More than 90% of marketers now use AI in their work, but only half are comfortable letting it operate autonomously. That gap between adoption and delegation is the central finding of a new global report from StackAdapt, the AI advertising platform, based on a survey of 500 marketing professionals across EMEA, North America, and APAC plus insights from 187 StackAdapt customers.
The report, called The AI Delegation Gap, found that while AI adoption has become standard practice, marketers are carefully drawing a line between using AI as a tool and trusting it to make decisions. In EMEA, fewer than a quarter of respondents said they are very confident evaluating whether AI is making the right campaign decisions.
Adoption is mainstream, trust is not
AI adoption rates are nearly identical across regions: 92% in APAC, 91% in North America, and 90% in EMEA. Marketers report that AI-driven performance improvements are real. But their willingness to act on AI recommendations drops sharply as the AI's authority increases.
Ninety percent of global respondents are comfortable with AI recommending actions, and 89% support AI preparing actions for human approval. Comfort falls to 78% when AI acts within human-defined rules, and drops to 50% for autonomous AI - even when performance has been proven.
Ryan Nelsen, chief marketing officer at StackAdapt, said: "AI adoption is no longer the question, trust is. Marketers already rely on AI to accelerate workflows and surface insights, but they're also defining where human judgment remains essential, exposing a retreat in trust."
Transparency drives delegation
The biggest barriers to delegating more authority to AI are brand risk (63%), data quality concerns (56%), and lack of transparency (36%). Marketers are more likely to act on AI recommendations when they include clear explanations, connect directly to campaign goals, and offer confidence that actions can be tested or reversed.
AI use cases are also shifting. Reporting and summaries (80%) and performance analysis (74%) remain the most common applications, but marketers increasingly want AI to identify risks, explain performance changes, and recommend next steps rather than simply automate reports.
For marketers looking to build those skills, AI for Marketing training can help bridge the gap between using AI tools and understanding how to evaluate their recommendations critically.
Organisational readiness lags behind expectations
Eighty percent of EMEA respondents feel moderate or strong pressure to increase AI usage, while 53% believe leadership expectations are ahead of their organisation's current readiness. Only 19% of global respondents say their AI tools are fully integrated into marketing and advertising workflows.
That operational gap helps explain the delegation gap. Marketers are being asked to do more with AI before the infrastructure, governance, and confidence are in place to support it.
Nelsen added: "The EMEA market is hungry for proactive intelligence, but it might be grounded in strategic relevance above all else for marketers and brands to hand over the reins. The companies that close The AI Delegation Gap will be the ones that build the governance, confidence and operating models needed to let humans and AI make better decisions together."
Why this matters for marketers
The report suggests that marketers who learn to evaluate AI outputs critically - rather than accepting recommendations blindly or rejecting them outright - will be better positioned as autonomous AI becomes more common. For marketing managers, that means developing a clear framework for when to delegate and when to intervene. AI for Marketing Managers training addresses exactly this kind of decision-making, helping professionals build the confidence to judge whether AI is making sound campaign choices.
The practical takeaway: start with AI in reporting and analysis, where trust is highest, and build processes for testing AI recommendations on low-risk campaigns before expanding its authority.
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