Marketers back digital growth but struggle to turn AI insights into action: report

Singapore – Marketers are entering 2026 with renewed confidence in digital media investment, but many are still struggling to translate enthusiasm for artificial intelligence into execution, according to new industry research from Mediaocean.

The findings point to generative AI emerging as the most influential consumer trend for the third consecutive reporting period, with 70% of marketers identifying it as a key driver of how consumers discover content, interact with brands and make purchasing decisions. While AI is no longer viewed as experimental, adoption data suggests a significant maturity gap as use cases move closer to campaign delivery.

AI adoption remains strongest in upstream activities, with 43% of marketers using the technology for data analysis and an equal proportion applying it to market research. However, usage declines further down the funnel, with 33% deploying AI in creative development and just 19% using it for campaign orchestration. This drop-off highlights a persistent disconnect between generating insights and activating them at scale.

The research also underscores growing complexity in media operations as channels multiply and AI becomes embedded across planning, activation, measurement and optimisation. While 86% of marketers say cross-channel orchestration is important, only 10% report having fully unified advertising technology systems in place. Fragmented infrastructure is creating friction, limiting marketers’ ability to coordinate activity across platforms and slowing the effective deployment of AI-driven strategies.

Media investment intentions reflect cautious optimism rather than broad-based recovery. Planned spending increases are concentrated in connected TV and digital video, cited by 63% of respondents respectively, followed by social platforms at 61%. More than half of marketers (54%) also plan to increase investment in AI-driven media and advertising on AI agents. In contrast, traditional channels such as print and linear television continue to face downward pressure.

As AI moves from testing to execution, marketers are increasingly focused on foundational challenges. Data quality and access issues were cited by 42% of respondents as the biggest obstacle to scaling AI, while 41% pointed to difficulties connecting AI-driven insights across disparate systems. These barriers are reinforcing a shift away from channel-specific optimisation toward more integrated approaches.

Nearly four in ten marketers now prioritise AI as a core capability, while an equal proportion are focused on cross-platform orchestration. This signals a broader move away from siloed point solutions toward system-level intelligence and more adaptive marketing infrastructures designed to support automation and real-time decision-making.

“As AI becomes more deeply woven into the media lifecycle, the advantage won’t come from adopting even more tools—it will come from orchestrating them,” said Aaron Goldman, CMO at Mediaocean. “This research shows marketers are ready to move from experimentation to execution, but fragmented systems are slowing progress. Smarter, more connected foundations are what turn AI insights into action at scale.”