The 2026 AI and Marketing Performance Index highlights a growing gap between AI adoption and measurable marketing performance. Based on a survey of more than 300 marketers and data leaders, the report finds that while 87% of organizations are implementing AI, many still struggle with fragmented data, slow measurement cycles, and ineffective experimentation. Companies with a centralized single source of truth (SSOT) dramatically outperform peers in revenue growth, marketing speed, and experimentation success. The research shows marketers often optimize based on historical behavior rather than actionable customer outcomes, limiting personalization and scalability. Key themes include operational bottlenecks, workflow strain, governance challenges, and the need to connect AI, data, activation, and measurement into a unified performance engine capable of delivering faster execution and measurable business impact.

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