By Aijaz Alam
How many marketers use AI?
86.4% of marketing teams say they use AI in at least a few marketing areas, in HubSpot's 2026 State of Marketing survey of more than 1,500 B2B and B2C marketers worldwide; only 1.7% neither use it nor plan to. Company data is lower: in 2025, 34.70% of EU firms that used AI used it for marketing or sales (Eurostat).
- 86.4%Marketing teams using AI in at least a few areasHubSpot, 2026, vendor survey
- 30%CMOs with mature AI readinessGartner, 2026; 70% call AI leadership a critical goal
- 15.3%Share of marketing budgets going to AIGartner, 2026, mostly large firms
- 21%US video ad buyers running live campaigns with agentic AIIAB, early 2026; 20% more testing
- 34.70%EU firms using AI that use it for marketing or salesEurostat, 2025, the most common purpose
The numbers
The full breakdown
How many marketers and firms use AI, by measure
| Measure | Share | Who was asked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing teams using AI in at least a few marketing areas | 86.4% | 1,500+ marketers worldwide, 2026 | HubSpot |
| Marketers who say they understand how to use AI in marketing | 68.2% (47% in 2025) | 1,500+ marketers worldwide, 2026 | HubSpot |
| CMOs reporting mature or fully developed AI readiness | 30% | 401 CMOs, North America and Europe, Jan to Mar 2026 | Gartner |
| US video ad buyers running live campaigns with agentic AI | 21% (20% testing, 25% planning) | 360 US ad buyers, Feb to Mar 2026 | IAB |
| US small employer firms using AI that use it for writing or marketing | 83% | US small employer firms, Sep to Nov 2025 | Fed Small Business Credit Survey |
| EU firms using AI that use it for marketing or sales | 34.70% | EU firms with 10+ staff, 2025 | Eurostat |
| All EU firms using AI for marketing or sales | 6.92% | EU firms with 10+ staff, 2025 | Eurostat |
Each row has a different base: marketers, CMOs, ad buyers or companies. Do not compare them as if they measured the same thing.
What marketers use AI for, 2026
| Use | Use extensively | Use occasionally |
|---|---|---|
| Content creation | 42.5% | 38% |
| Media creation | 37.2% | 37.7% |
| Administrative task automation | 35.6% | 40.5% |
| Learning and skill development | 34.6% | 40.1% |
| Advertising automation and optimization | 34.1% | 36.5% |
| Brainstorming and ideation support | 33.9% | 39.8% |
| Strategic planning and forecasting | 33.4% | 37.5% |
HubSpot 2026 State of Marketing, over 1,500 B2B and B2C marketers worldwide (vendor survey).
EU firms using AI for marketing or sales, by firm size, 2025
| Firm size | Share of firms using AI | Share of all firms |
|---|---|---|
| 10 to 49 employees | 34.06% | 5.79% |
| 50 to 249 employees | 35.67% | 10.83% |
| 250 or more employees | 37.89% | 20.85% |
| All firms with 10 or more employees | 34.70% | 6.92% |
Eurostat ICT usage in enterprises survey; all sectors except agriculture, mining and finance.
EU firms using AI that use it for marketing or sales, by sector, 2025
| Sector | Share of firms using AI |
|---|---|
| Accommodation | 58.82% |
| Travel agencies and tour operators | 49.41% |
| Retail trade | 48.18% |
| Advertising, market research and other professional activities | 41.50% |
| Information and communication | 40.64% |
| Manufacturing | 30.41% |
| Construction | 22.80% |
| Transportation and storage | 21.20% |
Firms with 10 or more employees. Advertising row is NACE M73-M75.
Over time
EU firms using AI for marketing or sales, 2021 to 2025
| Year | Share of firms using AI | Share of all firms |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 21.36% | 1.63% |
| 2023 | 23.63% | 1.90% |
| 2024 | 34.08% | 4.59% |
| 2025 | 34.70% | 6.92% |
Eurostat publishes no 2022 figure. Firms with 10 or more employees, all sectors except agriculture, mining and finance.
