Marketers are rapidly increasing investment in AI assistants, even though consumers remain cautious about the recommendations they provide. This is according to Kantar’s Media Reactions 2026 study, based on interviews with more than 800 senior marketers and 23,000 consumers .
Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of marketers expect GenAI to play a pivotal role in brand recommendations and a net 75 per cent plan to increase investment in AI assistants in 2027.
However, while the majority of people feel positive about generative AI’s possibilities and most already use AI assistants, only 32 per cent of consumers are using them to research brands and products and only 23 per cent trust their recommendations.
Many factors could be influencing this lack of trust, including how people feel about AI technology, what they already think about specific brands, the source of AI-generated answers or the way these answers are presented. Understanding and measuring these concerns is critical for marketing investment to pay off.
Gonca Bubani , Global Director of Media at Kantar , said, “There’s a lot of money moving towards AI on the assumption people will use it the way the industry expects. The reality is that marketers don’t yet have a firm grasp of the nuanced feelings people have about AI environments or how they work within their wider media mix. That shouldn’t stop them from experimenting with AI, but it does mean they need to carefully test, measure and learn as they invest.”
As channels such as AI and creator content mature, marketers have become less confident navigating the ever-fragmenting media mix and growing volumes of data:
But this lack of confidence is not all justified.
Bubani adds, “Despite their insecurity, marketers are actually getting better at making fragmented channels perform in their favour. Kantar LIFT+ data shows that between 2020 and 2025, 43 per cent of campaign performance came from channels working together, compared with only 18 per cent pre-2014.”
Paul Zwillenberg , CEO at Kantar , said, “Marketing has never been harder to navigate, right when businesses need every dollar of investment to work harder. AI now shapes how people discover and choose brands, so strong brands have to earn the right to be recommended – by people, and by the machines guiding them. CMOs are investing more in the future, yet growing less certain about the decisions in front of them today. The answer is better intelligence, not more data.”
Kantar has introduced new consumer ad preference metric in 2026 which now combines preference with exposure; 2026 performance should not be compared with historic results.
For the first time, Kantar’s ad equity measure combines consumers’ attitudes to advertising on different brand platforms with exposure.
This new ranking shows where people are both open to advertising and likely to encounter it, helping advertisers understand which brands offer the strongest mix of consumer acceptance, attention and reach according to consumers.
Meanwhile marketers are backing a small group of digital platforms, with Instagram, YouTube and Google ahead of other brands when it comes to trust scores.
Bubani said, “Marketer trust is only one side of the picture. Effective media planning also depends on understanding where consumers are receptive to ads. Comparing those perspectives can reveal if marketers are putting too much stock in their own views, or if they are adequately reflecting consumer demand. This is…