Dentsu Report Finds Marketers Move Past AI Hype and Back Real Human Insight

Marketers are moving out of a period of enthusiasm about artificial intelligence and toward practical questions about business value, according to a global survey of chief marketing officers published by Dentsu Creative and summarized in an industry roundup on November 8. The report, titled 2026 Global Chief Marketing Officer Report: Impact Happens Here, found that most leaders still see long term potential in AI but have yet to convert it into measurable returns.

The survey found that 70 percent of marketing chiefs have not seen significant cost efficiency gains from AI. A further 63 percent said they are unwilling to give high risk core tasks to AI agents because of reputational concerns. The findings suggest that after a stretch of rapid experimentation, marketing organizations are assessing which parts of the work technology can safely handle and which still depend on human judgment.

Human Insight Draws Budget Back

The report says companies want AI to free up staff budgets for customer insight, offline experiences and creative development, with the shift especially pronounced in China. There, 91 percent of respondents said they want time saved by AI invested in cultural understanding and audience research. Across the survey, 84 percent of marketing chiefs said they want strategy talent capable of empathy, pointing to hiring demand for people who can read audiences rather than only operate tools.

Physical touchpoints also returned to the center of strategy. The report found that 90 percent of Chinese marketing chiefs plan to increase spending on outdoor advertising, packaging and immersive offline events. For brand and creative strategy teams, that means budgets may shift from digital channels alone toward work that consumers can see, touch and remember.

At the same time, the survey identified a content problem created by automation. It found that 87 percent of global marketing chiefs and 97 percent of their Chinese counterparts consider differentiation more important than ever, as algorithms and automated production push brand messaging toward sameness. The report argues that brands must compete on three fronts at once: audience attention, search and recommendation algorithms, and AI agents that now mediate how consumers find products.

From Big Ideas to Shared Creative Platforms

To respond, the report says brands need to move from one way broadcast advertising toward what it calls catalytic creativity: a creative core that creators and communities can join and build on. It recommends embedding differentiation into tools and processes rather than leaving it at the level of campaign messaging. That framing places new demands on marketing staff who plan campaigns, commission content and manage how a brand appears across channels.

The report also points to smaller creators and niche communities. It found that 81 percent of marketing chiefs believe tail end authentic creators convert better than celebrities, and that budgets for influencer marketing continue to expand. Brands are described as competing less for share of voice and more for cultural relevance, with sports and entertainment properties and fan communities used to reach new audiences.

Taken together, the findings describe a marketing industry where the technology is becoming standard and the advantage lies in human creativity and genuine community ties. For workers, that favors skills in audience research, brand positioning, creative direction and measurement of incremental impact over simple tool operation.

What to Watch Next

The next test will be whether the stated intent to spend on offline experiences and audience insight shows up in 2027 budgets. Marketing chiefs will also be watched for how they organize teams around AI agents, particularly whether high risk work stays with people as the survey respondents indicated. Recruiters and analysts will track hiring for strategy roles that emphasize empathy and cultural understanding, since demand for that profile is now measured in the survey and can be compared with future editions.