Marketers raise AI spending despite trust concerns

The research also points to declining confidence among marketers as the media landscape becomes more fragmented and data volumes increase.

Marketers are planning to increase spending on AI assistants despite relatively low consumer trust in their brand and product recommendations, according to Kantar’s Media Reactions 2026 study. The research draws on interviews with more than 800 senior marketers and 23,000 consumers.

The study found that 62 percent of marketers expect generative AI to play a pivotal role in brand recommendations, while a net 75 percent plan to increase investment in AI assistants in 2027. Among consumers, 32 percent use AI assistants to research brands and products, while 23 percent trust their recommendations.

AI investment grows as consumer trust lags

Kantar identifies several factors that may contribute to the gap between AI use and trust, including attitudes toward AI, perceptions of individual brands, the source of AI-generated answers and how those answers are presented. The research highlights the need for marketers to understand and measure these factors as investment in AI grows.

Gonca Bubani, Global Director, Media, Kantar: “There's a lot of money moving towards AI on the assumption people will use it the way the industry expects. The reality is that marketers don't yet have a firm grasp of the nuanced feelings people have about AI environments or how they work within their wider media mix. That shouldn't stop them from experimenting with AI, but it does mean they need to carefully test, measure and learn as they invest.”

Marketer confidence declines across media planning

Only half of advertisers are confident they have the right balance between brand-building and performance marketing, down from 60 percent in 2025. Meanwhile, 57 percent are confident their organisation has the right media mix, compared with 64 percent in 2025, while 51 percent say they are extracting actionable intelligence from their data to support marketing goals.

Kantar’s data also indicates that marketers are becoming more effective at combining fragmented channels. Its LIFT+ data shows that 43 percent of campaign performance came from channels working together between 2020 and 2025, compared with 18 percent before 2014.

Gonca Bubani: “Despite their insecurity, marketers are actually getting better at making fragmented channels perform in their favour. Kantar LIFT+ data shows that between 2020 and 2025, 43% of campaign performance came from channels working together, compared with only 18% pre-2014.”

Paul Zwillenberg, CEO, Kantar: “Marketing has never been harder to navigate, right when businesses need every dollar of investment to work harder. AI now shapes how people discover and choose brands, so strong brands have to earn the right to be recommended – by people, and by the machines guiding them. CMOs are investing more in the future, yet growing less certain about the decisions in front of them today. The answer is better intelligence, not more data.”

YouTube and Google lead media advertising equity

Kantar’s 2026 media advertising equity rankings also show differences between marketer and consumer perspectives.

Kantar has introduced a consumer advertising preference metric in 2026 that combines preference with exposure. As a result, this year’s consumer results should not be compared directly with previous years.

The measure combines consumer attitudes toward advertising on different platforms with exposure, providing an indication of where consumers are both receptive to advertising and likely to encounter it.

Marketers shift creator investment toward smaller communities

The study also finds that marketers are planning greater investment in creator content, with a shift toward micro- and nano-creators. Micro-creators are cited by 66 percent of marketers as a creator type they plan to invest in, followed by nano-creators at 61 percent. Macro-creators account for 48 percent and mega-influencers 42 percent.

Kantar’s June 2026 Creator Game Plan found that platform engagement and brand-building potential align only one third of the time when brands work with creators. The research also identified reliance on engagement statistics as a potential issue when selecting creators.

Gonca Bubani: “Two thirds of marketers plan to increase their investment in creator content, where success is now less about reach and more about relevance: who opens up the best access to audiences, in a credible context and through stronger creative collaboration. We've shown that follower count doesn't guarantee effective reach: more important is how creators help brands to communicate their meaningful difference to their audience.”

www.kantar.com

Follow Marketing Report on LinkedIn