Douglas Nicol.
Australian marketers are embracing AI but maturity levels are lagging, with 83% of organisations at the early stages of development and none reaching the two highest levels, according to the Australian Centre for AI in Marketing's 2026 AI in Marketing Benchmark Report.
Built on responses from 126 CMOs and senior marketing leaders across 12 industries, the report finds AI has moved from curiosity to daily marketing reality, but AI roadmaps remain underdeveloped, workflow redesign is immature and ROI proof is inconsistent.
ACAM's six-level maturity framework places 31.7% of respondents at level two, Established Beginners, where AI is recognised but use is patchy and not connected to strategy. Half (50%) are at level three, Early Emerging, where adoption is spreading but maturity is uneven.
Only 16.7% have reached level four, Mature Emerging, where AI priorities, governance and measurement are starting to align.
No organisations have reached levels five or six.
Only 6% of organisations have a fully documented AI roadmap, while 58% have no documented roadmap at all.
AI slop content is the number one operational concern, cited by 61% of CMOs, with 32% citing brand damage as a concern.
On team sentiment, 69% of CMOs said the majority of their team was excited but cautious, while 56% reported a concerned minority.
The proportion of scared team members in that minority has increased 22 percentage points since 2025.
Douglas Nicol, co-founder of ACAM, said the question had changed from what AI tools teams were using to whether they were building the maturity to turn AI activity into serious commercial impact.
"The momentum is real, but it's uneven," he said.
“The next phase of AI growth will not be defined by more tools, but capability, discipline and confidence, applying AI systematically across teams, workflows, data, governance and measurement.”
Natalie Lockwood, CMO at NAB, said the progression from 2025 to 2026 showed an industry moving forward at pace but not yet at scale.
"The next challenge for CMOs is turning rising confidence and activity into capability, workflows, clearer roadmaps, governance and measurable commercial impact," she said.
IBM ANZ chief marketing officer Miki Luong said the conversations around AI in marketing have beyond individual use cases to embedding AI into the workflows, processes and systems that drive meaningful gains.
“Marketers must ask themselves broader questions around how their teams operate, how decisions get made, how data flows through the organisation and how customer engagement is orchestrated,” Luong said.
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