The AI Honeymoon Is Over for CMOs — Here's Where the Money Is Going Now
TL;DR: Dentsu Creative's 2026 CMO Report, surveying 1,950 senior marketers across 14 markets, finds 71% say AI speeds time-to-market yet the same share see no major cost savings — and the budget it frees is flowing into real-world experiences (82%), sport and entertainment (77%) and relatable creators (81%), not more automated ads.
For two years, the pitch for marketing AI was efficiency: do more, faster, cheaper. Dentsu's 2026 CMO Report, 'Making It Real', quietly marks the end of that honeymoon. Based on 1,950 senior marketers across 14 markets, it shows leaders who still believe in the promise but have stopped expecting it to cut costs.
The number that should reset your 2027 plan
71% of CMOs say AI is speeding up their time to market — and the same 71% say they have not seen major cost savings. In other words, AI is making marketing faster, not cheaper. As Dentsu's Pats McDonald puts it, “the promise is still incredible, but the adoption curve is a real challenge” — and “buying the technology is not enough.”
Our read: the brands winning with AI have stopped treating it as a cost-reduction programme and started treating it as a speed advantage — shipping more variations, testing faster, and reinvesting the saved time into the things that actually differentiate a brand. The P&L benefit shows up as growth, not as a smaller marketing line.
The 'sea of sameness' problem
78% of marketers fear AI-driven optimisation will push brands into a 'sea of sameness', and 62% say AI-assisted creativity still cannot fully capture a brand's tone, look and feel. This is the quiet crisis of the automated era: when everyone optimises to the same best practices with the same tools, everyone converges on the same bland mean. Distinctiveness becomes the scarce asset.
Where the money is actually going
The reallocation is striking. 82% plan to increase investment in real-world experiences — live events, pop-ups, out-of-home. 77% are putting more into sport, and the same share into entertainment, with 80% saying streaming and modern fandoms have transformed branded content. And 81% believe relatable creators, including nano-influencers, can outperform celebrities — a direct challenge to the A-list ad revival happening elsewhere in the market.
There is a throughline: marketers are using the time AI frees to invest in what AI cannot fake — physical presence, cultural relevance and human credibility. Dentsu's trends work found 64% now value handmade and handwritten things more than ever. The pendulum is swinging back toward the tangible precisely because the digital has become infinite and cheap.
What to do about it
Use AI to go faster, not just smaller: measure it on speed-to-market and test volume, not headcount saved. Protect a 'distinctiveness budget' that is deliberately off-model — the brand codes, the human craft, the real-world moment that an optimiser would never recommend. And decide your own answer to the celebrity-versus-creator question before your competitors set the price of both.
Quick FAQ
Does the Dentsu report say AI saves money?
No. 71% of CMOs say AI speeds up time-to-market, but the same share report no major cost savings. The value is showing up as speed and output, not reduced spend.
Where are CMOs shifting budget?
Into real-world experiences (82%), sport (77%), entertainment (77%) and relatable creators including nano-influencers (81%) — things AI can't easily replicate.
This report matches exactly what we're seeing with clients. AI hasn't made marketing cheaper — it's made it faster, and the smart teams are pouring that saved time into the things a machine can't do: real experiences, genuine creators, distinctive craft. If your AI strategy is only about cutting costs, you've already misread the room. — Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
The takeaway: AI makes marketing faster, not cheaper — reinvest the time it frees into distinctiveness, because sameness is the real risk of the automated era.
If AI is giving your team hours back, where are you reinvesting them — into more output, or into the things that make you different?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
Sources: Dentsu Creative 2026 CMO Report 'Making It Real', Creative Salon, MediaPost, and Campaign.
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
