Episode 549 What the AI Impact 2026 Research Reveals with Emily Thompson

Apr 12, 2026

Emily Thompson, marketing manager at CoSchedule who led the AI Impact 2026 study, shares findings from a 900‑respondent look at AI in marketing. She highlights surprising optimism about AI despite declining channel ROI. Conversation covers how marketers use AI now, why owned channels are suffering, and where agencies can step in to guide strategy and prompt design.

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INSIGHT

Marketers Are Bullish On AI Despite Falling ROI

Marketers remain optimistic about AI despite reporting declining ROI across channels.
79% said AI positively impacted their performance even while they reported tighter results and oversaturated content in 2025.

INSIGHT

AI Use Is Mostly Content Creation

Usage is concentrated in safe, surface-level AI tasks like content creation and generative images.
73% use AI for content creation, 45% for generative images, and only ~10% use personalization or predictive analytics.

INSIGHT

Lead Generation Beats Thought Leadership In 2026

Lead generation is the top 2026 priority, pushing short-term revenue over long-term brand work.
Almost 50% listed lead gen as their top priority while thought leadership ranked very low.

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Welcome to another episode of Build a Better Agency! Host Drew McLellan sits down with Emily Thompson, marketing manager at CoSchedule, to unpack the just-released AI Impact 2026 research study. With 900 respondents spanning every industry, company size, and marketing level, this is one of the most comprehensive looks at how marketers are actually using AI today and what they plan to prioritize in the year ahead.

Despite reporting declining ROI across every major channel in 2025, a striking 79% of marketers say AI positively impacted their performance, and yet only 3% consider themselves AI experts. Emily and Drew dig into what that gap means for agencies, why owned channels like organic search and email are taking the biggest hits, and why the oversaturation of AI-generated AI research content is actually one of the strongest arguments for what agencies do best. The data is full of contradictions that agencies are uniquely positioned to help clients untangle.

From the surprising stat that 53% of marketers now use AI tools (not Google) as their primary source of information discovery, to the finding that AI research shows humans still own strategy, this episode is a masterclass in reading the room on behalf of your clients. If you want to know where the real agency opportunity lives in 2026, this conversation is where to start.

A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.

What You Will Learn

Why 79% of marketers feel positively about AI even as ROI declines across every channel
What the AI research data reveals about how marketers are actually using AI in 2026 vs. 2025
Why only 3% of marketers consider themselves AI experts and what that means for agency opportunity
Which channels are declining most and why owned media is taking the biggest hit
Why lead generation is the top 2026 priority and why marketers channel choices do not yet match that goal
How 53% of marketers now rely on AI tools over Google for information discovery
Why differentiation (not AI adoption alone) will determine agency success in a saturated market
What it means to be your clients AI Sherpa and how to position that as a core offering