Only 25% of marketers use AI for their influencer marketing work, and 82% do not use AI for connected TV (CTV) campaigns, according to a Digiday+ Research survey of more than 100 marketing professionals in first-quarter 2026. The numbers contrast sharply with AI adoption in social media and retail media marketing, where 49% and 42% of marketers, respectively, reported using AI. For marketers seeking to build practical skills, AI for Marketing Courses cover these emerging applications.
Influencer marketing: authenticity concerns slow adoption
Consumer demand for authenticity remains a significant barrier. An April 2025 study by the World Federation of Advertisers found that 96% of brands with no plans to work with virtual influencers cited consumer trust issues as their reason for caution. Virtual influencers are fully AI-generated avatars whose appearance, voice and actions are controlled by a team behind the scenes - like Mia Zel, who went viral with a Wimbledon-inspired post last year.
How marketers and creators are using AI for influencer work
Among the 25% of marketers using AI for influencer campaigns, the majority (75%) use it to analyze data. More than half also use AI to create content (63%) and for influencer outreach (56%). These applications are a core focus of many AI Social Media Courses, which help teams integrate AI into their social strategies.
Skin care brand Beekman 1802 partnered with AI analytics firm Bezel to feed CRM and Shopify data into large language models. "We were able to throw all of our data at a large language model and really understand deeply who this consumer is and how many subtypes of consumer we have," said David Baker, Beekman 1802's chief digital officer, at an October 2025 industry event. The insights now guide campaign strategy and product messaging.
Independent influencer agency Later uses an AI system to match campaign briefs with human creators and model potential content performance on historic engagement data. "That's a much richer picture that gives me confidence that I'm going to get a high ROAS on my campaign," Later CEO Scott Sutton told Digiday in March. He said the approach reflects a market where brands partner with many creators, and manual campaign organization is no longer practical.
Creators are also adopting AI. A Wondercraft report found that 80% of creators use AI at some point in their workflow. POP.STORE recently launched an AI ECHO ME program, an agentic commerce platform that helps creators identify revenue opportunities and sort through DMs. CEO Gautam Goswami said creators are "basically chickens with their heads cut off running around all day long," adding that creators have told him 80% of DMs go unanswered.
CTV marketing: AI adoption remains low
When asked about CTV campaigns, 82% of survey respondents said they are not using AI in streaming marketing. That lags far behind other digital channels. "AI adoption in CTV has historically lagged because TV was built on a broadcast mindset, whereas social media was built on data," Brian Albert, YouTube's managing director of U.S. video deals and creative works, said in an email.
Barriers and emerging tools in CTV
CTV has become more addressable in recent years, with advertisers using first-party data, attention signals and contextual intelligence for targeting. Harry Browne, vp of TV, audio and display innovation at Tinuiti, said AI is "starting to creep into the CTV space in a lot of different places," including audience and contextual targeting.
Among the 18% of marketers using AI for CTV, 69% use it for data analysis, and 54% use it for content creation and ad placement buying. Amazon's Complete TV tool offers AI-powered recommendations to optimize spending across Prime Video and other premium streaming publishers. Roku partners with AI companies on creative production within its Ads Manager platform. Sarah Harms, Roku's vp of ad marketing and measurement, said the tools have "helped democratize access to advertising on CTV," but added, "there's a lot of bad AI content out there, and we haven't really seen that infiltrate CTV like it has in the social platforms."
In April 2026, a group of AI researchers, including several Netflix employees, debuted VOID, a tool that can remove objects from video clips and alter scenes. The team wrote that VOID "applies high-level reasoning and world knowledge" to video editing. Cory Treffiletti, chief marketing officer of AI-driven ad tech company Rembrand, noted that barriers to AI in CTV include "fragmented identity resolution and siloed measurement."
Browne said advertisers remain protective of CTV creative. "CTV is the type of creative that advertisers are most precious about. They have the most pride in what they put on the biggest screen in the house," he said. "There is hesitancy to turn that over to an AI creative technology, where if something looks a little bit off, it could make the whole creative fall apart."
Why this matters for marketing professionals
The survey signals a clear divide: marketers are comfortable using AI in data-heavy, fast-moving channels like social media, but they hesitate in areas where human trust and creative quality dominate. For influencer marketing, the data analysis and creator discovery uses of AI are gaining traction without replacing human influencers. In CTV, adoption is slow but tools for targeting and creative production are maturing. Marketing professionals who understand where AI adds measurable value - and where a light touch is needed - can gain an edge as these channels evolve.
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