Telecom
63% of Marketers leveraging AI use generative while 54% use predictive AI is marketers’ top priority – and biggest headache
Marketers are prioritising AI implementation over all other initiatives this year, according to new Salesforce research in the ninth State of Marketing report.
With customer standards for personalisation continuing to rise year after year and marketing technologies constantly evolving, marketers need to act fast to keep up. Many see AI as a hack to do just that: a go-to for sharper personalization and efficiency, and now, creativity at scale with generative AI. Yet data challenges — from unification, integration, and security — are slowing marketing teams down.
With insights from over 4,800 marketers across 29 countries, the State of Marketing report highlights how top-performing marketers are outdoing their competition by embracing AI and other new opportunities while mitigating these data, trust, and security challenges.
Marketers pursue more tailored engagement amid rising customer expectations
Increasingly, marketers aim for more customised experiences based on detailed data like individual behaviours, preferences, interactions, or other specific indicators. And they are looking to AI to deliver more insights, predictions, automated workflows, and content. As a result, marketers consider having a data and AI strategy of utmost importance. On average, today’s marketers are able to fully personalise across five channels, with high-performers tailoring six channels and underperformers managing to fully personalise across only three.
Channels where content is easy to test and iterate on the fly, like mobile messaging, email marketing, and social media, see the most advanced personalization efforts. On the other hand, channels demanding more production time and planning like audio, organic search, and TV/OTT have the most work to do with 43%, 42%, and 41% seeing full personalization, respectively.
Marketers rev up AI adoption, but underperformers stall out in the evaluation stage
Marketers are pulled in many directions, and are focused on improving AI adoption. However, they’re struggling to actually implement AI and create cohesive journeys, among other difficulties.
Ironically, AI could be one tool to help teams overcome such challenges. Salesforce Chief Marketing Officer Ariel Kelman highlights how companies are entering “a new era of AI, catalysed by the generative gold rush,” and that the technology is being embraced by marketing organisations. As he sees it, “marketers are leading the charge by embracing rapid advancements in the technology to better connect with customers and prospects.”
Marketers are eager to implement AI into their own work streams: 75% are either experimenting with or have fully implemented AI in their operations. A closer look reveals that the embrace of the technology varies by performance level.
The majority of high- and moderate-performing teams are already rigorously testing, tweaking, and incorporating AI into their operations. Still, more than one-third of underperformers have yet to graduate from the consideration phase. In fact, high-performing marketing teams are 2.5x more likely than underperformers to have fully integrated AI into their operations. Until underperformers pivot from passive planning to hands-on action, AI’s advantages will continue to elude them.
Marketers embrace AI to predict, create, and integrate at scale
Sixty-three percent of marketers leveraging AI say they use generative while just over half (54%) are using predictive. And despite its relative novelty, generative AI use cases already rank among marketers’ favourites alongside predictive applications. As a result, teams are harnessing both types of AI for critical use cases like automating customer interactions and generating content — activities that will augment creativity and accelerate productivity.
Despite AI enthusiasm, concerns about trusted data remain
Compared to their peers in other departments, marketers are especially concerned about falling behind on generative AI adoption. Eighty-eight percent of marketers worry about missing out on generative AI’s benefits, compared to 78% of sales and 73% of service colleagues.
Even so, senior marketers remain cautious, citing concerns such as data and job security. Compared to their peers further up the corporate ladder, on-the-ground team leads are particularly wary about job stability. One in four team leads are worried AI will replace their job, compared to one in five executives. For their part, CMOs are most concerned with data leaks, with 41% citing data exposure as their top concern compared to 29% of VPs and 32% of team leads.
While data leaks are marketers’ number one generative AI concern, not having enough of the right data falls at number two. To capture enough valuable information, marketers are primarily leveraging customer service data and transaction data, showing an effort to partner with colleagues across sales and commerce departments to accomplish this. However, unification of that and other data — such as unstructured data from emails, NFTs, and more — remains a challenge.
