ANZ marketers turn to AI as customer expectations soar

Marketers in Australia and New Zealand are adopting artificial intelligence for customer engagement, but many still struggle to respond quickly and consistently across key channels such as email and SMS.

Salesforce's Tenth Edition State of Marketing report highlights a widening gap between customers' expectations for two-way conversations and what marketing teams can deliver in practice. The report is based on responses from nearly 4,500 marketers globally, including 250 in Australia and 100 in New Zealand.

Across both countries, 83% of marketers said customers now expect brands to support back-and-forth conversations. However, 72% of Australian marketers said they struggle to respond promptly, as did 62% in New Zealand.

These issues sit alongside high levels of generic outbound activity. About 83% of Australian marketers said they still run generic campaigns, compared with 90% in New Zealand.

AI interest

Many teams see AI as a way to scale responsiveness and personalisation. In Australia, 84% said they would trust AI to respond to customers; in New Zealand, 80% said the same.

Marketers also report pressure to produce more tailored content than they can currently deliver. In Australia, up to 80% said they need more personalised content than they can produce; in New Zealand, 70% reported the same. AI is already helping to bridge that gap, with 72% of Australian marketers and 91% of New Zealand marketers saying they rely on AI.

Kevin Doyle, Regional Vice President, Agentforce & Data Cloud ANZ at Salesforce, said customer expectations have shifted.

"We've reached a point where having the best AI doesn't matter if you're just using it to send more one-way spam, faster. Customers in Australia and New Zealand are over it, as they now expect an actual back-and-forth conversation with a brand," Doyle said.

Data constraints

The research points to data access and data quality as major constraints. Many marketers reported limited access to context from adjacent functions such as sales, service, and commerce. In Australia, 59% said they have complete access to service data, 60% to sales data, and 55% to commerce data. In New Zealand, 63% reported complete access to service and sales data, while 57% reported complete access to commerce data.

These gaps matter when handling two-way communication at scale. If an outbound message triggers a reply, teams need order history, service interactions, and product context to respond accurately and relevantly. Without that information, they either respond slowly or default to generic messaging.

Doyle linked real-time recommendations to the quality of customer data.

"You simply can't give a customer a helpful, real-time recommendation if your systems don't actually know who they are or what they bought yesterday. The biggest winners right now aren't the ones with the flashiest AI; they're the ones who have fixed their data foundation so they can act in the moment, rather than guessing," he said.

Globally, marketers with unified customer data reported an advantage over those working across disjointed sources. Teams that said they had satisfactorily unified their data were 42% more likely to regularly respond to customers than those who were not satisfied with their data foundations. They were also 60% more likely to use AI agents, according to the report.

Retail example

Australian retailer Amart is cited as one organisation working to address fragmented systems and slow data flows. Taylor Murray, Head of Customer at Amart, described changes to how the retailer manages customer identity and execution.

"At Amart, we've recognised that to close the gap between digital browsing and in-store shopping, we had to move past fragmented systems and 24-hour data delays," Murray said.

Amart has implemented a universal customer ID through Data 360, according to Murray. He said the shift has moved the organisation from manual processes to real-time, automated execution.

"By implementing a universal customer ID through Data 360, we have shifted from slow, manual processes to real-time, automated execution. You can't give a customer a personalised reply if you don't actually know who they are. It's time to stop just speaking at customers and start truly engaging with them," Murray said.

Doyle pointed to Amart's work as an example of the operational changes behind customer-facing improvements.

"The work Taylor and the Amart team are doing is the perfect blueprint for fixing this. By killing off those 24-hour data delays and getting their tech and people on the same page, they've stopped just 'broadcasting' and started actually engaging," Doyle said. "That's how you turn a generic marketing campaign into a real relationship that actually grows the business."

Discovery shifts

The report also describes changes in how customers discover products and information. In Australia, 72% of marketers said they struggle to keep up with changing customer behaviours, while 49% said they have not worked out how to adapt strategies to widespread use of AI. In New Zealand, 62% reported difficulty keeping up with changing behaviour, and 53% said they have not worked out how to adapt strategies to AI adoption.

Survey data suggests marketers are already changing search strategies as AI-generated summaries and assistants become more common. In Australia, 86% said AI is reshaping their SEO strategy, and 92% said they have begun optimising for AI-generated responses. In New Zealand, 71% reported AI reshaping SEO strategy, and 89% said they have begun optimising for AI-generated responses.

Doyle said the shift in discovery has implications for how brands stay visible and manage customer interaction at scale.

"The old playbook of 'click these ten blue links' is changing fast. Between AI summaries and digital assistants, the way people in ANZ shop and find information has fundamentally shifted," he said.

"We're moving into an era of 'Answer Engines,' where discovery is compressed into just a few seconds. To stay visible, businesses have to move beyond manual processes and embrace agents that can handle the heavy lifting. It's a shift from just speaking at your customers to finally being able to listen and respond at scale, 24/7."