Australian marketers lag on AI maturity, study finds

The Australian Centre for AI in Marketing has released a benchmark showing most Australian marketing teams remain in the early stages of AI maturity. The study surveyed 126 chief marketing officers and senior marketing leaders across 12 industries.

The findings show 83% of organisations sit in the lower stages of ACAM's six-level maturity framework, with none reaching the top two levels. Half of respondents were classified at level three, described as "Early Emerging", 31.7% at level two, or "Established Beginners", and 16.7% at level four, "Mature Emerging".

ACAM's framework is designed to give chief marketing officers a structured way to assess their organisation's progress in using AI in marketing. It measures seven areas: Leadership and Culture, Skills and Capability, Governance, Risk and Brand, Data and Technology Readiness, Use Cases and ROI, Team Design and Workflow, and Roadmap, Planning and Investment.

One of the clearest gaps in the research was planning. Only 6% of organisations said they had a fully documented AI roadmap, while 58% had no documented roadmap at all.

That lack of planning comes despite growing use of AI tools in day-to-day marketing work. The report found adoption has moved beyond experimentation, but many organisations have yet to align workflows, governance and measurement with that activity.

Douglas Nicol, co-founder of ACAM and head of original thinking, said: "Twelve months ago, much of the conversation was about experimentation and early adoption. In 2026, the question has changed. It is no longer what AI tools marketing teams are using, it is whether they are building the maturity to turn AI activity into serious commercial impact. The findings show real progress: Maturity leadership confidence is growing, use cases are expanding and governance is becoming more visible, but the gap is also clear. Roadmaps remain weak, workflow redesign is immature and ROI proof is inconsistent. The momentum is real, but it's uneven."

Confidence gap

The benchmark also pointed to mixed attitudes inside marketing teams. While 69% of respondents said the dominant mood was "excited but cautious", 56% of chief marketing officers said a minority of staff remained cautious, scared or negative about AI in marketing.

Within that concerned group, the proportion described as scared rose by 22 percentage points from the previous year. The figures suggest that while leaders are pushing ahead with adoption, not all teams are moving at the same pace.

Platform mismatch

The study found a divide between access to AI tools and satisfaction with them. Some 45% of chief marketing officers said their AI platforms were disappointing, harder than expected or only acceptable, while 55% said they had performed better than expected or exceeded expectations.

ACAM said this reflected a mismatch between platforms chosen at senior executive level and the practical demands of marketing teams. Access to technology may be improving, but integration with existing processes, data and specific use cases remains uneven.

Operational risks

Operational concerns also featured strongly in the research. AI slop was cited by 61% of chief marketing officers as their main concern, making it the most common issue raised in the benchmark.

Another 32% identified brand damage as a concern. The results indicate many marketing leaders are worried that rapid AI-driven content production could lead to generic output and weaken brand distinctiveness.

Karin Du Chenne, group executive director at Kantar, said: "Organisations don't need more AI hype. They need clarity on where they are today, where the opportunities lie and what to do next. Through our partnership with ACAM, we're helping organisations measure AI readiness and turn insight into action."

Responses came from organisations of different sizes, though larger employers made up the biggest share. Some 38% of this year's respondents were from organisations with 1,001 employees or more, 29% from businesses with 101 to 1,000 employees, and 33% from organisations with fewer than 100 staff.

IBM supported the research, and its regional marketing chief said the discussion around AI had moved beyond isolated use cases. Miki Luong, chief marketing officer ANZ at IBM, 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."

The benchmark suggests AI use in Australian marketing is broadening, but organisational discipline has not kept pace. No respondents reached level five, "Early Advanced", or level six, "Leading Advanced", in ACAM's maturity model.

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."