by contrast, tend to have strong analytics, data, and measurement capabilities already in place. Apotheker also challenged a common assumption about marketing leadership: that great strategy and creativity are enough. In practice, she argues, execution often determines performance. Success increasingly depends on how effectively teams use data, target audiences, optimize campaigns, and translate insights into action. In other words, modern marketing increasingly looks like an operating discipline rather than just a creative one.

Several chief executives illustrate how marketing can become a springboard to the corner office. Brian Cornell, who led Target for more than a decade, was previously Safeway’s chief marketing officer. Mary Dillon, former CEO of Ulta Beauty and Foot Locker, served as global CMO of McDonald’s. Brian Niccol, now CEO of Starbucks, was the chief marketing and innovation officer at Taco Bell before becoming CEO of both Taco Bell and Chipotle, and later Starbucks. Andrea Jung rose through the ranks of global marketing at Avon before becoming its CEO.

Their careers suggest that customer understanding has become one of the most valuable forms of executive capital in the C-suite.

Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com

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