Bigger targets, smaller budgets: 73% of marketers struggle to meet 2025 goals with fewer resources despite reliance on AI

Bigger targets, smaller budgets: 73% of marketers struggle to meet 2025 goals with fewer resources despite reliance on AI

Manago AI team
Manago AI team
  • April 3, 2025

New research from Manago AI reveals that AI is now essential for marketing success, yet complexity is rising as teams shrink and pressure increases


Krakow, Poland, 3rd April, 2025:  New research from Manago AI, one of Europe’s leading Customer Engagement Platforms with over 3,000 customers, has found that European marketers are being asked to achieve more with less, as 73% report feeling stretched due to increasing 2025 targets and shrinking budgets.

The research, conducted with over 150 eCommerce marketing leaders in the UK, Poland and Italy, found that AI is no longer optional, with 71% of marketers reporting that they now couldn’t hit their goals without the automation and intelligence delivered by AI.

However, the rise of AI is also creating new challenges, with 55% admitting their tech stack has become more complex and difficult to manage. Additionally, the advent of AI has also created other pressures with 63% of eCommerce marketers being asked to downsize teams due to automation-driven expectations. The UK is facing the most constraints, with 92% of marketers feeling pressure to shrink teams, followed by 60% in Italy and just 36% in Poland. 

“This research highlights the intense pressure on eCommerce marketers as they navigate economic uncertainty while being asked to deliver more with less,” commented Brian Plackis-Cheng, CEO at Manago AI. “AI is now an essential tool for success, with the majority of marketers embracing it as their new sidekick, but it’s also reshaping the industry as a whole, driving both opportunity and new challenges. While automation enables efficiency, marketers are also facing increasing complexity and rising expectations from within their organisations. At Manago AI, we believe that AI should empower, not overwhelm, and our mission is to ensure that marketers can harness its full potential without adding unnecessary complexity.”



DOWNLOAD INFOGRAPHIC

Manago AI team
Manago AI team
Rocking eCommerce

Latest posts

Martech trends for October 2026: AI shopping, referral traffic and the trust problem behind the data
October 8, 2026

Martech trends for October 2026: AI shopping, referral traffic and the trust problem behind the data

Some of the AI ideas that spent the first half of the year in demos are now showing up in places marketers can measure: real customer journeys, referral reports and the platforms teams already use every day.

Read more
Retention-led growth
October 6, 2026

Retention-led growth

From campaign email to CRM engine. How Beobasta moved from a Klaviyo-led newsletter rhythm to an AI-powered lifecycle marketing program on the Manago AI platform, covering automation, segmentation, consent capture and buyer exclusion.

Read more
New email tracking rules in France and Italy: what changes for marketers
September 29, 2026

New email tracking rules in France and Italy: what changes for marketers

France and Italy now require marketers to get separate consent before tracking how an individual recipient interacts with an email. In France the CNIL's recommendation has applied in full since 14 July 2026, and in Italy the Garante's rules take full effect on 29 October. Both cover the open-tracking image and the redirect links used to record clicks, so th...

Read more
Read more

All together. Better.

Leadoo AI, Manago AI and Thulium AI are one seamlessly integrated family.

The #1 conversion platform for turning website visitors into active leads with its conversational marketing tools.

Learn More

Engage, convert and retain your customers with Europe's only AI Customer Data and Engagement Platform built for eCommerce.

Get a demo

Thulium is an omnichannel contact centre system for eCommerce & B2B support that unifies all your customer support.

Learn More