Key Takeaways
- Nearly half of U.S. consumers say GenAI is making content quality worse, signaling a growing trust gap and higher expectations for credible, recognizable brand content.
- Gartner’s findings suggest CMOs are shifting spend toward digital acquisition, but brands that want long-term growth still need strong brand measurement, strategy, and human expertise.
During their Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo this week, the business and technology insights company released three surveys including one that found 49% of U.S. consumers agree that GenAI has made the quality of content available worse.
The issues of artificial intelligence (AI) content in the Gartner survey of U.S. consumers conducted in March were driven in part by 57% of Gen Z and Millennial respondents decrying that marketing content quality was worse because of AI.
During the Denver conference, Gartner officials discussed reports on how a “brand doom loop” is prevents marketing leaders from proving brand’s impact on enterprise growth and why CMOs budget are shifting toward acquisition and digital channels in pursuit of growth.
The Issues with AI Content
Kate Muhl, VP Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice, notes the survey found that AI is contributing to a more skeptical media environment, raising the stakes for brands to create recognizable, credible and high-quality content.
“AI-generated content is increasing the volume of media that consumers encounter, but not necessarily the value,” said Muhl in a statement. “In a more skeptical media environment, brands need to be more recognizable, more credible and more intentional about the contexts in which they appear.”
Consumer Attention Fragmented Across Different Medias
Additionally, the survey found that 59% of U.S. consumers prefer to do several media or technology activities at the same time, such as watching TV, using the internet or texting on a phone, rather than focusing on one activity at a time.
“Consumer screen time may be abundant, but consumer attention is not,” said Muhl. “For marketers, the goal is no longer simply to buy reach or chase impressions. Media strategy must compete for scarce attention and create brand meaning quickly enough to survive fragmented, fast-moving environments.”
The March survey comes after one the previous month found that AI is beginning to change how consumers build searches for products and services. Twenty percent of U.S. consumers say their search inputs are more specific because of AI, 19% phrase search inputs as questions more frequently and 17% rely on AI summaries to get information for products or services they are looking for.
“AI is changing the way consumers connect with content and where consumer attention lives,” she stated. “CMOs should not treat AI as a replacement for media fundamentals. The brands that win will be those that understand where attention is gathering, how trust is being formed and what kinds of experiences consumers want to remember.”
Stuck in a “Brand Doom Loop”
At the conference, Garter officials examined “Brand Doom Loop” that they define as occuring when companies underinvest in brand measurement, lack confidence in the results and consequently attract even less funding. The survey found 84% of companies are stuck in this loop that prevents marketing leaders from proving brand’s impact on enterprise growth.
Gartner predicts that by 2028, over 80% of companies will make significant changes to their mission, brand and culture in order to keep pace with the impact of AI on markets. As AI accelerates commoditization and fuels disinformation, a company’s brand is one of the few remaining levers that can be used to claim a distinctive and trustworthy position in their markets.
“In an AI-driven market, brand clarity becomes even more critical,” said Julie Reeves, VP Analyst in the Gartner Marketing practice. “CMOs have an opportunity to help their organizations define what makes them distinctive, trusted and relevant as customer expectations and competitive dynamics shift.”
Brand strategy has a measurable impact beyond marketing. Companies with a strong brand strategy are twice as likely to exceed their growth goals, underscoring brand’s role as a driver of enterprise performance. C-suite executives appear open to elevating brand’s strategic role: More than 50% want their CMO to clarify the relationship between brand and business strategy, and 43% want a clear, simple story about brand health and business performance.
“CMOs need to move beyond tracking brand metrics in isolation,” said Reeves. “They must show how brand influences enterprise priorities, such as revenue, profit, customer experience, innovation and
Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey Findings
The final survey discussed found awareness and conversion now account for nearly 63% of total media spend, as CMOs shift budget toward acquisition and digital channels in pursuit of growth. The results showed that labor is claiming a larger share of marketing budgets, underscoring that AI value depends on people, skills and execution, not just technology.
The annual Gartner 2026 CMO Spend Survey was conducted during the first quarter of this year of CMOs and other marketing leaders. The results showed CMOs are rapidly shifting budget from offline to digital channels, with digital media now representing more than two-thirds of total media investments in 2026, up 18% since 2024. AI is a key driver of this shift, with CMOs citing enhanced personalization and the need to prioritize channels that can be effectively AI-optimized among the biggest influences on their channel mix.
“As AI reshapes the marketing mix, many CMOs are channeling more investment into digital channels and customer acquisition in pursuit of growth,” said Ewan McIntyre, VP Analyst and Chief of Research in the Gartner Marketing practice. “However, AI is not a shortcut around marketing capability. The organizations that will pull ahead are those that pair AI investment with the people, processes and discipline required to turn it into business results.”
The Affect AI is Having on CMO’s
CMOs are prioritizing customer acquisition over loyalty and retention. However, the most AI-mature marketing organizations allocate a larger share of budget to customer loyalty and retention and a lower share to digital channels, suggesting that less mature organizations may be over-indexing on short-term optimization and channels that are easiest to measure and automate.
“AI can help marketers optimize faster, but optimization is not the same as strategy,” said McIntyre. “CMOs must guard against letting AI steer too much budget toward the channels and stages of the journey that are easiest to tune, while underinvesting in the touchpoints that build long-term customer value.”
Despite the assumption that AI should reduce people costs, labor is claiming a larger share of marketing budgets. Labor’s share of the total marketing budget rose to 25% in 2026 from 22% a year earlier, suggesting CMOs increasingly recognize that AI value depends on people, skills and execution, not just technology. The challenge is low organizational readiness—70% of CMOs say their internal marketing processes are not mature enough to effectively implement and scale AI.
In addition, lack of internal AI expertise and talent is the top barrier preventing CMOs from achieving AI-driven efficiency, cited by 38% of respondents.
“AI changes the kind of marketing capability organizations need, but it does not eliminate the need for capability,” said McIntyre. “As CMOs invest in AI-powered transformation, they must also invest in the talent, governance and operating maturity required to make those tools work in the real world.”
