Data & Research March 8, 2026 • Updated: 6 November 2026

AI marketing
statistics 2026

Up-to-date data points on AI in marketing, each linked to its source. From adoption and productivity to budgets and European company data. Compiled from HubSpot, Salesforce, Gartner, Eurostat, CBS and more, with expert context from our growth marketing agency.

86.4%

of marketing teams use AI in at least a few marketing areas

Source: HubSpot State of Marketing, 2026

15.3%

of marketing budgets goes to AI initiatives (CMO average)

Source: Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026

$35.4B

estimated global AI in marketing market in 2026

Source: Grand View Research, 2026

Statistics overview

Artificial intelligence is no longer a future promise in marketing — it has become the standard. But how many companies are actually using AI today? What kind of returns does it deliver? And how do adoption rates differ across regions and industries? Smaller teams in particular see fast gains from a focused AI marketing partner for SMBs. For Dutch companies, how to use these figures when automating follow-up: read more about marketing automation (in Dutch).

This page compiles up-to-date statistics on AI in marketing, each linked to the report it comes from: HubSpot, Salesforce, Gartner, Eurostat, CBS, Grand View Research, Pew Research Center and Ahrefs. Whether you're building a business case for AI marketing, preparing a presentation, or simply staying informed: this data hub gives you the numbers you need. And if you're ready to operationalize the findings, a well-designed AI marketing stack is where most teams begin.

Section 1

AI adoption in marketing

86.4%

of marketing teams use AI in at least a few areas

HubSpot, 2026

75%

of marketing organizations use AI in at least one form

Salesforce, 2026

1.7%

of marketers neither use AI nor plan to

HubSpot, 2026

68.2%

say they understand how to use AI in marketing (47% in 2025)

HubSpot, 2026

AI adoption by industry (Netherlands, all companies, 2025)

Information & communication 54%
Specialised business services 31%
Financial services 28%
Health & social care 16%
Construction 7%
Accommodation & food services 6%

Share of Dutch companies (2+ employed persons) using AI, provisional figures. Source: CBS, 2025

  • 17% of small, 30.36% of medium and 55.03% of large EU enterprises used AI in 2025 (Europe, enterprises with 10+ employees; Eurostat, 2025)
  • 73.4% of marketers see AI working alongside marketers, assisting with most job duties (global survey; HubSpot, 2026)
  • 61% of marketing teams are still working towards full AI integration (global survey; Salesforce State of Marketing, 2026)
  • 62.7% of marketers believe the industry needs more unique, human-centered content to compete with AI content (HubSpot, 2026)
Section 2

ROI of AI marketing

Productivity
26.5%

say AI has significantly increased their productivity

Slight or moderate increase: 66.2% Significant increase: 26.5%

Source: HubSpot, 2026

Time saved
10–14 hrs

saved per week by about one third of marketing teams

Over 15 hrs: about one third 1–9 hrs: just under one third

Source: HubSpot, 2026

AI agents
8 hrs

per week marketers expect to save with AI agents (up to)

Use AI in any form: 75% Use self-directed agents: 13%

Source: Salesforce, 2026

67.5%

of marketers say they know how to measure AI's impact (48% in 2025)

Source: HubSpot, 2026

83.5%

say they are expected to produce more content because of AI

Source: HubSpot, 2026

  • 38% of marketers using AI already segment audiences on predicted behavior, compared with 30% of marketers without AI (Salesforce, 2026)
  • 35.7% of marketers say they are expected to produce much more content because of AI (HubSpot, 2026)
  • Only 26% of marketers are fully satisfied with their data unification, a common brake on AI results (Salesforce, 2026)
Section 3

AI marketing tools usage

How marketers use AI (share using it extensively)

Content creation
42.5%
Media creation
37.2%
Administrative task automation
35.6%
Learning & skill development
34.6%
Advertising automation
34.1%
Brainstorming & ideation
33.9%
Strategic planning & forecasting
33.4%

% of marketers who use AI extensively for each task (global survey of 1,500+ marketers). Source: HubSpot State of Marketing, 2026

37.7%

plan to increase investment most in AI chatbots (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude)

