Digital Marketing Strategy Alignment and AI Adoption: Insights from Indian Organizations
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the practice of digital marketing, yet many organizations continue to deploy AI tools without embedding them within a coherent marketing strategy. This paper investigates the relationship between AI adoption and digital marketing strategy alignment, and the consequences of that alignment for marketing performance, using survey evidence from Indian organizations. Grounded in the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework, the Strategic Alignment Model (SAM), and the dynamic-capabilities perspective, the study develops a conceptual model in which technological, organizational, and environmental determinants drive the depth and breadth of AI adoption; AI adoption in turn shapes the degree of alignment between marketing strategy and digital execution; and alignment mediates the effect of adoption on marketing performance. Firm size and data-analytics maturity are examined as moderators. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered to marketing and information-technology decision-makers across service, manufacturing, retail, and technology firms operating in India, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability and validity testing, and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that a large share of Indian organizations remain in early, experimental stages of AI adoption, with only a small minority reporting full integration of AI into marketing operations. TOE determinants particularly top-management support, data quality, and competitive pressure significantly predict AI adoption. AI adoption exerts a strong, positive effect on digital marketing strategy alignment, and alignment is a significant driver of marketing performance and a partial mediator between adoption and performance. The direct effect of AI adoption on performance, absent alignment, is weak and statistically non-significant, suggesting that technology deployment alone does not deliver returns. Data-analytics maturity strengthens the adoption–alignment relationship, indicating that organizational absorptive capacity conditions the value realized from AI. The study contributes an integrated, alignment-centred account of AI value creation in an emerging-market context and offers practical guidance for managers seeking to convert AI investment into strategic marketing advantage. Limitations relating to cross-sectional design and self-reported measures are noted, and directions for longitudinal and multi-industry research are proposed.
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