We asked 1,343 people who work in marketing and media how they use AI at work. They answered The AI Report’s Where You Stand benchmark between July 20, 2026 and November 2, 2026. Here is how far along they are, what holds them back, what they want from AI next and which tools the most advanced teams use, compared with all 14,452 people in the benchmark.
Key findings
- People in marketing and media are behind everyone else in the benchmark. 10% are leaders, against 14% of all respondents, and 67% are still early.
- The biggest blocker is picking the right tools (34%), followed by the skills gap (30%).
- Their top goal is to save time (29%). More of them than average want to grow revenue: 25% against 14%.
- ChatGPT is the most used AI tool (85% of those who named a tool), then Claude (71%) and Gemini (50%). ElevenLabs stands out: 7% use it, against 3% of all respondents.
- Leaders lean on Claude. 79% of leaders use it, against 66% of those still early.
How far along people in marketing and media are with AI
The largest share of people in marketing and media say they are “just exploring” (41%). 6% say AI is used across their company and 4% are rolling it out to their team.
- Just exploring
- Testing a few tools
- Using 1 to 3 tools for real
- Rolling out to their team
- Used across the company
- Helping others with AI
What holds people in marketing and media back
We asked for the single biggest blocker. Picking the right tools leads at 34%. If that is you too: shortlist tools by the job you need done.
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
What they want from AI in the next 90 days
29% want to save time, 26% want to build their AI skills and 25% want to grow revenue.
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
The AI tools people in marketing and media use
People named 3.8 AI tools each on average. These are the 12 most used, as a share of the 1,234 people here who named at least one. Compare any of them in our AI tool database.
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
What the leaders use differently
Leaders are the 141 people in marketing and media whose AI is rolled out to their team or used across their company. They named 4.5 tools each, against 3.5 for the 904 who are still early. These are the clearest differences.
| Tool | Leaders | Early | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | 79% | 66% | +13 pts |
| Notion AI | 14% | 5% | +9 pts |
| HubSpot | 10% | 5% | +5 pts |
| ElevenLabs | 9% | 5% | +4 pts |
- Share of each group who use the tool. Leaders: 138 people, early: 803 people.
Where they use AI at work
Marketing comes first (72%), then writing (71%) and research (58%). People could pick several areas.
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
- Asked July 20 to August 31, 2026: 669 answers.
Budget for a first AI project
35% are not sure yet. The most common amount named is under $500 (45%).
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
- Asked from September 1, 2026: 674 answers.
Who answered
60% decide, recommend or have a say in what their company buys.
Company size
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
Role
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
Say in what their company buys
- Marketing and media
- All respondents
What leaders told The AI Report podcast
“About a third of content is not machine readable right now.”
Vivek Pandya, Director and Lead Insights Analyst, Adobe Digital Insights at Adobe. Check whether AI can actually read your website. Adobe's analysis of retail pages finds about a third of content is not machine-readable. Restructure and organize your content, including your home page, store locator, returns and FAQ pages, so it is clear to machines. Then make sure reviews, Reddit threads and social posts back up what your site claims, because AI agents cross-check before recommending you. Watch or read the episode.
“Orders coming to Shopify stores from AI are actually up 13x.”
Andrew McNamara, VP of Applied Machine Learning at Shopify. AI assistants are becoming a real sales channel. Orders reaching Shopify stores from AI are up 13 times, and searches that draw on a store's structured product catalog convert about twice as well as general AI search. If you sell online, make your catalog available to AI shopping agents, then check which AI questions lead to sales and where your products appear without converting. Watch or read the episode.
Andrew Warner, Founder at Mixergy. AI agents are becoming customers. Andrew points to Postiz, a social media scheduling tool built to be easy for agents to use, whose founder has shared fast revenue growth publicly. As the founder told him, agents keep using a tool long after people would have drifted away. Ask whether an agent could sign up for and use your product, and make that easy. Watch or read the episode.
Next steps
- Shortlist tools by the job you need done. The AI Report tool database compares 5,500+ AI tools by use case and price.
- Join the free live Claude session. Every Tuesday at 2pm ET, free for every reader.
- Get a plan built for you. The AI Report Pro turns your benchmark answers into a 90-day AI plan, step by step.
How do you compare?
Answer the same nine quick questions as these 14,452 people. See which of five AI types you are, how you compare with readers like you, and get a free 30-day AI roadmap by email.
Free. You also get The AI Report, the five-minute AI briefing, every weekday. Unsubscribe anytime.
Compare with other groups
The full benchmark: AI at Work Benchmark 2026, with every industry, role and company size side by side.
By industry: Professional services, Healthcare, Software and tech, Education, Manufacturing, Nonprofits and government, Financial services, Retail and e-commerce, Real estate, Legal.
By role: Executives and founders, Directors, Managers and team leads, Individual contributors, Consultants and advisors, Students and career switchers.
By company size: Solo professionals, Small businesses (2 to 50), Mid-size companies (51 to 1,000), Large enterprises (1,001+).
About this data
These numbers come from The AI Report’s Where You Stand benchmark. Between July 20, 2026 and November 2, 2026, 14,452 people completed it. This page covers the 1,343 who said they work in marketing and media.
- Answers are self-reported. People chose their own industry, role, company size and stage.
- “Early” means just exploring or testing a few tools. “Leaders” means AI is rolled out to their team or used across their company.
- People could pick more than one tool, so tool shares add up to more than 100%. Tool shares are out of the 1,234 people here who named at least one tool.
- Where people use AI was asked from July 20 to August 31, 2026 (669 answers here).
- Budget was asked from September 1, 2026 (674 answers here).
- Percentages are rounded to whole numbers.
- We never publish individual answers. A group only gets a page with 100 or more people, and we only compare groups of 30 or more.
- People who take an AI newsletter's quiz are more interested in AI than the average worker, so read these numbers as a benchmark of people actively working on AI, not a national average.
Last updated November 2, 2026. To cite this page: The AI Report, AI at Work Benchmark 2026, theaireport.ai/tools/benchmark.