HubSpot, 2026

85%

say AI is reshaping their SEO strategy

Salesforce, 2026

88%

have already started optimizing for AI-generated answers

Salesforce, 2026

  • AI for personalized content is the #1 trend: 48.57% of marketers rank it first, ahead of automation at 47.38% (HubSpot, 2026)
  • 42.5% use AI extensively for content creation and another 38% use it occasionally, making content the most common AI use case (HubSpot, 2026)
Section 4

AI marketing budgets

$35.4B

estimated global AI in marketing market, 2026

Grand View Research, 2026

15.3%

of marketing budget allocated to AI initiatives

Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026

27.6%

expected annual growth (CAGR) of the AI in marketing market, 2026–2033

Grand View Research, 2026

7.8%

of company revenue goes to marketing in 2026 (7.7% in 2025)

Gartner CMO Spend Survey, 2026

AI budgets: all CMOs vs AI-ready marketing organizations

Metric All CMOs AI-ready orgs
Share of marketing budget going to AI 15.3% 21.3%
Marketing budget as % of company revenue 7.8% 8.9%

Survey of 401 CMOs and marketing leaders in North America, the UK and Europe, January to March 2026. Sources: Gartner, 2026, Marketing Dive, 2026

  • 70% of CMOs consider becoming an AI leader a critical goal for 2026, but only 30% report mature AI readiness capabilities (Gartner, 2026)
  • The AI in marketing market was valued at US$27.0 billion in 2025 and is forecast to reach US$194.8 billion by 2033 (Grand View Research, 2026)
  • AI used for sales and marketing (all AI applications, by business function) is sized at US$54.86 billion in 2025 by a separate Grand View Research estimate (Grand View Research Horizon, 2025)
Section 5

Regional adoption breakdown

86.4%

of marketing teams worldwide use AI

HubSpot, 2026

34.70%

of AI-using EU enterprises apply it to marketing or sales

Eurostat, 2025

19.95%

of EU enterprises (10+ employees) used AI in 2025

Eurostat, 2025

Enterprises using AI, by country (2025)

Denmark 42.03%
42.03%
Finland 37.82%
37.82%
Sweden 35.04%
35.04%
Netherlands 33.21%
33.21%
Germany 25.97%
25.97%
EU average 19.95%
19.95%

Share of enterprises with 10+ employees using at least one AI technology (Netherlands: break in time series in 2025). Source: Eurostat isoc_eb_ai, 2025

Case study: the Netherlands

As a leading European digital economy, the Netherlands offers a useful benchmark for AI marketing adoption in mature markets.

  • 33.21% of Dutch enterprises (10+ employees) used AI in 2025, up from 23.06% in 2024; Eurostat notes a break in the Dutch series in 2025 (Eurostat, 2025)
  • 17% of all Dutch companies (2+ employed persons) used AI in 2025, double the 8% of 2023 (provisional; CBS, 2025)
  • 35% of Dutch companies that use AI apply it to marketing or sales, the most common purpose, ahead of administration and management at 32% (CBS, 2025)
  • 12.34% of Dutch enterprises use AI for marketing or sales, fourth in the EU after Finland (15.81%), Sweden (14.6%) and Austria (13.33%); the EU average is 6.92% (Eurostat, 2025)
  • Mid-sized Dutch companies grew fastest: AI use among firms with 50 to 249 employed persons rose from 20% in 2023 to 45% in 2025; among firms with 250+ it is 66% (CBS, 2025)
  • Denmark has the highest share of enterprises using AI in the EU (42.03%), Romania the lowest (5.21%) (Eurostat, 2025)
  • In Germany, 9.1% of enterprises used AI for marketing or sales in 2025, up from 6.55% in 2024 (Eurostat, 2025)
Section 6

Future predictions

2026

Search engine volume drops 25%

In February 2024, Gartner predicted that traditional search engine volume will drop 25% by 2026, due to AI chatbots and other virtual agents.

Source: Gartner, 2024

2033

AI in marketing market reaches $194.8 billion

Grand View Research forecasts the global AI in marketing market to grow from an estimated US$35.4 billion in 2026 to US$194.8 billion in 2033, a CAGR of 27.6%.

