Gartner: AI Will Run 36% of Marketing Work by 2028 [Best Read]

A compilation of articles covering latest developments in AI and marketing

In my work as a Silicon Valley based startup executive, I come across important stories on how artificial intelligence is influencing marketing. Occasionally, I share my round-up of the most important stories at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data and marketing. I hope you enjoy them!

Gartner: AI-Driven Marketing Automation to Double from 16% to 36% by 2028 [Gartner]

A major new Gartner survey of marketing leaders released this month reveals that AI automation of marketing work is expected to more than double — from 16% in 2026 to 36% by 2028 — signaling a fundamental shift in how marketing teams will operate. The finding underscores that AI is no longer a supplementary tool but is becoming the primary driver of campaign execution, content production, and customer engagement. With 80% of marketing processes already automated or AI-augmented according to Gartner, marketing leaders who fail to build AI-ready teams and workflows risk being outpaced by competitors who are moving aggressively to automate at scale.

Fragmented Data Is Costing Marketers Dearly: Only 20% Report High ROI from AI Experiments [GrowthLoop]

GrowthLoop's freshly released 2026 AI and Marketing Performance Index — based on a survey of more than 300 marketers and data leaders — finds that despite massive AI investment, most marketing teams are held back by fragmented data and broken measurement cycles. Only 20% of marketers report high impact from their experimentation efforts, even though 58% spend significant time on it, and 77% say winning tests fail at scale at least sometimes. The data divide is stark: companies with a single source of truth report 44% revenue growth versus just 8% for those without — making data unification the highest-leverage investment a marketing leader can make in 2026.

48% of Google Searches Now Trigger AI Overviews: Why GEO Is the New SEO [eMarketer]

AI Overviews now appear on 48% of all Google queries as of April 2026 — up 58% from just 31% in February 2025 — reaching 2 billion monthly users and fundamentally disrupting how brands earn search visibility. Nearly a third of the US population will use generative AI search in 2026, according to eMarketer, forcing marketers to optimize for being cited in synthesized answers rather than ranked in traditional blue-link results. The overlap between top Google links and AI-cited sources has already dropped from 70% to below 20%, meaning brands that don't invest in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — structuring content to answer questions directly, including original data, and earning third-party citations — will become invisible in the channel that once drove the most traffic.

86% of Advertisers Using GenAI for Video Ads as AI Creative Delivers 34% Higher ROAS [IAB]

According to IAB's latest Video Ad Spend & Strategy report, 86% of advertisers are already using or planning to use generative AI to build video ad creative, with buyers projecting AI-generated video will account for 40% of all video ads by 2026. The performance case is compelling: Meta's 2026 Advantage+ benchmarks show AI-generated creative variants deliver 22–34% higher return on ad spend (ROAS) than statically produced creative over a 90-day window, while dynamic creative optimization (DCO) delivers a 32% higher click-through rate and 56% lower cost per click. Small and mid-tier brands are adopting this technology faster than large enterprises, leveling the competitive playing field for creative production at scale.

McKinsey: Agentic AI to Power Two-Thirds of Marketing Activities, Speed Campaign Execution 10–15x [McKinsey]

A new McKinsey report on agentic AI in marketing finds that autonomous AI agents will come to power as much as two-thirds of current marketing activities — including automated content generation, synthetic audience testing, and media planning — while accelerating campaign creation and execution by 10 to 15 times. Organizations implementing agentic workflows can expect 10–30% revenue growth from hyperpersonalized marketing, McKinsey projects, with early movers like Grubhub already reporting an 836% ROI increase after deploying agentic customer journey automation. Agentic AI spending across all industries is expected to reach $201.9 billion in 2026, and 40% of enterprise applications will embed AI agents by year-end — making 2026 the year agentic marketing moves from pilot to production.

AI Campaigns Deliver 22% Better ROI and 29% Lower Acquisition Costs Than Traditional Methods [Jasper]

Jasper's State of AI Marketing 2026 report, drawing on data from thousands of enterprise marketing teams, confirms that AI-powered campaigns deliver 22% better ROI, 32% more conversions, and 29% lower customer acquisition costs compared to traditional marketing methods. The productivity gains are equally striking: marketing teams using AI report 44% higher productivity and save an average of 11 hours per week, while 93% use AI to speed up content creation. With 88% of marketers now using AI daily and organizations projecting an average 171% return on agentic AI investments, the performance gap between AI-native marketing teams and those still relying on manual workflows is widening rapidly.

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