Marketing Survey 2026: AI Dominates the Marketing Agenda
In the latest marketing survey conducted by marketing-BÖRSE in cooperation with DMEXCO, BVDW, and Horizont, five AI topics ranked among the top 10 most important marketing trends for 2026.
AI still in the marketing spotlight in 2026
By a wide margin, “AI in marketing” ranks first among the currently relevant topics in the marketing-BÖRSE survey.
80.4 percent of respondents see “AI in marketing” as the focus topic for future marketing strategies.
One area within the AI spectrum is growing particularly strongly: conversational AI. With an increase of 15.7 percentage points, this topic has seen the biggest jump in relevance between current and future importance.
The result underscores that dialogue-based systems such as chatbots or AI-supported assistants are increasingly becoming the central interface between companies and customers.
AI content and AI search are changing marketing strategies
The survey also shows how strongly AI influences content and search strategy.
While content marketing was still in second place in the summer survey, it has now dropped out of the top 10. Instead, AI content creation has moved up to third place. At the same time, the topic of
AI search is gaining massive importance and lands directly in second place among the most important trends. In addition, another search topic, the future of search, is in the top 10.
This makes it clear that the central question in marketing is shifting. It is no longer just “How do we create content?”, but increasingly “Where and how is content found in an AI-driven search world?”.
Traditional marketing topics are losing relevance
In addition to the rise of AI in the marketing sector, the results also show a shift in traditional marketing topics.
The decline is particularly noticeable in:
- Storytelling
- Brand Management
- Customer Experience
- Customer Journey
When it comes to storytelling, for example, perceived relevance drops from 79 percent to just 40 percent.
The reason: marketing budgets and resources are increasingly shifting toward AI-supported processes and automation. In addition, companies are placing greater emphasis on scalable performance and efficiency issues.
LinkedIn overtakes email as the most important communication channel
LinkedIn is now the most widely used channel in marketing. According to the marketing survey, its usage stands at 74.9 percent, with email marketing close behind at 71.8 percent.
LinkedIn plays a key role in B2B marketing today—for example, for specialist content, industry analyses, employer branding, and social selling. Many companies now use the platform as an important interface between marketing, sales, and corporate communications.
Despite this shift, email marketing remains a stable component of the marketing mix. The channel remains indispensable for many companies, especially when it comes to lead nurturing, existing customer communication, and marketing automation.
Podcasts, TikTok, and X show high growth rates
In addition to established channels, the marketing survey conducted by marketing-BÖRSE also shows significant growth dynamics for some formats. Particularly striking are channels that are not yet among the most widely used, but feature prominently in the plans of many companies.
The channels with the highest relative growth rates include:
- Podcast: +41.0 percent
- TV: +34.5 percent
- X/Twitter: +32.9 percent
- TikTok: +30.2 percent
In the case of podcasts, the high level of planning in particular indicates their increasing strategic importance: while 25.4 percent of companies already actively use this channel, a further 10.4 percent plan to use podcasts in the future. This suggests a growing acceptance of the format as a marketing tool, especially in the B2B sector, where podcasts are increasingly being used for thought leadership, expert interviews, and industry analysis.
TikTok also remains a channel with growth potential for many companies. With a current usage rate of 23.2 percent, the platform still lags significantly behind Instagram at 60 percent. However, for B2C brands with younger target groups, TikTok is clearly on the watch list of many marketing managers.
Conclusion of the marketing survey: AI is the key driver in marketing in 2026
The results of the marketing survey clearly show that AI will set the marketing-agenda in 2026.
At the same time, the fundamental conditions of marketing are also changing. Online searches are increasingly influenced by AI systems, content production is becoming more and more automated, and platforms such as LinkedIn are continuing to gain strategic importance in the marketing mix.
For companies, this means that marketing success in 2026 will depend largely on how consistently and strategically AI is integrated into marketing processes, content strategies, and communication channels.
Methodology of the marketing survey
The results are based on the winter edition of the marketing trend survey conducted by marketing-Börse, with 2,599 marketing managers participating. The survey examined 80 marketing trend topics and 14 marketing channels.
Participants rated 20 randomly selected trend topics in terms of their current and future relevance. This resulted in 550 to 650 ratings per topic.
The survey was conducted from December 8, 2025, to January 30, 2026, in cooperation with Horizont, DMEXCO, and the German Association for the Digital Economy (BVDW).
