AI Conversion Rate Optimization: How AI Is Transforming CRO Strategies

The future of conversion rate optimization is here — and it’s driven by AI. From personalized video to scalable email outreach, learn how to maximize conversions with AI CRO.

If Kieran and I were to invest our marketing budget anywhere in the next 6-12 months, it would be in AI Conversion Rate Optimization (AI CRO).

In fact, we believe in AI CRO so strongly, that we easily rank it above other marketing growth strategies like organic search, paid performance, brand marketing — even product marketing. The return potential is simply unmatched, with some experiments seeing conversion rate increases of 50-100%.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: CRO has been a marketing staple for decades.

And you’re right. But AI has turned the process completely on its head, offering new levels of personalization, scaling, and automation that weren’t even fathomable a year ago. The result? A faster, smarter way to turn curious visitors into loyal customers.

In a recent Marketing Against the Grain episode, Kieran and I break down what AI CRO is, key areas where it’s transforming marketing, and advice for integrating it into your marketing strategy.

What is AI conversion rate optimization and why does it matter?

AI-powered Conversion Rate Optimization (AI CRO) uses artificial intelligence to increase conversion rates by analyzing massive amounts of data and identifying key customer patterns, like recurring behaviors or connections between different touchpoints.

Based on these insights, AI then identifies conversion opportunities — like adjusting landing page content, email messaging, or the sequence of campaign interactions — to better match user behaviors and preferences.

In our opinion, what makes AI CRO a particularly potent strategy is the scale of its impact. For example, at HubSpot, our AI-generated email campaigns delivered a 94% higher conversion rate than the non-AI test control. Now that’s what Kieran and I call a game changer.

3 Key Areas Where AI is Transforming CRO + Tool Recommendations

You’re probably already using Generative AI for marketing to some extent — but we’re here to tell you that you should be doing it more. Here’s how.

Chatbots and the User Journey

When it comes to delivering real-time, personalized support, AI chatbots are one of the most powerful tools in AI-powered CRO. These bots simulate human-like interactions, provide 24/7 assistance, and offer users the exact information they need, when they need it, in a way that feels personal and efficient.

For example, features like HubSpot’s AI Chatbot can handle everything from answering customer questions to making personalized content recommendations, all in real time, which ultimately improves the overall user experience.

While some companies worry that chatbots might feel impersonal, our AI chat experiment at HubSpot actually showed the opposite, with a >50% improvement in the value per chat, customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores that matched human-led interactions, and a 43% boost in chat conversion rates.

Email Personalization at Scale

“Personalization of messaging — and at scale — is a great AI CRO application,” says Kieran, explaining how AI helps marketers draft and tailor marketing and sales messages for different audiences. “Whenever you’re able to message customers in a personal way always works really well.”

Generative AI tools like GPT-4 and Claude AI make it easy to scale personalized email campaigns with minimal manual effort, ensuring that each message feels relevant and timely to the recipient.

Video Content Generation

We’ve often discussed how AI video is disrupting the marketing industry. So it should be no surprise that using AI video marketing tools to create and customize video content is a leading strategy in AI-powered CRO.

For example, tools like HeyGen and Infinity AI help marketers quickly create videos for campaign or product pages that lack them — or to personalize existing videos for different customer segments. Video content keeps visitors on your pages longer, leading to higher user engagement and conversion rates.

Our Advice for Navigating AI CRO

AI CRO has enormous potential, but without the right approach, it can fall flat. Here’s what Kieran and I have learned about harnessing AI to drive real conversion results.

1. Act early to gain an edge.

Incorporating AI into your CRO strategy now — not tomorrow or next week — gives you valuable time to experiment, iterate, and fine-tune your approach while others are still playing catch-up.

“If you look at companies that were truly early AI adopters and integrated it into their outbound prospecting systems … their growth has been pretty meaningful,” says Kieran. “But as AI becomes more mainstream, things will get saturated, and companies will all reach the same sort of level."

Get in early, and you won’t just be learning; you’ll also be defining how AI-driven CRO will shape your industry.

2. Think like Spielberg: Be a creative problem solver.

Things won’t always go as planned with your AI CRO strategy, especially in the early experimentation phases, so being able to pivot and creatively problem-solve is key.

Kieran shared an example of how Steven Spielberg faced a major setback when the mechanical shark broke while filming Jaws. Rather than letting the problem halt production, Spielberg rewrote the script overnight, using yellow barrels to represent the shark’s presence — a creative solution that is now an iconic part of cinematic history.

“So are you a problem solver?” asks Kieran. “Or do you let problems stop you from doing the thing you truly want to do?”

By staying agile, testing different strategies, and pushing forward, you’ll discover new — and sometimes, even better — solutions. 

3. Study the future and the past.

As marketers, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and lose sight of long-term strategy. But if you really want to grow your AI CRO efforts, you need to focus on the future and the past — and not get stuck in the minutiae of the day-to-day.

Studying the great marketers from history can reveal patterns that inform your future strategy. For example, Kieran and I often discuss how Dietrich Mateschitz, founder of Red Bull, turned an energy drink into a $16 billion empire.

History tends to repeat itself, and those who understand the past will be better equipped to anticipate where the next big opportunities lie in an AI-powered future.

To learn more about how you can use AI to optimize CRO, check out the full episode of Marketing Against the Grain below:

This blog series is in partnership with Marketing Against the Grain, the video podcast. It digs deeper into ideas shared by marketing leaders Kipp Bodnar (HubSpot’s CMO) and Kieran Flanagan (SVP, Marketing at HubSpot) as they unpack growth strategies and learn from standout founders and peers.