While AI is quickly becoming a focal point of modern advertising, powering everything from media planning to creative optimisation, only half of marketers are fully confident in their knowledge of AI tech, according to a new global report from programmatic media partner MiQ.
‘The AI Confidence Curve,’ surveying 3,169 marketers across Australia and 15 other countries, reveals that three quarters of Australian marketers (75 per cent) say they plan to use AI more in the next 12 months but only half are fully confident in their knowledge of AI tech.
Globally, the findings are similar, with 72 per cent of marketers planning to apply AI in more ways over the next 12 months, but only 45 per cent feel confident in their ability to apply it successfully.
“I was unsurprised that Australian marketers came out higher than other markets surveyed, both across planning to implement and confidence to do so, as we’ve traditionally been a very innovative market,” MiQ ANZ managing director, Fiona Roberts, said.
“There is still a long way to go to close that gap though and I found it interesting to see more than half tend to have more confidence in external AI solutions and tools offered by partners and vendors over their own companies’ internal solutions which speaks to a landscape where only half of marketers are fully confident in their capabilities and tools,” Roberts added.
“We discovered that most marketers are bunched together at the early stages of a confidence curve. We’re at the start of a journey that will ultimately see us all move up the curve as we apply AI to more of our mission-critical work. Usage currently outpaces readiness by 27 percentage points, and we see that as pure opportunity. To close the gap, industry leaders must tap into tools and training,” Jordan Bitterman, chief marketing officer at MiQ, said.
The confidence conundrum
Marketers and agencies cite two key reasons for their lack of confidence: 43 per cent say their brand or clients won’t allow data to be shared with their AI tools, limiting their usefulness and capabilities.
Second is a knowledge gap: 38 per cent say they don’t have a clear solution for how their partners’ AI solutions work, while 35 per cent say their organisation does not understand how AI or LLMs work well enough, and just as many say they have not received proper training on working with or using AI tools.
Of those marketers globally who say they are not confident, 40 per cent report that their organisation does not understand AI or large language models (LLMs) well enough. This is due to a lack of training and understanding that pushes marketers away from
powerful bespoke solutions and toward more simplified, general AI tools and solutions.
Thirty-eight per cent globally cite a lack of training, 42 per cent cite limitations on their ability to share data with their chosen tools, and 44 per cent cite their inability to track results against the right goals.
“Every marketer is trying to find the balance between learning and leading with AI. The ones who advance fastest will treat confidence as a capability, something built every day through connection, curiosity, and collaboration,” Bitterman added.
What’s more, nearly two in five senior marketing professionals (38 per cent) admit they are still building the education, measurement, and workflow systems needed to use AI confidently and consistently. That same number (38 per cent) of both junior and senior marketers say they have not received proper training on the tools they already have.
The study identifies a clear gap here for marketers to overcome, one that partners offering AI solutions can help close.
The missions for meaningful measurement
Australian marketers are most likely to focus on proxy metrics as their primary means for measuring success, with website/traffic metrics like visits, bounce rate, and session duration being the most common (49 per cent), tied with engagement metrics like clickthrough rate, social engagement, and email opens (49 per cent).
However, only half of Australian marketers believe strongly that they have the correct measurement systems in place to track performance, and fewer believe strongly that they are tracking performance against the right goals (46 per cent).
For Australian marketers, delivering insights is a key piece of the puzzle for AI. Only 25 per cent agree strongly that the pre-campaign planning and insights they receive are useful, even as 91 per cent generally say they are able to use the audience intelligence they collect to drive results.
Current uses of AI in advertising
Marketers are already using AI for all kinds of tasks. In Australia, they are currently most comfortable applying it to visual design tools like Canva, with 39 per cent currently saying they use them for their own digital marketing efforts. This is followed closely by social media management tools like Smartly.io or Flick (38 per cent), marketing automation tools like Hubspot (35 per cent), and customer engagement tools (35 per cent).
Almost a third of these marketers (31 per cent) say they use these tools on all of their projects, while another 37 per cent say they use them on most projects.
Globally, social media management (40 per cent) is the most common application, followed by marketing automation (39 per cent) and customer engagement (38 per cent), areas where GenAI tools like ChatGPT are most useful.
The path forward
Despite concerns, the report revealed that optimism remains high as adoption accelerates. To increase confidence and move along the curve, the report highlighted ways marketers can move forward with purpose:
Adopt partner-agnostic solutions. AI works best on complete, connected data. Use tools that integrate multiple platforms and sources to eliminate silos and deliver more accurate, representative insights.
Integrate AI into performance measurement. AI can’t optimise what it can’t measure. Tie AI systems directly to campaign KPIs and outcome data to evaluate results in real time and link adoption to tangible business impact.
Invest in AI literacy across teams. Confidence comes from competence. With 44 per cent citing internal knowledge gaps, embed ongoing AI training – from interpreting outputs to applying insights – into everyday marketing practice.
Preserve human expertise. AI can analyse and automate, but humans must still interpret, refine, and decide. Keep experienced marketers in the loop to apply judgment, maintain accountability, and validate recommendations before they go live.
