Supermetrics set out to measure marketing’s AI adoption gap. The data proved it’s deeper than anyone expected.

The pressure to adopt AI in marketing is real, but so is the gap between where teams are and where leadership thinks they are. Supermetrics trusted NewtonX to build the industry-standard benchmark that proved it.

Signal vs. Noise: The hypothesis: Wasn’t AI supposed to fix this?

More than 750,000 marketers and analysts turn to the Supermetrics platform to understand what’s actually happening with their data—and over 15% of global ad spend is reported through it. Supermetrics’ annual Marketing Data Report sets the agenda for how the industry thinks about analytics, measurement, and the platforms behind them. 

The 2025 edition, based on NewtonX insights, surfaced an uncomfortable reality: Marketers were overwhelmed by data they couldn’t meaningfully use. ROI was difficult to prove, performance signals were fragmented, and systems weren’t communicating with one another.

The assumption heading into 2026 was that AI would change this. Supermetrics wanted to know how—and if—AI was driving better marketing performance by enhancing measurement attribution and analytics capabilities

A sharper question than the year prior needed an even sharper sample to answer it.

When your audience doesn’t just read your data reports, but lives them

Supermetrics’ Marketing Data Report addresses senior marketers—real practitioners and leaders who work with marketing effectiveness data every day. They know when a finding doesn’t ring true.

That meant sample quality was non-negotiable. 

To effectively ask the tough questions about AI readiness, they needed a partner who could reach a trustworthy sample of 400-plus marketing experts, verified by role and seniority, spanning brands and agencies across the US, UK, Germany, Australia, and Singapore. The data needed to withstand the scrutiny of the same audience it described.

The AI adoption gap is real and measurable—but it’s also addressable

The findings were decisive: While 80% of marketers felt leadership pressure to adopt AI, only 6% had fully embedded it into their workflows. The culprit wasn’t a lack of tools, but a strategy gap: 52% of marketers don’t own their data strategy, while. 37% lack a clear AI strategy or vision from their leadership. Without that foundation, AI use cases stall before.

Using NewtonX Hub, NewtonX’s AI native analytics platform, the Supermetrics team uncovered a divide between the people setting data strategy and those executing it.

Leaders were significantly more likely to believe the CMO owned the data strategy (34%) than their individual contributor counterparts (26%), and the gap carried through to how each group experienced ROI challenges: 44% of senior leaders cited attribution as a problem, compared to 39% of ICs.

In other words, leaders and practitioners weren’t living in the same reality. That divergence pointed directly to the fix: not more AI, but a better data foundation to build on.

Owning the conversation, one verified data point at a time

Supermetrics’ 2026 Marketing Data Report launched with a clear, actionable conclusion: A better data foundation unlocks marketing effectiveness. The data made one conclusion hard to argue with: 87% of marketers feel a better data foundation would improve their effectiveness. 

Findings that resonate with a skeptical, data-literate audience start with data those readers can trust. In a year when AI dominated every marketing conversation, Supermetrics elevated those conversations with numbers they could stand behind.

The findings are clear. While there is strong pressure from leadership to adopt AI, most teams are still experimenting,” said Joy Huynh, content strategist at Supermetrics. “Few have fully embedded AI into their workflows. Many lack a clear AI strategy, and the data foundation required for AI-ready analytics is still not in place.”

“The research gave the industry a much clearer view of where marketers actually stand on AI adoption, not just the pressure they’re feeling, but the structural gaps holding them back,” Huynh said. “That level of clarity matters when your audience expects findings they can trust. Partnering with NewtonX again on the second edition helped us build a report grounded in credible, high-quality data and bring a sharper perspective to the market.”