Why sources differ
Same question, different answers
| Number | When | Who measured | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 86.4% | 2026 | HubSpot State of Marketing | Marketing teams that use AI in at least a few areas; vendor survey of 1,500+ marketers |
| 30% | Jan to Mar 2026 | Gartner CMO Spend Survey | CMOs whose AI readiness is mature; mostly firms with over $1 billion in revenue |
| 34.70% | 2025 | Eurostat | EU firms with 10+ staff that use AI and apply it to marketing or sales |
| 6.92% | 2025 | Eurostat | All EU firms with 10+ staff using AI for marketing or sales |
Figures for AI in marketing run from under 7% to over 86% because they ask different people different questions. HubSpot's 86.4% comes from marketers themselves, in a vendor survey of more than 1,500 professionals, and any use in at least a few areas counts. Gartner's 30% measures readiness, not use: it is the share of CMOs, mostly at companies with over $1 billion in revenue, who rate their AI capabilities as mature or fully developed. Eurostat measures companies, not people. Its official survey of EU firms with 10 or more staff found that 34.70% of firms using AI in 2025 used it for marketing or sales, which is only 6.92% of all firms, because 19.95% of EU firms used any AI at all. US small employer firms sit in between: 46% use AI and 83% of those use it for writing or marketing. Quote the population with the number: "86.4% of marketing teams" is not "86.4% of companies".
What it means
How to use these numbers
Almost every marketing team now uses AI for something, mostly content: 42.5% of marketers use it extensively to create content and 37.2% to create media such as images and video. The harder part is scaling it. Only 30% of CMOs in Gartner's survey say their AI capabilities are mature, even though 70% call becoming an AI leader a critical goal and their budgets put 15.3% toward AI on average.
Company data shows how far this is from universal. In the EU, marketing or sales is the most common use among firms that use AI, but only 6.92% of all firms with 10 or more staff use AI for it. Large firms are about three and a half times as likely as firms with 10 to 49 staff to do so (20.85% against 5.79%). Accommodation businesses (58.82% of AI users) and retailers (48.18%) lead.
For a small business, the US numbers are the closest guide: 46% of small employer firms use AI, and 83% of those use it for writing or marketing. Advertising is moving next: 21% of US video ad buyers already run live campaigns with agentic AI.
Method and sources
How it was measured
Method
- Publisher
- HubSpot: 2026 State of Marketing; Eurostat: ICT usage in enterprises survey 2025
- Sample
- HubSpot: over 1,500 B2B and B2C marketers worldwide (vendor survey). Eurostat: EU firms with 10 or more persons employed, all sectors except agriculture, mining and finance (official survey).
- Definition
- HubSpot counts teams that use AI in at least a few marketing areas. Eurostat counts firms using at least one AI technology for marketing or sales, as a share of firms using AI and of all firms.
- Released
- HubSpot summary updated 10 April 2026; Eurostat data extracted December 2025
- Checked at source
- 31 October 2026, on blog.hubspot.com and in the Eurostat database (isoc_eb_ai, isoc_eb_ain2). Gartner, IAB and Fed Small Business Credit Survey figures are from the repo's verified stats.
- Next release
- Eurostat plans its next update for December 2026; HubSpot publishes its State of Marketing every year
- Last changed
- 30 Oct 2026
- Data files
- CSV · JSON (stable links)
Sources
- HubSpot State of Marketing 2026, HubSpot Vendor data
- Gartner newsroom, Gartner, Inc. Research
- IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report; IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Industry body
- ICT usage and e-commerce in enterprises, Eurostat Official data
- Small Business Credit Survey, Federal Reserve Banks Survey
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FAQ
More questions people ask
What percentage of companies use AI for marketing?
In the EU, 6.92% of firms with 10 or more staff used AI for marketing or sales in 2025, or 34.70% of the firms that use AI at all (Eurostat). Among US small employer firms, 46% use AI and 83% of those use it for writing or marketing (Federal Reserve Small Business Credit Survey, late 2025).
What do marketers use AI for most?
Content creation: 42.5% of marketers use AI extensively for it in HubSpot's 2026 survey, followed by media creation (37.2%) and administrative tasks (35.6%).
How much of the marketing budget goes to AI?
15.3% on average in 2026, according to Gartner's CMO Spend Survey of 401 marketing leaders, mostly at companies with over $1 billion in annual revenue.
Are advertisers using AI agents?
Some are. In IAB's early-2026 survey of 360 US video ad buyers, 21% were running live campaigns with agentic AI, 20% were testing it and 25% planned to use it in 2026.
Every number on this page was checked at its original source (HubSpot, Gartner, Inc., Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), Eurostat, Federal Reserve Banks). Free to cite with a link to this page.