Marketers Set to Increase AI Investment Despite Consumer Trust Gap

Marketers Set to Increase AI Investment Despite Consumer Trust Gap. Marketers are planning to increase their investment in artificial intelligence as AI assistants become more influential in how consumers discover and evaluate brands, despite relatively low levels of consumer trust in their recommendations.

This is according to Kantar’s Media Reactions 2026 study, based on interviews with more than 800 senior marketers and 23,000 consumers.

The study found that 62% of marketers expect generative AI to play a pivotal role in brand recommendations, while a net 75% plan to increase investment in AI assistants in 2027.

Consumer adoption remains more limited. Although most consumers already use AI assistants and many are positive about generative AI, only 32% use AI assistants to research brands and products, while 23% trust their recommendations.

Gonca Bubani, global director of media at Kantar, said marketers need to test and measure their AI investments as they seek to understand how consumers respond to AI environments.

The study also found declining confidence among marketers regarding their ability to navigate increasingly fragmented media channels and data. Half of advertisers said they were confident they had the right balance between brand-building and performance marketing, down from 60% in 2025.

Meanwhile, 57% said they were confident their organisations had the right media mix, compared with 64% in 2025. Only 51% felt they were extracting actionable intelligence from their data to support marketing goals.

Kantar data also showed that channels are increasingly working together. Between 2020 and 2025, 43% of campaign performance came from channels working together, compared with 18% before 2014, according to Kantar LIFT+ data.

Creator marketing is another area where investment is expected to grow. Micro-creators and nano-creators are the creator categories most marketers plan to invest in, at 66% and 61% respectively. This compares with 48% for macro-creators and 42% for mega-influencers.

Kantar said the findings point to a shift towards creator relevance and audience access rather than follower numbers alone as marketers expand their digital strategies.