CMO Tenure Ticks Up as B2B Marketing Adopts AI
Spencer Stuart's March 2025 CMO Tenure Study found average Fortune 500 CMO tenure rose to 4.3 years in 2024 from 4.2 in 2023, with most departing CMOs moving to equal or better roles. Separately, Forrester reported in August 2026 that 88% of B2B marketing organizations have adopted AI tools, even as leaders cite unresolved gaps in strategy and measurement.
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Key takeaways
66% of Fortune 500 companies had a C-suite marketing leader in 2024; the other third structure marketing across business units, combine it with other functions, or use hybrid arrangements.
When Fortune 500 CMOs depart, 65% are promoted internally or move to comparable or higher-level roles, and 10% become CEOs.
88% of B2B marketing organizations have adopted AI tools, but report gaps in strategy clarity, measurement capability, data infrastructure, and knowing where to apply AI.
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Spencer Stuart's March 2025 CMO Tenure Study reports that average tenure for Fortune 500 chief marketing officers reached 4.3 years in 2024, up slightly from 4.2 years in 2023. The firm's research covers 329 named CMOs at Fortune 500 companies as of mid-2024.
CMO tenure still runs below the broader C-suite average of 4.9 years, according to Spencer Stuart. The firm also found that when CMOs leave their roles, most land in stronger positions: 65% of departing Fortune 500 CMOs were promoted internally or moved to comparable or higher-level roles at other companies, and 10% went on to become CEOs.
Not every Fortune 500 company centralizes marketing leadership
Spencer Stuart's data shows that 66% of Fortune 500 companies, or 329 firms, had a C-suite marketing leader in 2024, meaning roughly a third did not have an enterprise-wide CMO. The firm's analysis frames this as reflecting variation in how companies structure marketing rather than a decline in the function's importance; some companies combine marketing with other functions, split responsibility by business unit or region, or use hybrid arrangements.
Spencer Stuart cites two examples of how quickly these structures can change. Lowe's eliminated its CMO position in 2022 and reinstated the role in 2024. Starbucks eliminated its CMO role in early 2024 and restored marketing to the C-suite less than a year later through a new global chief brand officer hire. Forbes contributor Roger Dooley referenced the same two examples in a March 2025 article that drew on Spencer Stuart's research.
AI adoption in B2B marketing outpaces measurement systems
Separately, Forrester reported in an August 2026 blog post that 88% of B2B marketing organizations have adopted AI tools or built their own. In the same post, Forrester said marketing leaders continue to report unclear AI strategy, difficulty measuring the impact of AI initiatives, data infrastructure challenges, and uncertainty about where AI should be applied within their organizations.
The Spencer Stuart tenure findings and the Forrester AI adoption findings come from separate research efforts published roughly a year and a half apart and are not drawn from the same survey population, though both speak to how marketing leadership and operations are structured heading into 2027 planning cycles.
MarketScale analysis
For companies without an enterprise-wide marketing leader, procurement and martech teams evaluating renewals may want to confirm who owns measurement definitions across marketing, sales, and finance, since that ownership can shift when marketing responsibility is split across business units or combined with other functions. Given Forrester's findings on AI measurement gaps, vendors and internal teams working on AI-related marketing tools may also want to clarify in advance how impact will be measured before implementation, rather than after.
Sources
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