Singapore— A new global survey has found a significant gap between the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in advertising and marketers’ confidence in using it effectively, particularly in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
Across 16 countries, the MiQ-led report shows that 72% of marketers worldwide plan to increase their use of AI in the next 12 months, yet only 45% feel confident in applying it successfully.
In APAC, Singapore leads in adoption, with 51% of marketers using multiple AI systems for marketing, while Thailand reports that 62% of workers have integrated generative AI into personal and professional tasks. Japan also demonstrated higher confidence in knowledge (51% fully confident) but slower adoption, with only 66% planning to use AI more.
Moreover, in Australia, AI adoption is higher among larger companies, with 82% of organisations with more than 200 employees using AI tools and 21% applying it for marketing automation.
However, despite rising adoption, confidence gaps still persist. In Singapore, just 38% of marketers are fully confident in their teams’ ability to optimise performance against key marketing KPIs, while in Thailand, only a third believe they have the appropriate measurement systems in place.
Globally, 38% of marketers say they have not received sufficient training on AI tools, and 40% report their organisations do not fully understand AI or large language models (LLMs).
Meanwhile, measurement practices vary across the region, with Australian marketers relying heavily on proxy metrics such as website visits, bounce rates, and session durations (49%), alongside engagement metrics. In Singapore, 55% use engagement metrics like click-through rates and social interactions, coupled with financial indicators such as ROI and ROAS. Thai marketers also focus on financial metrics (46%), while Japanese marketers focus on web traffic (49%). However, fewer than half of marketers in these markets feel their measurement systems adequately track performance against the right goals.
Globally, social media management (40%), marketing automation (39%), and customer engagement (38%) are the most common applications. Within this, regional differences are evident: in Australia, visual design tools (39%) and social media management (38%) are most widely used; in Japan, content creation (46%), visual design (38%), and ad creative optimisation (37%) are most common; Singapore focuses on consumer behaviour and purchase journey applications (29% each); and Thailand emphasises targeting strategies along the customer purchase journey (31%).
The report also identified a 27-percentage-point gap between AI usage and readiness, signalling an opportunity for marketers to increase training, integrate AI into performance measurement, and adopt connected, partner-agnostic solutions to enhance confidence and effectiveness.
Jason Scott, MiQ JAPAC CEO, said, “The study demonstrates the varying levels of confidence and uptake in AI, although Southeast Asia has emerged as a transformative region when it comes to embracing AI. The challenge centres on knowledge gaps and measurement.”
He further explained, “In Singapore, for example, only 38% of marketers were fully confident in their team’s ability to optimise performance against marketing KPIs, one of the lowest results in the study, while in Thailand, only one third strongly believe they have the correct measurement systems in place to track performance – again one of the lowest scores in our study. This speaks to a landscape where few marketers are fully confident in their capabilities and tools.”
Jordan Bitterman, chief marketing officer at MiQ, also added, “We discovered that most marketers are bunched together at the early stages of a confidence curve. We’re at the start of a journey that will ultimately see us all move up the curve as we apply AI to more of our mission-critical work. Usage currently outpaces readiness by 27 percentage points, and we see that as pure opportunity. To close the gap, industry leaders must tap into tools and training.”
All-in-all, the findings highlight that while AI adoption in advertising is accelerating, many marketers remain in the early stages of confidence, emphasising the need for improved training, measurement frameworks, and human oversight to fully realise AI’s potential.
