Survey shows advertisers cautious about AI despite growing adoption

Advertising companies continued to expand their use of artificial intelligence across campaign operations, but many professionals remained hesitant to fully trust the technology, according to new research from TripleLift.

The report found that while 60% of advertising professionals said their organizations had a centralized AI strategy, fewer than 30% reported high confidence in that approach.

The findings were published in TripleLift’s report, “The Evolution of AI in Global Advertising,” based on responses from 200 advertising professionals worldwide. The study examined AI adoption across media, measurement, audience targeting and creative operations.

“Machine learning has been a staple in the ad space for over a decade, with agentic AI and LLMs fundamentally up-leveling how campaigns are built and optimized,” said Rob Deichert, COO at TripleLift. “Now, the human layer is getting tools that can handle tasks ML isn’t ideal for. This leaves the industry caught in a balancing act. Companies want better results from AI, yet remain hesitant to share the data and trust required to unlock its full potential.”

The report found AI adoption was strongest in data-driven campaign functions. Seventy-three percent of respondents said they used AI for campaign optimization, including bidding, audience and creative adjustments, while 59% said they used AI for audience targeting and contextual modeling.

Creative production showed lower levels of adoption.

Only 25% of respondents said they used AI for creative production, with most limiting its use to testing and iteration rather than fully AI-generated content.

The report also found limited adoption of fully autonomous campaign execution. Nineteen percent of respondents said they used AI to completely automate campaign execution, while 40% said they retained manual control throughout the process.

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According to the report, concerns about quality, brand safety and accuracy continued to drive the need for human oversight, particularly in creative and supply-side decisions.

“When AI systems work in sync across media, measurement, and audience, the opportunity is clear: faster, always-on campaign execution,” added Deichert. “The missing piece is creative. Bridging that gap, without losing the human spark, is what will define the next era of advertising.”

TripleLift also reported that many organizations spent significant time reviewing AI-generated work. Seventy-four percent of respondents said they spent several hours each week validating AI outputs, which the company described as a “review tax.”

The report said the continued reliance on human review reflected broader concerns about technical accuracy, brand safety and creative consistency as advertisers expand the use of AI tools across campaign operations.