New Gartner data show that marketers are spending more on acquisition and less on loyalty than ever before

Marketing budgets are increasingly tilting toward customer acquisition and away from retention and AI optimization is accelerating the trend. New data from Gartner’s annual CMO Spend Survey show that nearly two-thirds of media spend in 2026 is being directed toward conversion and awareness, a 10% jump from 2024. Meanwhile, loyalty and retention now accounts for less than 15% of overall media spend, a 29% decrease over the same period. 

The shift is happening fast enough that Gartner is flagging it as a strategic risk because the reasons driving it may be optimizing for the wrong things. 

Why AI is driving budget toward easier-to-measure channels. 

Digital channels are rapidly overtaking offline ones in overall media spending, and AI is a significant driver. CMOs under pressure to show AI ROI are gravitating toward channels where optimization and personalization are easiest to demonstrate, like paid search, programmatic display, conversion-focused social. These channels produce clean data, fast feedback loops, and defensible results. 

The problem, according to Gartner, is that AI optimization is not the same as strategy. Organizations that focus too heavily on channels that are easy to measure and automate may be underinvesting in the touchpoints that actually build long-term customer value. The data support that concern: organizations that direct a larger share of their budget toward loyalty and retention tend to be more AI-mature, suggesting that the brands cutting retention spend in pursuit of AI efficiency may actually be falling behind on AI readiness at the same time. 

The talent investment running counter to the narrative. 

One finding in the survey cuts against the dominant narrative around AI and headcount. Labor accounted for 24.5% of marketing budgets in 2026, up from 21.9% in 2025, meaning CMOs are spending more on human talent even as AI adoption is positioned as a way to reduce labor costs. 

That tension makes sense when you look at the skills gap underneath it. Just 30% of CMOs feel their organizations have the infrastructure to meet their AI goals, and 38% cite a lack of internal AI expertise as a key barrier to achieving efficiency. Hiring is happening because the talent to actually operationalize AI investments isn’t there yet. The tools are available. The people who know how to use them strategically are not. 

The acquisition trap worth watching. 

The broader picture the data paints is one of short-termism driven by pressure. CMOs need to show results. AI makes conversion channels easier to optimize and report on. Budget flows toward what can be measured and defended. Retention—which is harder to attribute cleanly and operates on longer timelines—gets deprioritized. 

The risk is a compounding one. Brands that consistently underinvest in retention spend more on acquisition to replace churned customers, which further reduces the budget available for retention, which accelerates churn. At the same time, the brands investing in loyalty and retention are building the first-party data foundations that make AI more effective over time, which means the gap between AI-mature and AI-lagging organizations is likely to widen, not close. 

For B2B marketers specifically, the retention dynamic is even more pronounced. Customer lifetime value in B2B is typically concentrated in a smaller number of accounts with longer relationships. Losing a retained customer to a competitor is a materially different event than losing a consumer brand transaction and the cost of re-acquisition in B2B is significantly higher than in consumer categories. 

The takeaway. 

AI optimization is a tool, not a strategy and the Gartner data suggests a lot of marketing organizations are letting the tool drive the strategy. The channels AI optimizes best are not always the channels that build the most durable brand value. CMOs who let budget flow entirely toward what’s easiest to measure are likely underinvesting in the customer relationships that compound over time. The brands that figure out how to use AI to improve retention and loyalty will be in a structurally stronger position than the ones optimizing their way toward short-term conversion at the expense of long-term value.