AI in Marketing: The Current Figures

For the first time, a majority of companies in Germany with 20 or more employees use artificial intelligence. Marketing and communications rank among the most common fields of application. That is the result of a representative Bitkom survey from September 2026. For marketing teams, the numbers are worth a closer look.

How far has AI come in marketing?

57 per cent of companies in Germany with 20 or more employees use AI. A year earlier the figure was 36 per cent, and in 2024 it was 20 per cent. This comes from a representative Bitkom survey, for which Bitkom Research questioned a total of 603 companies in summer 2026. Among the companies already using AI, 54 per cent use the technology in marketing and communications. Only customer contact is more common, at 72 per cent.

The share of companies using AI thus rose from 20 per cent in 2024 to 57 per cent in 2026. At the same time, more companies rate AI as the most important technology of the future: 91 per cent, up from 81 per cent the previous year and 73 per cent in 2024.

What do marketing professionals themselves say?

A second Bitkom survey adds assessments from marketing practice to the usage figures. For the study on marketing trends, published in February 2026, 180 companies from the Bitkom network were surveyed online between late October and mid-December 2025. The survey is not representative. 84 per cent of respondents see AI as one of the trends with the greatest influence up to 2027. 67 per cent are convinced that marketing without AI will no longer be successful in the future.

In late 2025, 51 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that generative AI already takes over large parts of creative marketing work. The assessment also covers creative tasks such as drafting texts and images.

Where do companies actually use AI?

The September survey shows the fields of application. At the top: areas with direct customer contact. The figures refer to companies that already use AI.

Customer contact

72 per cent of companies using AI deploy the technology in customer contact. Processing and classifying enquiries are applications within it.

Marketing & communications

54 per cent of companies using AI apply it in marketing and communications. Texts, images and campaign management are example tasks.

Training

70 per cent of companies offer AI training to their employees.

Future technology

91 per cent consider AI the most important technology of the future (2024: 73 per cent).

What is slowing things down?

A lack of skills can make AI deployment harder. In the marketing study, 52 per cent of respondents agree with the statement that marketing departments often lack the skills needed to use AI sensibly. Which obstacles dominate in an individual company depends on its starting position.

The number of training offers does not reveal how confidently employees use AI in their daily work. Building skills requires not only money but also working time for training and practical application.

What does this mean for brands?

The usage figures show how widely AI has spread. They do not measure how much marketing work is automated. 67 per cent of respondents consider AI a prerequisite for successful marketing in the future. For your own planning this means: examine which tasks offer a proven benefit from AI, and factor in the training needs.

We use AI in producing videos, music, texts and images, connecting several work steps in the process. Before each use, we define which task AI should take over and by which criteria we check the result. In this we advise companies that want to introduce AI applications.

Frequently asked questions

How many companies use AI in marketing?

Among companies with 20 or more employees that already use AI, 54 per cent use it in marketing and communications. The figure does not refer to all companies (Bitkom, September 2026).

A majority using AI already?

In the Bitkom survey from summer 2026, a majority of companies with 20 or more employees reported using AI for the first time. The share rose from 20 per cent (2024) via 36 per cent (2025) to 57 per cent (2026).

Is AI already doing the creative work?

In late 2025, 51 per cent of respondents in the marketing survey agreed that generative AI already takes over a considerable part of creative work (Bitkom, published February 2026).

The basis is a representative Bitkom survey of 603 companies with 20 or more employees (published 14 September 2026) and a non-representative survey of 180 companies from the Bitkom network (published 12 February 2026). Both original sources are linked in the text.