Marketers embrace AI faster than they can use it well, study finds

New Delhi: A new global study by programmatic media firm MiQ stated that marketers are adopting AI faster than they’re prepared to use it well, creating a 27-point gap between usage and readiness that will define how advertising evolves in 2026. 

The first edition of MiQ’s “AI Confidence Curve” surveyed 3,169 marketers across 16 countries and found 72% plan to expand AI use in the next 12 months, but only 45% feel confident about applying it successfully. 

MiQ’s CMO Jordan Bitterman said most marketers are “bunched together at the early stages of a confidence curve,” arguing that the shortfall is an opportunity if organisations invest in tools and training tied to real outcomes. 

The report frames the next phase as moving from experimentation to embedded, measured use of AI across planning, creative and optimisation.

Where AI is used today

Marketers are most comfortable applying AI to social media management (40%), marketing automation (39%) and customer engagement (38%). These are areas where off-the-shelf GenAI tools have become common and easy to pilot, which explains the faster uptake compared with more complex tasks like full-funnel optimisation or bespoke model building.

Why confidence lags behind

Confidence is being held back by three practical gaps the study highlights:
• Skills and literacy: 38% cite lack of training; 40% say their organisations don’t understand AI or LLMs well enough to use them beyond basic tools.
• Data access and governance: 42% mention limits on sharing data with AI tools, which blocks partner-agnostic, connected modelling.
• Measurement: 44% still track proxy metrics like clicks and traffic rather than outcomes, making it hard to judge AI’s true business impact.

Nearly two in five senior marketers also say they’re still building the education, measurement and workflow systems needed to operationalise AI, evidence that organisational change, not just tool adoption, is the real bottleneck.

The playbook to close the 27-point gap

MiQ distills four actions to move marketers “up the curve” in 2026:

1. Use partner-agnostic solutions that connect platforms and data to break silos.
   
   
2. Wire AI into performance measurement so optimisation ties to campaign KPIs and outcome data, not vanity metrics.
   
   
3. Invest in AI literacy across teams to improve prompt craft, output evaluation and model selection.
   
   
4. Keep humans in the loop, experience and accountability remain essential to interpret and validate recommendations before going live.

Methodology

MiQ fielded the research with Censuswide in September 2025, polling 3,169 agency and brand marketers across seniority levels in 16 countries on AI usage, confidence, funnel strategies, audience insight, and measurement practices. 

Why it matters for 2026 plans

The study’s main message is that AI is outpacing the supporting systems, skills, data access and outcome-based measurement, that make it effective. For media and creative leaders, that suggests three practical pivots:

• From pilots to pipelines: Isolate a few revenue-relevant use cases (e.g., incrementality modelling, creative versioning, MMM refresh) and move them from sandbox tests into repeatable workflows with quarterly targets.
  
  
• From proxy metrics to outcomes: Replace click-through and raw reach with KPIs tied to business results—qualified leads, cost per incremental conversion, brand lift, and benchmark AI’s lift versus non-AI baselines.
  
  
• From single-platform tools to connected data: Build or buy middleware that can safely stitch ad server, site/app analytics, retail media, and CRM signals so AI can optimise with a full-funnel view.