A new study from SAS and Coleman Parkes, Marketers and AI: Navigating New Depths, reveals a widening gap in the adoption of Agentic AI, the next frontier in marketing automation. While 51% of marketing decision-makers plan to invest in Agentic AI within the next year, just 21% are actively testing it in live environments, leaving many organizations at risk of falling behind.
Beyond Content Generation
Agentic AI isn’t just about creating content—it makes autonomous decisions, continuously learns, and optimizes campaigns in real time. But scaling it requires a strong generative AI foundation: mature data pipelines, ROI proof points, and a clear strategy. Without this, experimentation alone won’t deliver meaningful results.
The Three Populations of Agentic AI
Marketers fall into three maturity groups:
- Observers: Plan to adopt within two years, but few understand or trust AI.
- Planners: Intend to adopt within the next year.
- Adopters: Already using Agentic AI at scale and reaping measurable ROI.
Key differences between Adopters and Observers:
- Enterprise-wide strategy: 63% of Adopters vs. 25% of Observers.
- Real-time, multi-channel AI use: 42% of Adopters vs. 1% of Observers.
- Full potential utilization: 75% of Adopters vs. 7% of Observers.
- Understanding of Agentic AI: 61% of Adopters vs. 3% of Observers.
“Observers may be running out of time,” said Mike Blanchard, VP of Marketing Technology at SAS. “Adopters are already delivering productivity, efficiency, and better customer experiences—and some are even incorporating quantum computing into their roadmaps to scale further.”
What Adopters Are Doing Differently
Early adopters are deploying advanced use cases such as continuous learning agents (47%) and automated performance reporting (45%), while integrating Agentic AI into broader transformation initiatives rather than treating it as a one-off experiment.
Trust and Governance Remain Key
Despite growing adoption, trust is conditional: 90% of marketers express some trust in Agentic AI, but fewer than 5% trust it fully. Similarly, while 79% feel somewhat confident in their organization’s AI governance, very few feel strongly confident, highlighting the need for robust oversight as autonomous systems expand.
Quantum on the Horizon
Half of Agentic AI Adopters have already incorporated quantum computing into their innovation roadmaps, compared to just 25% of Observers. For many, Agentic AI is not a standalone initiative—it’s a platform for long-term competitive advantage.
The survey included 300 marketers from SMBs to enterprises of 10,000+ employees across diverse sectors, capturing a broad view of the state of Agentic AI adoption.
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