In fact, only 31% of marketers are fully satisfied with their ability to unify customer data sources. What’s more, only approximately half of marketers say their systems automatically and regularly update with data from other departments.
Without fully integrated data, marketers’ ability to derive sharp insights is blunted, leaving core activities like analysing performance, suppressing audiences, and building campaigns powered by out-of-date or incomplete information. It even jeopardises marketers’ top priority: effectively leveraging AI.
A closer look at the survey results shows that fully integrated data is more common among high-performing marketing teams, suggesting that investing in unification can give marketers an edge. As Kelman explains, “a strong data foundation will be critical to AI success for marketers as they work to bring together and unify customer data for real-time activation.”
Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria is positioning as a regional Internet Exchange hub for West Africa in terms of infrastructure and traffic. Muhammed Rudman, chief executive officer, IXPN, stated this at its 2026 members engagement forum held in Lagos. He noted some of the major milestone IXPN achieved last year to include one terabit of traffic recorded in March 2025.
“At that time, we became the 63rd internet exchange point in the world. Among all the exchanges in Europe and America and in the entire world, we become the number 63 in the world. To achieve that one terabit of traffic. Again, we were able to achieve two terabits of traffic within seven, eight months of the year.
“We achieve this by ensuring that we push for members to upgrade, those that were on 1 Gig to 10 Gig, those on 10 Gig to 100 Gig. We had a strategic infrastructure upgrade across our networks, put 400 Gig enable switches, increase our fiber links to all the data centers and we onboarded 17 new members last year. All the trainings and the operational excellence ensured that our network is up and running 24/7,” he said.
Industry Impact
The impact of that one terabit traffic is data sovereignty. “We were able to domesticate. Based on the survey we conducted, 54% of our members said that they are exchanging 50% of their traffic and above locally, which is really, significant one.
“We are also setting up a benchmark for other African IXPs. I can assure you that in all the community driven internet exchange points in Africa, we are the number one. There’s a community driven internet exchange point in South Africa that was established 10 years before IXPN. There is one in Kenya that was established 6 years before IXPN, but we are way ahead of them when it comes to internet traffic.
“We are also promoting intra African connectivity. As at today, we have customers from Niger, from, Burkina Faso, trying to reach to Nigeria. Recently, we onboarded a very large company in Ivory Coast, to connect to Nigeria.
“Gradually, Nigeria is tilting towards becoming the regional hub for West Africa, where you see Internet Service Providers coming to achieve that. And in terms of the traffic, in 2015 we were at four Gigabits per second. It moves to 21 in 2017 and 52 gigabits per second.
“But by the year 2023 it has reached 540 gigabits. By 2024 we have reached 900 gigabits. But by the end of 2025 we have achieved the two terabits of traffic”.
Network Infrastructure Development
Some of the technical feet IXPN achieved includes, deployment of sFlow; which is a peer to peer traffic analysis. “We’re able to see what members are exchanging between themselves and between the data centers, not the actual content or information, but rather the volume of traffic, and also between our data centers. And based on this, we’re able to do the upgrades.
“We did a multiple link upgrades from 300 Gigabits last year from Digital Realty to Equinix. It was 300 Gig as at the end of 2024, and by 2025, we’ve increased that to 500 gigabits per second. Digital Realty to Rack Center, it was 200 Gigabits per second. We also upgraded that to 500 Gigabits per second.
Open Access Data Centre to Equinix. We’ve upgraded from 20 Gigabits per second to 200 Gigabits per second. We always monitor the ports, and based on that, we increase immediately we reach the threshold of 80%.
“We did an upgrade on the IXP manager. This allows each member to have a login portal to see the traffic they are exchanging and other details, the port as well as to do their own configuration,” he added.
