After the AI shift:What Marketers Are Prioritizing In2026

A majority of marketers (nearly 80%) report a positive impact from AI. In fact, only 6% indicate declining performance in the last year due to AI.

The results indicate that there is no longer a perceived risk in using AI, and marketers are not debating the merits of AI usage. But what marketers mean by “improved performance” matters.

For most, AI didn’t lead to increased ROI. It reduced friction, sped up execution, and made it easier to produce the volume of work marketing demands. To turn AI from a helpful tool into a competitive advantage, marketers need tools designed for strategic marketing.

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In 2026, no marketing channel is insulated from pressure, even those long considered reliable drivers of results. Marketers are finding returns harder to capture everywhere.

The widespread decline indicates a structural shift in marketing. Channels that once delivered compounding returns are now harder to sustain, as rising competition, increased content volume, and fragmented attention make performance more difficult to maintain.

Today’s marketer feels optimistic about AI’s ability to enhance efficiency and execution, but it’s increasingly difficult to translate that gain into consistent ROI.

With customers interacting across 10+ touch points before converting, it is becoming nearly impossible to demonstrate which marketing activities are actually driving revenue. Leadership still wants clear numbers, but the data infrastructure to provide them is crumbling.

- Survey Participant, 2026

Owned channels — not paid media — are seeing the steepest drops in performance.

Organic search is the most commonly cited area of decline by 31% of marketers, followed by website traffic (22%) and email marketing (21%).

These channels represent the core of most marketing strategies.

Owned channels, once valued for their cost-to-return advantage, are now under pressure. Teams are being forced to rethink assumptions about where sustainable ROI can realistically come from in today’s environment.

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Email stands out, but not enough to dominate. Marketers indicate there are no breakout channels for ROI, only relative survivors. Performance is distributed, inconsistent, and harder to scale through any single tactic.

Rather than relying on breakout wins from one standout channel, marketers are increasingly forced to pursue incremental gains across the channels that still work.

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Marketing leaders are prioritizing efforts that stabilize performance more than experimentation in 2026. Increasing demand is their top focus.

Secondary priorities are customer retention (24%), AI & automation (22%), and brand awareness (21%).

2026 will be most about revenue stability and less about scaling and new channels. The research indicates that marketers are seeking to reestablish dependable returns, rebuild conversion paths, and regain confidence in the fundamentals.

My single biggest marketing challenge heading into 2026 is turning attention into consistent, predictable growth. While it is increasingly easy to gain visibility and short-term engagement across multiple channels, the real challenge lies in converting that attention into trust, qualified leads, and long-term customers.

- Survey Participant, 2026

AI made personalization easier, but not more valuable in marketers’ minds. Marketers indicate it’s one of their lowest priorities for 2026.

AI has reduced the cost of personalization, helping marketers create more segments, variants and automation. That did not guarantee more attention and more conversion.

In 2026, long-term branding is losing to short-term survival. Hot industry conversation topics like personalization and thought leadership are being deferred to initiatives with clearer, faster ROI.

Predictive analytic tools are one of the least used AI applications for marketers.

Marketers are using AI to produce more work more efficiently today, not to forecast outcomes. Tools for writing, content creation, and content optimization dominate adoption, while predictive capabilities lag significantly behind.

Predictive analytics represent a potential competitive advantage for marketers looking to move beyond standard AI usages, learning to anticipate outcomes before they occur.

A small share of marketers identify as experts, a striking stat given how central AI has become to daily marketing work.

The majority of marketers place themselves somewhere in the middle: comfortable using AI tools, but far from mastery. Experimentation is largely over, yet deep confidence has not followed at the same pace.

Few marketers feel equipped to turn AI into a sustained competitive advantage.

Undoubtedly, my biggest challenge will be adapting to AI and the innovations…while also maintaining smooth operations. As a marketer, whenever I discover a new tool or read about progress in this field, questions inevitably arise: Am I falling behind?

- Survey Participant, 2026

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A majority of marketers expect AI to significantly affect their work in 2026, and very few will see a change in their team structure in 2026. Only 9% indicate their workplace has reduced headcount.

Marketers are expecting real, practical change in how their 2026 work days look due to AI. Most are not bracing for layoffs, but how to work differently because of AI. Marketers are expected to adapt, upskill, and absorb new capabilities without new titles.

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Marketers remain overwhelmingly optimistic about AI’s role in the industry. Only 3% of marketers believe AI is actively harming the marketing industry, and only 1% believe that AI has reached its peak and will decline in importance in 2026.

