The Australian Centre for AI in Marketing (ACAM) has warned the rise of AI in Australia is leaving marketers confused with what to actually do with the technology – highlighting a lack of engagement due to feeling unconfident.
Insights from ACAM’s upcoming 2026 AI Marketing Benchmark, to be released in July, highlight a broader industry shift beyond AI awareness and experimentation with the findings suggest that execution, capability building, governance and value creation now matter more than access to the tools themselves.
Agentic AI represents one of the clearest examples of this shift – with most marketers recognising its importance but lack a clear understanding of what it means in practice.
A global 2026 survey from ACAM partner Adobe of 3,000 executives and practitioners in CX roles found 63 per cent of organisations expect agentic AI to give employees more time for strategic and creative work with 42 per cent planning to design distinctive AI agent personalities for different audiences. Despite this enthusiasm, agentic AI adoption remains in the early stages with a majority of respondents reporting no active use of agentic AI and fewer than a quarter saying they are running limited pilots.
While marketers grapple with how to effectively use agentic AI across their organisations, another Adobe report found one in five Australians have used agentic AI with a further 42 per cent stating they expect to use it in their daily lives this year. Consumers are also expanding the ways they utilise AI assistants across various sectors and use cases.
The use of AI assistants is also steadily growing for online shopping (30 per cent), travel (29 per cent) and banking (23 per cent).
With momentum continuing to build around agentic AI, alongside the plethora of vendor announcements, product launches and conflicting definitions, many marketers remain unclear on the implications of agentic AI for their teams, workflows and organisations. With generative AI largely focused on improving individual productivity, agentic AI signals a shift towards AI-enabled execution, with the potential to reshape how marketing teams operate at a structural level.
“There’s a big gap between knowing agentic AI is important and actually doing something with it. Organisations getting ahead are those rethinking how their teams work and where agentic AI can take on real responsibility. But increasingly this isn’t just an organisational play,” Tim Lillyman, head of marketing and AI automation at ASX-listed XPON Technologies Group, and lead instructor at ACAM, said.
“Individual marketers will eventually run their own agents built around their role, so understanding the foundations now is what will help them succeed as agentic AI becomes more standardised.”
Meanwhile, Jodie Sangster, co-founder of ACAM, said: “Agentic AI is the clearest example yet of a topic where the hype has raced ahead of real understanding.”
“There is plenty of talk, but not enough clarity on what marketers should actually do. At ACAM, our purpose is to demystify AI and make it genuinely accessible for every marketer, not just those inside the largest enterprises. We want to give people the confidence to engage with it on solid ground, ask the right questions, and decide for themselves where it fits.”
In response to growing industry demand for clarity, ACAM is launching a dedicated briefing as part of its ongoing commitment to support marketers navigate the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem. ‘Understanding agentic AI: What every marketer needs to know’ is designed to help marketers better understand where agentic AI fits within the broader transformation journey and how to prepare responsibly and strategically.
Lillyman, who alongside ACAM CEO and co-founder Louise Cummins will lead the event, added: “This session is designed to focus on what agents are, where they create value for marketers, and how marketers and their organisations can start building practical capability.”
“The good news is you don’t need to be a developer to get started, and that’s something many marketers still don’t realise.”
