About three-quarters of chief marketing officers (CMOs) fear that the growing use of artificial intelligence to produce advertising content is increasing output without delivering stronger results, raising fresh questions about how brands measure the value of their marketing investments.
The concern emerged in Dentsu Creative’s Making It Real report, which found that 76 per cent of senior marketing decision-makers worry their teams are producing more content with diminishing impact. Another 74 per cent said a higher volume of creative assets does not automatically translate into better marketing performance.
The findings are based on a survey of 1,950 senior marketing decision-makers across 14 markets, including India, conducted in April 2026. According to Brandspur Brand News, the report highlights a growing tension in the industry: brands face mounting demand for content, but marketing leaders remain uncertain about whether increased production is generating sufficient returns.
Demand is unlikely to ease soon. The report found that 81 per cent of CMOs expect their organisations to require substantially more content in the future, while 71 per cent said they do not know how to balance the cost of producing additional assets against the value those materials deliver.
Artificial intelligence has helped accelerate production, but financial gains have proved less immediate. While 71 per cent of respondents said AI was improving speed to market, 70 per cent reported that they had yet to achieve significant cost savings from its use.
Expectations about AI’s ability to make content production both faster and cheaper have also moderated. The proportion of CMOs expecting generative AI to deliver major improvements in speed and cost efficiency fell from 89 per cent in 2025 to 82 per cent in 2026.
Rather than directing all the benefits towards lower spending, many marketing teams are reinvesting the efficiencies they achieve. Some 82 per cent of respondents said AI-enabled production gains allowed them to allocate more resources to creative development, while 80 per cent said the savings helped fund real-world brand experiences.
However, producing more advertising material creates another challenge: ensuring each asset receives enough support to reach its intended audience. Research cited in the report from WARC and CreativeX found that creative output had increased by an average of 30 per cent, while media spending per asset had fallen by 15 per cent. More than 90 per cent of assets received less than $10,000 in media support.
The report also points to organisational structures as a barrier to better results. Some 77 per cent of CMOs said agency models that keep creative development, media planning, data and production in separate divisions prevent content from performing as effectively as it could.
Yasu Sasaki, Dentsu’s global chief creative officer, said marketing leaders wanted to use technology to develop more human experiences, underscoring the need to balance automation with creative thinking and meaningful audience engagement.
For Nigerian brands and advertising agencies, the findings offer a relevant warning as AI tools make it easier to generate social media posts, campaign visuals, videos and other marketing materials at scale. A larger volume of content may help brands maintain a steady online presence, but it does not necessarily mean consumers will pay more attention or that sales will improve.
The challenge for marketers is to connect production with a clear purpose: understanding the audience, developing distinctive creative ideas and ensuring campaigns receive sufficient distribution. Without that discipline, faster content creation could leave businesses spending time and money on material that struggles to make an impression.
As AI becomes more deeply embedded in advertising, the report suggests that competitive advantage may depend less on how much content a brand can produce and more on how effectively it turns that content into measurable results and stronger consumer relationships.
