ISBA has warned that UK advertisers are still working out how to turn generative AI adoption into meaningful commercial impact, despite near universal engagement with the technology.
The advertisers’ trade body said its 2026 GenAI Survey found that 99% of advertisers are engaging with generative AI, while 14% reported a significant impact on business results. The survey was based on 200 responses from advertisers.
At individual level, 65% of respondents said they use generative AI regularly, and 28% said it has meaningfully affected their day to day work. The results suggest that AI has quickly become part of the working rhythm of marketing teams, even where its broader business contribution is still developing.
The survey draws a clear distinction between using generative AI for efficiency and using it to drive effectiveness. Among advertisers that prioritise effectiveness as their primary objective for GenAI adoption, 55% said the technology had meaningfully affected day to day work. At organisational level, those prioritising effectiveness were twice as likely to report a significant impact on business results.
ISBA said efficiency gains remain an important starting point, but advertisers that view generative AI through the lens of effectiveness are more likely to report meaningful impact and changes to agency relationships, ways of working, scopes, and team structures.
The survey also found that policy comprehension among individuals has improved significantly year on year, as organisations continue to build governance frameworks for responsible adoption.
Agency models are also changing. ISBA said the technology is affecting agency relationships and operating models, although not by making agencies less important. Relationships are evolving as advertisers consider how best to structure teams, scopes, and ways of working around new capabilities.
Nick Louisson, Director of Agency Services at ISBA, said: “The pursuit of greater marketing effectiveness is an enduring exercise in innovation and continuous improvement, with Gen AI challenging us to consider what are the true drivers of business growth.
“The next year will bring to life many great examples of how leading advertisers are discovering new and improved ways to connect with consumers.”
The findings arrive as marketing teams face tighter budget scrutiny, rising media complexity, data privacy constraints, agency remuneration debates, fragmented customer journeys, and increasing pressure to show measurable contribution to growth. Generative AI is adding capability, but it is also forcing marketing leaders to decide which parts of the function should be automated, which require tighter governance, and where human judgement remains central.
An efficiency first approach is understandable. Generative AI is effective at producing first drafts, variants, summaries, prompts, images, translations, research digests, and internal planning materials. Those use cases can reduce time spent on routine production, especially in teams under pressure to deliver more content across more channels.
The risk is that efficiency becomes the only measurable outcome. A marketing function can produce more assets more quickly without improving customer understanding, brand distinctiveness, conversion quality, pricing power, retention, or long term demand. The ISBA findings suggest that teams orienting AI around effectiveness may be more likely to redesign workflows in ways that support commercial outcomes rather than simply compressing production time.
Agency relationships will increasingly reflect that divide. If AI reduces the cost of execution, agencies will need to show where strategic insight, creative direction, integration, governance, testing, and commercial judgement add value. Advertisers, in turn, will need to decide whether savings are reinvested into better planning and measurement, or removed from the marketing budget altogether.
Skills remain a constraint. Marketing teams have already been adopting AI tools faster than formal capability strategies can develop, exposing gaps in briefing, evaluation, brand stewardship, legal awareness, and performance interpretation: Marketing AI use exposes skills gap.
The governance improvement noted by ISBA is therefore important. Marketing teams are among the most externally visible users of generative AI. Errors, misleading outputs, bias, rights issues, weak disclosure, and poor creative judgement can reach customers quickly. Policy comprehension is not enough on its own, but it is a necessary step towards responsible use.
The next stage of adoption is likely to involve fewer generic pilots and more structural decisions. Marketing leaders will need to define approved tools, usage boundaries, review routes, agency responsibilities, rights management, and performance measures. The stronger teams will use AI to improve decision quality, customer relevance, and creative testing rather than simply increasing the volume of assets moving through the system.
ISBA’s research suggests generative AI is no longer a marginal experiment in advertising. The divide now lies between production convenience and disciplined commercial capability.
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