Technical Project Milestones
Microsoft connected cache. “We deployed Microsoft content cache and that has been deployed in Lagos. It was 25 Gigabits per second as of 2024 by 2025 we had to upgrade the infrastructure to 75 Gigabits per second servers, that will be able to accommodate all the Microsoft updates they are doing, exports, download and among others.
“This is part of the content that Microsoft is not providing locally, but we got those servers deployed, and our intention is by next year to see how we can replicate this across the country. Last year, we also deployed the same server in Abuja so that the Abuja people and the Kano people can reach that content without coming back to Lagos.
The Google Global Cache (GGC); “We are hosting all these at IXPN. We also upgraded from 53 Gigabits per second servers in 2024 to 153 Gigabits per second. And this is a huge traffic of YouTube. And as we speak, we are also working towards upgrading those servers,” he explained.
Strategic Partnerships
“We signed an MoU last year between us and an IXP in Senegal, when we went for West African peering forum. A lot of African ISPs are looking to us to see how we can guide them and support them.
“For example, internet exchange point from Gabon, internet exchange point from Rwanda and ISPs in Africa are looking at us as a model to copy, and we tend to support them. We also had a strategic partnership with CIRA, the Canada Internet Registry Association, which is similar to Nira, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association, to have their secondary authoritative servers into Nigeria as an anycast instance. And when they are hosting that, they are hosting other top-level domains as well, like alibaba.info.org.ca, are also hosted with us.
“Since they launched last year, we have seen a traffic of over 1000 DNS responses per second. Presently, there are 13 global root servers in the world, and those 13 servers are the ones that translate your IP address into a domain name. Any website you browse, you put a domain name, it translates into an IP address and its chain of referrals, Nigeria has.ng as a country, called Top Level Domain”.
Earlier in his welcome address, Charles Nmeregini, Business Development Manager, IXPN, said that the members engagement forum is more than an annual country. “Today, we pause to celebrate the milestone, the milestone that we have reached together, the milestone that have bolstered our local traffic exchange, reduce latency and significantly lower the cost of Internet access across the nations and beyond.
“However, today is equally about the horizon. It is a strategic moment as we unveil our 2026 service road map, a forward-looking rubbing designed to deepen interconnection, enhance service delivery and unlock new value across the ecosystem. In an era defined by rapid technological shift, standing still is not an option.
“This forum will spotlight exclusive, strategic business opportunities, new avenues for growth, enhanced pairing capabilities and innovative service model tailored to give your organization a competitive edge. We are not just exchanging data, we are exchanging ideas that will drive the next wave of Nigeria digital economy,” he added.
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, having a trusted and reputable IT partner is no longer optional—it’s essential. Consumers and businesses alike face numerous challenges: buying smartphones, tablets, and laptops that are substandard or incompatible, worrying about device security, and struggling with costly repairs when gadgets break down.
Menxtt NG
This is where Menxtt NG stands out as a true industry leader, providing EU-specification devices, nationwide service, and unmatched support across Nigeria.
As an official BitDefender reseller, Menxtt NG ensures that every device comes fortified with premium cybersecurity solutions. This addresses one of the biggest issues consumers face today: digital threats. With Menxtt NG, customers don’t just get a gadget—they get peace of mind knowing their data and devices are protected.
Beyond security, the company solves a critical problem in tech ownership: the lack of reliable warranties and repair services. Many users find themselves forced to buy new devices due to broken phones, laptops, or tablets.
Menxtt NG addresses this by offering repair services for all major gadgets, saving customers significant money while extending the life of their devices. And for new devices, they provide fully tested EU-spec phones, laptops, and tablets with a 6-month warranty, ensuring both performance and durability.
Accessibility is another barrier Menxtt NG tackles head-on. With free nationwide delivery and a free charging cord included with purchases, they make premium technology available across Nigeria.
