Kantar, a global market research, data and analytics company, specialising in understanding consumer behaviour, measuring brand performance and helping organisations make informed marketing decisions through its annual Media Reactions study released its recent findings on marketers’ growing interest in Artificial Intelligence powered platforms and advertising as tools for improving brand visibility.
According to its official release, it revealed that marketers are increasingly relying on AI to increase their visibility, while most of these marketers are unsure if they possess the appropriate right media mix to deliver growth.
The Kantar’s Media Reactions 2026 study further revealed how this findings was obtained, from interviews with over 800 senior marketers and 23,000 consumers, with an additional insight which reveals that despite marketers betting on heavy investment on AI assistants, consumers are wary of suggestions these assistants provide.
Attributing the cautiousness of consumers to different factors which could be lack of trust, humans perception of AI tools, what they already think about specific brands, sources of Ai generated answers, and most importantly how the answers are presented, adding that a clear understanding of these concerns is important for any marketing investment to be successful.
Speaking on these changes, Paul Zwillenberg, CEO at Kantar said: “Marketing has never been harder to navigate, right when businesses need every dollar of investment to work harder. AI now shapes how people discover and choose brands, so strong brands have to earn the right to be recommended – by people, and by the machines guiding them. CMOs are investing more in the future, yet growing less certain about the decisions in front of them today. The answer is better intelligence, not more data.”
Growing Marketing Complexity Calls for Better Industry Insights.
The growing influence of AI and creator-led content, alongside the increasing number of media channels and available data, is making marketing decisions more challenging for advertisers. This is reflected in the findings, as just 50% of marketers believe they are striking the right balance between building brand awareness and driving performance, compared with 60% in 2025. Confidence in selecting the right media channels has also fallen from 64% to 57%, while only 51% say they can turn the data available to them into useful insights that support their marketing objectives.
According to Gonca Bubani, global director, media at Kantar, he said “Despite their insecurity, marketers are actually getting better at making fragmented channels perform in their favour. Kantar LIFT+ data shows that between 2020 and 2025, 43% of campaign performance came from channels working together, compared with only 18% pre-2014.”
Marketers Shift Investment Towards Micro and Nano-Creators
According to its findings, the creator economy is attracting increased marketing investment, but brands are gradually shifting their attention from celebrity influencers to creators with smaller, more engaged communities. According to the findings, 66% of marketers plan to invest in micro-creators, while 61% favour nano-creators, compared with 48% for macro-influencers and 42% for mega-influencers. This suggests a growing recognition that a creator’s value lies not just in the size of their audience but also in their ability to connect with specific communities, generate meaningful engagement and contribute to brand-building efforts.
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