Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global financial technology platform that makes Intuit TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, today released a new Mailchimp report, The Marketing Equalizer: Leveraging AI for Mid-Market Growth. The report was created in partnership with WARC, the global authority on marketing effectiveness.
Key report findings include:
- More than half of mid-market companies operate with 10 or fewer marketing staff
- 98% of respondents believe AI will improve marketing effectiveness
- Only a third of respondents report using AI widely in their organizations
- Lack of in-house expertise (39%), integration challenges (35%), and data privacy concerns (33%) are identified as the top barriers to AI adoption
Mid-market businesses, defined here as companies with 10 to 499 employees, face nuanced marketing challenges, particularly when it comes to resourcing and growth: They’ve outgrown startup scrappiness, but don’t yet have enterprise-level resources. And research finds that while most are optimistic about AI’s potential to raise marketing performance, capability gaps and lean teams continue to slow adoption.
“Mid-market marketers do recognize AI literacy and capability as a persistent barrier,” explains Jillian Ryan, senior manager of content strategy at Mailchimp. “But they’re overwhelmingly optimistic, too. Many see AI as an equalizer. It allows them to compete at a higher level, driving growth and ROI, while also freeing time for the strategic, creative work that drew them to marketing in the first place.”
The Marketing Equalizer pulls from a global survey of more than 1,200 marketers across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand, as well as interviews with industry experts and marketing leaders. “This report acts as both a mirror and a roadmap for mid-market marketers,” said Lexi Wolf, head of advisory at WARC. “It reflects where these organizations stand today and charts a practical path to make AI work for their goals.”
Skills gaps persist, but experimentation can help
Despite constrained resources, nearly all survey respondents (98%) believe AI will improve marketing effectiveness. Yet only about a third report using it widely within their organizations. The most common barriers include a lack of in-house expertise (39%), integration challenges (35%), and data privacy concerns (33%).
For most mid-market marketers, media investments remain concentrated: The median number of marketing channels used is less than 5. Spending is focused on digital platforms like paid search and paid social—channels that tend to deliver short-term results, but may limit future demand and brand growth.
Furthermore, more than half of mid-market companies operate with 10 or fewer marketing staff, driving demand for tools that boost efficiency without added complexity. These lean teams often lack specialist roles, but the report suggests that a culture of testing and iteration can help team members build skills, refine strategy, and maximize the ROI of every campaign dollar.
Globally, marketers face different challenges—despite a shared future vision
Enthusiasm around AI’s potential may be an international trend, but report findings about headcount and practical impact reveal regional nuances to its application. In Australia and New Zealand, for example, 86% of marketers expected to grow their teams over the following 12 months—a significant number compared to 64% in the UK and 71% in the US. A similar pattern emerged around confidence in adoption, too: 44% of ANZ respondents report wide AI deployment, versus 28% in the UK and 27% in the US. These contrasts suggest that local factors—from labor markets to economic outlook—do impact the degree to which teams grow and embrace new tools.
A playbook that turns optimism into impact
For mid-market businesses, building sustainable marketing practices involves expanding channel diversity, using owned channels like email and SMS more effectively, and applying AI to improve performance over time. Yet turning those priorities into measurable results often depends on having the right systems in place to connect data, automate workflows, and see what’s working.
“That’s where Mailchimp can play a key role,” said Ryan. “Managing multiple efforts in one place gives marketers a unified view of their performance—making it easier to measure whether their AI investments are driving results at scale. That kind of visibility can help teams double down on what drives ROI, something we see firsthand as the Intuit platform increasingly serves as the system of record for growing businesses.”
The Marketing Equalizer explores these marketing strategies in depth, outlining a step-by-step approach to help mid-market companies advance AI maturity, from assessing skills and infrastructure to mapping use cases and establishing leadership accountability. It shows how AI can elevate both creative and analytical work, enabling smaller teams to make faster, smarter decisions that scale their impact.
Read and download The Marketing Equalizer: Leveraging AI for Mid-Market Growth for benchmarks, trends, and practical recommendations.
