AI Marketing Statistics 2026: Adoption, Use, and ROI
75% of marketing organizations now use at least one form of AI (Salesforce State of Marketing, 2026, 4,450 marketers), and CMOs put 15.3% of their marketing budgets into AI initiatives (Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026). On the receiving end, 50% of U.S. consumers say they would prefer to buy from brands that do not use generative AI in consumer-facing content (Gartner, 2026).
Most numbers on this topic come from companies that sell marketing software, so each vendor survey below is flagged as one. All figures are from 2025 and 2026.
How many marketers use AI
75% of marketing organizations use at least one form of AI (Salesforce, 2026). Salesforce sells marketing software and AI agents, so read it as such.
86.4% of marketing teams say they use AI in at least a few marketing areas, and just 1.7% neither use it nor plan to (HubSpot State of Marketing, 2026, 1,500+ marketers). HubSpot is also a vendor.
24.2% of marketing activities now involve AI, up from 13.1% in 2024 (The CMO Survey, Duke Fuqua, 2026, 308 U.S. marketing leaders). Those leaders expect 55.9% within three years. This is the academic counterweight to the vendor figures: most teams use AI somewhere, but it touches about a quarter of the work.
13% of marketers say they currently use agentic AI (Salesforce, 2026). More in AI agent statistics.
What marketers use AI for
73.9% of companies use AI in marketing for content creation, up from 49.2% in fall 2023 (CMO Survey, 2026). Content personalization follows at 65.4%, marketing automation at 48.9%, data analysis and reporting at 46.3%, and targeting decisions at 45.2%.
42.5% of marketers use AI extensively for content creation, 37.2% for media creation, 35.6% for administrative task automation, and 34.1% for advertising automation and optimization (HubSpot, 2026).
41% of B2B marketers who use AI use it in SEO tools, 38% in social media tools, 36% in email marketing tools, and only 16% in advertising optimization (Content Marketing Institute, 2025, 1,015 B2B marketers). See content marketing statistics and social media statistics for each channel.
How much time and money AI saves marketers
About one-third of marketers say AI saves their team 10 to 14 hours per week, another third say more than 15 hours, and just under a third say one to nine hours (HubSpot, 2026).
14.1% is the average improvement in sales productivity that marketing leaders attribute to AI, up from 8.6% in 2025 (CMO Survey, 2026). They also report a 10.8% gain in customer satisfaction and a 14.6% drop in marketing overhead costs.
82% of marketers name reducing time spent on repetitive, data-driven tasks as the primary outcome they want from AI (Marketing AI Institute, 2025).
How much of the marketing budget goes to AI
15.3% of marketing budgets go to AI initiatives (Gartner, 2026). The survey covered 401 marketing leaders, most at companies above $1 billion in revenue.
7.8% of company revenue is the average marketing budget in 2026, against 7.7% in 2025 (Gartner, 2026). AI spend is coming out of a flat total.
70% of CMOs call becoming an AI leader a critical goal for 2026, and only 30% report mature or fully developed AI readiness (Gartner, 2026). Those AI-ready organizations allocate 21.3% of budget to AI.
How much marketing content is AI-generated
74.2% of 900,000 newly created web pages contained AI-generated content in April 2025 (Ahrefs, 2025). Only 2.5% were categorized as “pure AI”, and 71.7% mixed AI and human writing. The measurement comes from Ahrefs’ own detector, which it also sells.
71% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers believe they have seen an ad created using AI, up from 54% in 2024 (IAB and Sonata Insights, 2026, 500+ consumers and 100 ad executives).
How consumers feel about AI-made marketing
50% of U.S. consumers would prefer to give their business to brands that do not use generative AI in consumer-facing messages, advertising, and content (Gartner, 2026, 1,539 consumers surveyed October 2025). 68% frequently wonder whether the content and information they see is real.
82% versus 45%. 82% of ad executives believe Gen Z and Millennial consumers feel very or somewhat positive about AI-generated ads, and 45% of those consumers actually do (IAB, 2026). The gap widened from 32 points in 2024 to 37 points.
76% of Americans say it is extremely or very important to be able to tell whether pictures, videos, and text were made by AI or people (Pew Research Center, 2025, 5,023 adults). 53% are not too or not at all confident they could detect it themselves.
73% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers say knowing an ad was made with AI would increase or not change their likelihood to purchase (IAB, 2026).
What AI search did to marketing traffic
8% versus 15%. Google users who saw an AI summary clicked a traditional result in 8% of visits, against 15% for users who did not (Pew Research Center, 2025). More in SEO statistics.
88% of marketers say they are optimizing for AI-driven search such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews, and 85% say AI is reshaping their SEO strategy (Salesforce, 2026). The CMO Survey, which has no product to sell, puts companies already doing generative engine optimization at 41.5% (2026).
AI training and job fears among marketers
68% of marketers have no AI training provided by their company, down from 75% a year earlier (Marketing AI Institute, 2025). The institute sells AI training, so read it as such. 62% cite lack of education and training as a top barrier to adoption.
53% of marketers believe AI will eliminate more marketing jobs than it creates over the next three years, up from 40% in 2023 (Marketing AI Institute, 2025). Only 9% are very concerned about their own role. Economy-wide data is in AI replacing jobs statistics.
3.8% of marketing budgets goes to training and development, down from a pre-pandemic high of 5.8% (CMO Survey, 2026).
How AI use differs by company size and type
87% of U.S. small businesses use AI tools for marketing as of April 2026, up from 26% in 2023 (Constant Contact Small Business Now, 2026). 40% lean on AI and automation specifically to manage their marketing workload. Constant Contact sells email marketing software. Broader figures are in small business AI statistics.
31.4% versus 17.5%. Fully online companies use AI in 31.4% of marketing activities, against 17.5% at companies with limited online sales (CMO Survey, 2026).
Where a marketing team’s coordination hours go
AI has mostly landed on content. Coordination around a campaign is still manual on most teams: following up after a launch, rebuilding the same performance report every Monday, finding a time that works for the agency and two freelancers, replying to a new lead before it goes cold. Carly is an AI assistant that handles that email, scheduling, and follow-up, and runs workflows across the tools a team already uses. Carly connects to thousands of apps. Related numbers: sales follow-up statistics and best AI workflow automation tools.
FAQ
How many marketers use AI? 75% of marketing organizations use at least one form of AI (Salesforce, 2026). Measured by workload, AI is involved in 24.2% of marketing activities, up from 13.1% in 2024 (CMO Survey, 2026).
What do marketers use AI for most? Content creation leads at 73.9% of companies, followed by content personalization at 65.4% and marketing automation at 48.9% (CMO Survey, 2026).
How much of the marketing budget is spent on AI? CMOs allocate an average of 15.3% of marketing budgets to AI initiatives, while total budgets sit at 7.8% of company revenue (Gartner, 2026). AI-ready organizations allocate 21.3%.
Do consumers trust AI-generated marketing? 50% of U.S. consumers would prefer brands that do not use generative AI in consumer-facing content (Gartner, 2026). 45% of Gen Z and Millennial consumers feel positive about AI-generated ads, against the 82% that ad executives assume (IAB, 2026).
Related: Content Marketing Statistics · SEO Statistics · Social Media Statistics · Small Business AI Statistics · ChatGPT Statistics
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