Their presence in Ola Ayeni Street, Computer Village, Ikeja, combined with easy contact via 08115919964, 08140902614, 0802 061 1299, 0802 893 1940, +234 916 642 2759, as well as online support at www.menxtt.com.ng and [email protected], ensures convenience for every customer.
Anthony Nwosu, CEO of Menxtt NG, highlights the company’s mission: to deliver top-quality, secure, and durable devices while providing accessible repair and support services.
This comprehensive approach addresses all the pain points consumers face—device quality, security, warranty, and after-sales care—making Menxtt NG more than just a retailer; it’s a reliable IT partner.
In a market flooded with subpar devices and unreliable service, Menxtt NG proves that choosing a reputable IT plug is crucial. With EU-spec devices, nationwide delivery, genuine warranties, and expert repair services, Menxtt NG doesn’t just sell technology—they empower customers to enjoy, protect, and maximize the life of their devices.
Paradigm Initiative (PIN) has strongly condemned Gabon’s ongoing suspension of major social media platforms—Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube—ordered by the Haute Autorité de la Communication (HAAC) on February 17, 2026.
Social Media
NetBlocks and independent monitors confirm widespread disruptions persisting as of February 20, driving users to VPNs amid unstable nationwide connectivity.
PIN described the blanket shutdown as a grave breach of digital rights, including freedom of expression and access to information, silencing discourse during anti-government protests and a labour strike.
The digital rights group highlighted the absence of specific violation evidence, legal basis clarity, or restoration timeline from HAAC, rendering the measure disproportionate.
Gabon’s actions contravene Article 9 of its Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 19), and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Article 9), failing international legality, necessity, and proportionality tests.
NetBlocks estimates a $2.96 million (FCFA 1.78 billion) Total Cost Impact over two days from WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube outages, crippling entrepreneurs, small businesses, freelancers, journalists, and civil society reliant on these platforms.
The shutdown disrupts commerce, digital payments, customer engagement, and livelihoods—especially youth and informal sectors—in a nation with prior digital curbs during unrest.
PIN urged immediate full platform restoration, HAAC transparency on legal grounds and order details, and ISP notices detailing government directives.
ISPs and tech firms must uphold UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, ensuring transparency on connectivity orders and avoiding complicity in violations.
This pattern undermines Gabon’s transparency, civic participation, and democratic governance commitments.
IXPN Positions as the Regional Internet Exchange Hub for West Africa
Pheelz Shares His Journey on Glo-Sponsored African Voices
AI-Driven Memory Chip Fuels Global Phone Price Surge
NITDA DG Reaffirms FG Commitment to Responsible and Inclusive AI
Menxtt NG Emerges as Nigeria’s Virtual IT Hub for Premium Devices, Solutions
Nigeria’s 9 Top FinTech Firms Valued at $10.6Bn in January 2026
Firm Detected a Fivefold Surge in QR Code Phishing Attacks in the Second Half of 2025
Kaspersky Launches OT Calculator to Align Cybersecurity Investments with Business Goals
CBN Upgrades Licences of Opay, Moniepoint, Kuda, Palmpay, Paga to National Status
NITDA, NBC Explore Strategic Collaboration on Digital Transformation, Media Regulation
E-Financial3 days agoEcobank Nigeria Fully Repays $300m Eurobond Notes
E-Financial3 days agoZenith Bank Warns Public Over Fake Jim Ovia Investment Videos
General News2 days agoPalmPay Unveils First Batch of Winners in #LoveWithPalmPay Campaign
E-Business3 days agoChams Carves Out Subsidiary to Support Africa’s Digital Transformation
E-Financial1 day agoACAMB Educates Content Creator to Curb Misinformation on Bank Recapitalisation
E-Financial3 days agoBoI Secures CBN’s Approval for Non-interest Banking Operation
E-Financial2 days agoFirstCap MD says Payment Security Remains Biggest Barrier to Bankable Gas and Power Projects
E-Business3 days agoNigeria, South Africa Drive Stablecoin Spending in Africa