Only 7% of US marketers have a clear AI roadmap, GCAM finds

The US survey drew 126 marketing professionals, mostly chief marketing officers and other senior marketing leaders, and was built with The CMO Syndicate. For Australia, the report reuses a 2026 benchmark of 126 marketing leaders that the Australian Centre for AI in Marketing ran with Kantar. Of the seven measures of AI maturity in the report, roadmap, planning and investment scored lowest in both countries.

Confidence runs higher than plans. Some 48% of US marketers feel fully ready to lead AI-driven change, against 27% in Australia, B&T reports. Low-quality AI content, which the report calls AI slop, ranked among the top three worries for 78% of US respondents and 61% of Australians. Among US marketers, 35% count picking the right AI tools as a skills gap; in Australia the figure is 53%.

Our census of AI ad figures, checked on 2 October, holds the IAB’s July 2025 release, which says half of advertisers already use generative AI for video ads and 86% use it or plan to; the release gives no sample size.

GCAM’s split adds what a usage figure like the IAB’s lacks: 7% of US respondents have a clearly documented roadmap and another 50% a partly documented one, so half of US teams have started a roadmap they have not finished.