There’s growing evidence that AI investments are paying off, as 61% of marketers report they have already seen revenue grow as a result. This is according to a survey of 300 senior-level marketers in Europe (UK, France and Germany) by technology and data firm Epsilon.
The ‘AI in Marketing: Leadership and Impact in Europe’ study provides insights from marketing leaders in CPG and retail to assess AI adoption, levels of investment and measurable impact, exploring how AI tools are reshaping key functions, as well as the technical challenges and internal barriers that brands face.
While AI is transformative, the report highlights that organisations are at very different stages in their AI journey. Only 16% of marketers using AI see themselves as ‘Leading’, whereby they are developing their own in-house models, building proprietary tools or using agentic AI for full campaign management. Across Europe, France is just ahead with 19% of marketers at this more advanced stage, followed by Germany at 17%, and the UK at 13%.
Marketers report their organisations are most commonly in the ‘Scaling’ phase (36%), where AI is being integrated across multiple channels to support media buying and personalised content. At the more tentative end of the spectrum, 21% are still in the ‘Exploring’ phase, testing tools like ChatGPT and AI-powered assistants for basic tasks. The UK (27%) is more likely to be experimenting, compared to France (22%) and Germany (15%).
Those in the Exploring phase tend to have lower expectations in terms of the benefits of AI than marketers further along in their journey. Just half in this phase expect to see revenue growth from adoption – 10% lower than other, experienced respondents. Their expectations about reducing media ad waste are also slightly lower than those organisations in the other phases – 31% compared to 34%.
“What stands out is how expectations evolve once AI tools are actually deployed,” said Esme Robinson, Director, Platform Solutions at Epsilon. “They deliver on topline metrics like revenue and acquisition, but gaps emerge when it comes to deeper performance indicators like conversion or ROAS.
“That’s where identity becomes essential. Without a connected view of the customer across channels, AI doesn’t know what it’s optimising for – you lose precision, and with it, efficiency. The marketers seeing the strongest returns are the ones anchoring AI in rich, first-party data and a clear customer identity.”
Other key findings from the Epsilon study:
- Barriers to adoption: Concerns over data privacy (37%) top the list of barriers to AI adoption, followed by high implementation costs, difficulty integrating AI tools (33%) and limited internal expertise/skills (30%). Further down the list, lack of stakeholder buy-in (20%), lack of measurable ROI (20%) and resistance to change (19%) are less of a concern.
- Agentic AI: Just 6% of senior marketers say it is unlikely their organisations will allow AI to make autonomous decisions. Already, 47% of Leading organisations allow AI to make some decisions autonomously, while only 18% insist on full human oversight. It reflects a key realisation: for AI to scale effectively, it must be given the room to act, not just observe.
- Regulatory awareness: The vast majority of marketers are aware of upcoming regulations, such as the EU AI Act, the main obligations of which come into effect in August 2026. With a little over 12 months to go, half of respondents are developing a response, while 28% have a clear compliance strategy in place with dedicated resource. Around one-fifth of organisations (21%) have no concrete plans in place.
