70% of CMOs say AI is their top priority in 2026, but most lack the budget to deliver on it

Seventy percent of CMOs say becoming a leader in AI is a key goal for 2026. Only 30% believe their organization have the budget or infrastructure to get there. The gap between ambition and readiness is the defining tension in marketing leadership right now, and new data from Gartner’s annual CMO Spend Survey puts the numbers behind it.  

The survey, which included 401 CMOs and senior marketing professionals across North America, Europe, and the UK, paints a picture of an industry that’s sold on AI’s potential but still figuring out how to fund and build it at scale.  

The budget reality. 

Marketing budgets have essentially stayed flat, with organizations directing 7.8% of company revenue to marketing in 2026 compared to 7.7% in 2025. On average, 15.3% of those budgets are going toward AI. But companies that are actually scaling AI well are spending more and they’re also receiving a higher share of company revenue to begin with. 

The pattern is clear: the organizations getting the most out of AI are also the ones investing more in it. For everyone else, flat budgets and big AI ambitions are on a collision course. 

The infrastructure gap no one is talking about.

Beyond budget, the survey points to a deeper structural problem. More than half of CMOs say they don’t have the necessary resources to execute their strategy, and only 32% believe they need to update their skills despite nearly two-thirds of marketers expecting AI to fundamentally change their jobs. 

Tool adoption and organizational readiness are two different things, and right now, many marketing teams are doing the former without the latter. 

What this means for where marketing is headed.

The Gartner findings land at a moment when AI investment across the industry is accelerating fast. Platforms are automating more of the execution layer, budgets are being stretched further, and the pressure on CMOs to show AI ROI is only increasing. The organizations that close the gap between ambition and infrastructure will have a real advantage. Those that don’t risk getting stuck in what Gartner calls “AI competency traps,” or spending on tools without the foundation to make them work. 

There’s also a longer-term signal worth watching: Gartner predicts that half of agencies’ proprietary AI platforms will be obsolete by 2029. For marketing teams evaluating where to invest and who to partner with, that timeline matters. Locking into platforms or agency relationships built on AI tools that won’t be around in three years is a real risk, one that doesn’t get enough attention in the current rush to adopt. 

The takeaway.

The AI ambition gap is an infrastructure and investment problem. CMOs who want to actually lead on AI in 2026 need more than a tool stack. They need budget alignment, data foundations, and a team that knows what to do with the technology. The survey data suggests most organizations aren’t there yet. The ones that get there first will be hard to catch.