Source: Grand View Research, 2026

  • AI summaries already cut clicks: US Google users clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% without one (March 2025, 900 US adults; Pew Research Center, 2025)
  • 18% of Google searches in the same study produced an AI summary (Pew Research Center, 2025)
  • 58% lower click-through rate for the top-ranking page when an AI Overview is present (December 2025 vs December 2023, 300,000 keywords; Ahrefs, 2026)
  • 70.2% of marketers believe they can adapt their strategy to organic search changes such as AI overviews (HubSpot, 2026)
Summary

Key takeaways

1

AI is mainstream

86.4% of marketing teams use AI and only 1.7% have no plans to (HubSpot 2026). The question is no longer whether to adopt AI, but how to get the most out of it.

2

Productivity is the clearest gain

26.5% of marketers report significantly higher productivity and 66.2% a slight or moderate increase (HubSpot 2026). Hard ROI benchmarks remain scarce.

3

Northern Europe leads the EU

Denmark (42.03%), Finland (37.82%), Sweden (35.04%) and the Netherlands (33.21%) are far above the EU average of 19.95% of enterprises using AI (Eurostat 2025).

4

Content is the #1 use case

42.5% of marketers use AI extensively for content creation, the most common use, and AI for personalized content is the top trend (HubSpot 2026).

5

Budgets are shifting to AI

CMOs allocate 15.3% of marketing budgets to AI, while total marketing budgets stay flat at 7.8% of revenue (Gartner 2026).

6

Human + AI = winning

73.4% of marketers see AI working alongside them on most job duties (HubSpot 2026), and only 13% of AI-using marketing organizations use self-directed agents (Salesforce 2026).

Methodology & sources

The statistics on this page are compiled from publicly available research reports. Every figure links to the source it was taken from. On 6 November 2026 we re-checked every figure: claims we could not trace to a primary source were removed or replaced. Sources used:

  • HubSpot: State of Marketing 2026 (1,500+ marketers worldwide)
  • Salesforce: State of Marketing, 10th edition (nearly 4,450 marketers worldwide)
  • Gartner: 2026 CMO Spend Survey (401 CMOs) and search volume prediction (2024)
  • Grand View Research: AI in marketing market report and AI market by function
  • Eurostat: Use of artificial intelligence in enterprises, 2025 (dataset isoc_eb_ai)
  • CBS (Statistics Netherlands): AI use by Dutch companies, 2025
  • Pew Research Center: Google users and AI summaries, 2025
  • Ahrefs: AI Overviews and click-through rates, 2026

Disclaimer: All figures are sourced from the most recent available editions of the cited reports. Some statistics are provisional figures (CBS), forecasts (Gartner, Grand View Research) or commercial surveys (HubSpot, Salesforce). This page is compiled for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or strategic advice.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What percentage of marketers use AI in 2026?

According to HubSpot's 2026 State of Marketing report (1,500+ marketers worldwide), 86.4% of marketing teams use AI in at least a few marketing areas, and only 1.7% neither use AI nor plan to. Salesforce's 10th State of Marketing report finds 75% of marketing organizations use AI in at least one form. Company-level adoption is lower: in 2025, 19.95% of EU enterprises with 10+ employees used AI, with Denmark highest at 42.03% and the Netherlands at 33.21% (Eurostat).

What is the average ROI of AI marketing?

Reliable, comparable ROI benchmarks for AI marketing are scarce, so we only report survey results we could trace to the source. In HubSpot's 2026 survey, 26.5% of marketers say AI has significantly increased productivity and 66.2% report a slight or moderate increase; about one third of teams save 10 to 14 hours a week. Salesforce reports that marketers expect to save up to eight hours a week with AI agents. 67.5% of marketers say they know how to measure AI's impact (HubSpot).

How much do companies spend on AI marketing tools?

Gartner's 2026 CMO Spend Survey (401 CMOs in North America, the UK and Europe) found that CMOs allocate an average of 15.3% of their marketing budgets to AI initiatives, with total marketing budgets at 7.8% of company revenue. Grand View Research estimates the global AI in marketing market at US$35.4 billion in 2026, growing to US$194.8 billion by 2033. We found no reliable source for average monthly AI tool spend per small business.

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Ruud ten Have

Compiled by

Ruud ten Have

Ruud is a digital marketer with 10+ years of experience in online advertising and AI implementation. At Searchlab, he combines strategic thinking with hands-on AI tooling to deliver measurable results for businesses.

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