Published on: July 22, 2026
Built on responses from 126 CMOs and senior marketing leaders across 12 industries, the annual ‘Australian AI in Marketing Benchmark Report’, developed from independent ACAM and Kantar research and supported by IBM, reveals AI has moved from curiosity to daily marketing reality. However, AI roadmaps remain underdeveloped, workflow redesign is immature and ROI proof is inconsistent, which is holding back scale.
ACAM’s benchmark shows most marketing teams are stuck in the early to middle stages of the maturity journey, with 31.7% of respondents classified as level two ‘Established Beginners’ – AI recognised but inconsistent. Teams are trying AI tools but use is patchy and not yet connected to strategy. Half of respondent organisations (50%) come in at level three ‘Early Emerging’ – growing adoption and capability. AI use is spreading and skills are building, but maturity remains uneven. Finally just 16.7% of organisations are placed at level four ‘Mature Emerging’ – structured implementation emerging. AI priorities, governance, workflows and measurement are starting to align.
According to ACAM’s framework, no organisation has reached the top two levels of AI marketing maturity: Level five ‘Early Advanced’ – advanced operationally embedded, where AI is becoming part of how marketing work gets planned, created, measured and improved. And level six ‘Leading Advanced’ – scaled and strategically integrated, where AI is connected across maturity leadership, capability, data, governance and commercial outcomes.
Lack of AI roadmap
ACAM’s 2026 Australian AI in Marketing Benchmark Report found that while marketers have embraced AI, most teams still lack the blueprint to scale it. While AI activity continues to rise, a majority of organisations are operating without clear plans, investment logic or roadmap discipline, with only six percent of organisations reporting a fully documented roadmap, and almost six in ten (58%) reporting no documented roadmap at all.
Arranged AI platform marriages
Enterprise AI platforms are becoming an arranged marriage for marketing teams. Access to tools, often selected at the C-suite level, is improving, but alignment with workflows, data and use cases remains uneven. 45% of organisations say their platforms are disappointing, harder than expected or only OK, compared to 55% say their AI platforms have delivered better-than-expected performance or have overdelivered, highlighting the gap between access and marketing value.
Nicol added: “The next phase of AI growth will not be defined by more tools, but capability, discipline and confidence, applying AI systematically across teams, workflows, data, governance and measurement. Competitive advantage will come from how effectively CMOs convert AI activity into measurable value, stronger human and AI collaboration, and more distinctive marketing.”
IBM ANZ Chief Marketing Officer Miki Luong said: “As the conversations around AI in marketing move beyond individual use cases to embedding AI into the workflows, processes and systems that drive meaningful gains, marketers must ask themselves broader questions around how their teams operate, how decisions get made, how data flows through the organisation and how customer engagement is orchestrated.”
Natalie Lockwood, Chief Marketing Officer at NAB, said: “The progression from 2025 to 2026 shows an industry moving forward at pace with AI. The shift from ‘Established Beginner’ to ‘Early Emerging’ maturity is encouraging because AI is becoming part of how marketing teams think, plan and operate. But it is also a reality check. We are not yet at scale. The next challenge for CMOs is turning rising confidence and activity into capability, workflows, clearer roadmaps, governance and measurable commercial impact.”
The full 2026 ‘Australian AI in Marketing Benchmark Report – Closing the AI Maturity Gap’ is available to download here.
