Marketers lag as agentic AI surges across industry

The Australian Centre for AI in Marketing has warned that marketers' understanding of agentic AI is lagging its rise across the industry. Early findings from its 2026 AI Marketing Benchmark show a widening gap between interest and practical use.

According to ACAM, this reflects a broader market shift in which access to AI tools is no longer the main dividing line. Instead, execution, internal skills, governance and value creation are now shaping how organisations use AI in marketing.

Agentic AI has become a focal point in that transition. While many marketers now see the technology as important, uncertainty remains over what it means in practice and how it should be applied within teams and workflows.

Research from ACAM partner Adobe, based on a survey of 3,000 executives and customer experience practitioners globally, found 63% of organisations expect agentic AI to give employees more time for strategic and creative work. The same survey found 42% plan to design distinct AI agent personalities for different audiences.

Adoption, however, remains limited. A majority of respondents reported no active use of agentic AI, while fewer than a quarter said they were running limited pilot programs.

The gap between consumer behaviour and business deployment also appears to be narrowing. ACAM cited separate Adobe data showing one in five Australians have used agentic AI, while a further 42% expect to use it in their daily lives this year.

Use of AI assistants is also spreading across consumer sectors including online shopping, travel and banking. Adobe's figures showed usage rates of 30% for online shopping, 29% for travel and 23% for banking.

Execution gap

The debate around agentic AI has intensified as suppliers issue a steady stream of announcements and product launches, often using competing definitions. That has made it harder for marketers to judge whether the technology is simply another productivity tool or a broader operational shift.

In its comments on the market, ACAM drew a distinction between generative AI and agentic AI. It said generative AI has largely focused on helping individuals work faster, while agentic AI points to systems that can handle parts of execution and reshape how marketing teams are organised.

Tim Lillyman, Head of Marketing and AI Automation, XPON Technologies Group, said: "There's a big gap between knowing agentic AI is important and actually doing something with it. Organisations getting ahead are those rethinking how their teams work and where agentic AI can take on real responsibility. But increasingly this isn't just an organisational play. Individual marketers will eventually run their own agents built around their role, so understanding the foundations now is what will help them succeed as agentic AI becomes more standardised."

The challenge is no longer awareness. Marketers are under pressure to decide which tasks can be delegated to AI systems, what controls should govern that use and which skills staff need to manage them.

Jodie Sangster, Co-Founder, ACAM, said: "Agentic AI is the clearest example yet of a topic where the hype has raced ahead of real understanding. There is plenty of talk, but not enough clarity on what marketers should actually do. At ACAM, our purpose is to demystify AI and make it genuinely accessible for every marketer, not just those inside the largest enterprises. We want to give people the confidence to engage with it on solid ground, ask the right questions, and decide for themselves where it fits."

Industry pressure

ACAM was launched as a specialist centre focused on AI adoption in marketing, with an emphasis on governance, education and benchmarking. It describes itself as Australia's only centre dedicated exclusively to responsible AI adoption in the marketing field.

Interest in agentic AI is arriving at a point when many businesses are still working out how to govern earlier forms of AI use. That has raised questions about accountability, oversight and how far decisions or actions can be delegated to automated systems.

For marketers, the issue goes beyond software selection. Claims around agentic AI point to a more structural change in how campaigns are planned, how customer interactions are managed and how teams divide work between people and machines.

Lillyman also addressed the practical barriers for staff without technical backgrounds. He said: "This session is designed to focus on what agents are, where they create value for marketers, and how marketers and their organisations can start building practical capability. The good news is you don't need to be a developer to get started, and that's something many marketers still don't realise."