All Marketing Leaders Say Their Employees Have Embraced AI for Their Marketing and Advertising Work; 25% Have Used it to Replace Humans

Survey from Basis Technologies Reveals How Artificial Intelligence is Spreading in Advertising and Media

Basis Technologies, the industry’s leading advertising automation platform, announced annual survey results showing that all marketing leaders say that their employees have embraced the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in their marketing and advertising work. Furthermore, 25% of these respondents say that they have used AI to replace human employees, and/or have plans to do so – a trend that has continued to grow the past two years. Basis’ study was completed in August 2025, with 140 respondents from all professional levels at agencies, brands and publishers. The annual report, ‘AI and the Future of Marketing,’ is available

The good:

• 95% of marketing professionals use generative or agentic AI tools at least once a month – one-third are using it every day.
• The most popular tasks for using AI according to 76% or more of respondents is ‘ideation/brainstorming’ and ‘research.’
• The most-used AI tool for advertising work is ChatGPT, which is utilized by 88% of respondents. No other platforms garnered more than 45% or respondents. The popularity is spread across multiple tools when asked about use of paid platforms.
• More than 65% say their organizations currently pay for premium AI tools – a significant increase from 44% in 2024.

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The risks:

• Regarding the environmental impact of AI, 63% are concerned about its energy need.
• Nearly 86% of respondents are concerned about copyright risks and legal liabilities that could come with the use of generative AI.
• 70% believe AI’s development and usage should be regulated.
• With 100% of respondents thinking that generative AI poses a brand safety and misinformation risk for digital marketers, 40% believe that the risk is significant.

The work:

• More than 73% believe that AI has made them either moderately or significantly more efficient at their jobs over the course of the last year – a significant increase from 54% in 2024.
• Among all respondents, 59% believe AI will lead to substantial job losses in digital marketing within the next 3-5 years – a jump from 41% who felt this way a year ago.
• 66% believe there is little to no risk that AI could replace their job within the next 3-5 years.
• Only 20% of respondents say their organization currently “employs” AI agents for marketing and/or advertising work.
• 19% of marketers are deprioritizing SEO because of AI’s impact on search.

The use of AI solutions by agencies and brand marketers continues to accelerate, with many professionals seeing benefits in ideation, analysis and more. This is tempered by continuing and growing concerns of AI’s unintended consequences and residual effects.

“The Basis annual AI survey shows that this is an unstoppable force in business and especially in advertising and marketing. Considering the rate of adoption among professionals, AI’s benefits far outweigh any concerns in the industry for now,” said Katie McAdams, chief marketing officer, Basis Technologies. “As AI takes hold in specific industry practices such as content creation, writing and data analysis, there are still numerous opportunities and possibilities for growth in different areas.”

Basis provides advertising software with an integrated suite of modular applications for planning, operations, and more across programmatic, publisher-direct, search, and social channels.

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