• 34% of marketers believe AI helps, but isn’t replacing strategy.
• 31% of marketers believe AI has made them better at their job.

Rather than viewing AI as a threat, most marketers see it as a necessary and constructive force shaping how marketing work gets done. Even as teams face declining ROI and growing pressure to perform, they are not blaming AI for those challenges.

Significant Increase: 28.24% of marketers report that website traffic has significantly increased since the rise of generative AI.

Slight Increase: 44% of marketers report no significant change in website traffic since the rise of generative AI. 

No Significant Change: 27% of marketers report a slight increase in website traffic since the rise of generative AI. 

The survey findings show that AI hasn’t broken website traffic yet, but it’s changing the conditions under which traffic is earned. Marketers are aware that today’s stability does not mean future reliability.

Marketers are not pulling back on Search Engine Optimization as AI reshapes how content is discovered. An overwhelming majority of marketers say they plan to maintain or increase their investment in SEO this year.

Only 7% of marketers plan to reduce their investment in SEO this year. The data suggests marketers see SEO as a core, long-term discipline. SEO will remain a central investment in 2026 as marketers work to stabilize performance and prepare for what comes next.

While most marketers haven’t seen traffic decrease, they anticipate it, and are adding new strategies to optimize for AI search. A majority of marketers say they are actively optimizing for AI-driven search experiences, or plan to this year.

Marketers are actively adapting to AI-driven search even without full visibility into how it works. Optimization for AI-driven search has become standard practice, alongside continued investment in SEO.

Our biggest challenge will be staying ahead of the massive shift from traditional search. As AI becomes the first stop for consumers, we need to rethink how we structure, localize, and distribute content so it’s actually surfaced by LLMs.

- Survey Participant, 2026

A majority of marketers (53%) now rely most on AI tools for information discovery, surpassing Google search (35%).

AI tools have become the primary source of information for most marketers. This shift signals a fundamental change in how marketers research, learn, and make decisions. Rather than navigating search results, comparing links, and synthesizing information manually, marketers are increasingly turning to AI to surface answers directly.

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The majority of marketers believe investment in social is the best way to grow in 2026.

Secondary content priorities for marketers in 2026:

• 43% of marketers will prioritize website content.
• 34% of marketers will prioritize short-form video.
• Just 4% of marketers will prioritize user-generated content.

Marketers are reallocating content efforts in 2026 toward the channels where performance feels most reliable. The data shows a clear belief that social media offers the fastest path to attention and momentum. Website content is no longer the primary focus of content distribution.

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As marketers increase their focus on social media, LinkedIn is emerging as the most reliable performer. More marketers identify LinkedIn as delivering the best results for their business than other social channels.

Marketers appear to be making more selective bets for social. As overall channel performance fragments and ROI becomes harder to sustain, platforms that reliably support business outcomes are gaining share. LinkedIn’s professional audience, lead generation capacity, and conversion-driven goals position it well for marketers’ 2026 priorities.

Among major social platforms, Twitter/X is viewed as the least reliable source of ROI. More marketers identify Twitter as underperforming than any other social channel.

In a performance-pressured environment, marketers are prioritizing channels tied more directly to measurable outcomes. Twitter/X struggles to be that channel, according to marketers.

There are too many different places people get information now, and you cannot hit them all.

- Survey Participant, 2026

When asked what concerns them most about the industry in 2026, 29% of marketers said AI generated content flooding channels. Market saturation is the top concern for marketers in 2026.

That’s striking compared to the fact that:

• Only 4% of marketers noted increased pressure to prove ROI.
• Only 6% indicated budget cuts.
• And only 3% indicated measurement and attribution challenges as their biggest concerns for the marketing industry in 2026.

The data indicates that differentiation has become significantly harder. Marketers are concerned that AI will flatten distinction.

As content becomes easier to generate, the challenge for marketers is to create work that feels meaningfully different, earns attention, builds trust, and sustains value in a now crowded industry.

It is too noisy.

- Survey Participant, 2026

This report is based on survey responses from 911 marketing professionals across a wide range of industries and company sizes. The data was collected via an online survey conducted in December 2025, focusing on AI’s role in shaping modern marketing teams.

Respondents represent organizations ranging from small businesses to large enterprises and are located globally, providing a broad view of how marketing teams are adjusting strategy after mainstream AI adoption.

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