Vast majority of European ad companies use AI tools
85% of European advertising companies use AI tools for marketing, most commonly for targeting (64%) and content generation (61%). Around three-quarters also plan to maintain or increase their investment in AI, a Pan-European survey by advertising industry association IAB Europe shows.
IAB Europe says the result underscores the urgent need for clear frameworks, ongoing training, and responsible deployment.
“By addressing these challenges, AI can become an organic part of daily workflows and unlock a new era of efficiency, creativity, and sustainable growth for our industry.”
The survey comprises close to 100 advertisers, agencies, ad tech companies, and publishers across multiple European markets, with over half completing it in the German language, IAB says.
Key findings according to IAB Europe :
- 85% of companies already use AI-based tools for marketing, with nearly three-quarters confirming at least one campaign function is AI-powered. No respondents plan to reduce spend, and the majority expect to maintain or increase investment.
- Targeting and content generation top the list of AI-powered functions. Ad tech firms and agencies report clear KPI benefits, while publishers remain more cautious, with fewer than a third citing CPM increases.
- While 68% of companies have general internal AI guidelines in place, less than half (43%) have them for marketing and advertising. Only a third of companies receive buy-side guidelines on AI, and in many organisations, governance is either not formalised or rests with a single lead.
- Privacy is flagged as the number one concern across the ecosystem when it comes to the use of AI in digital ad campaigns. Lack of internal expertise and training also stand out as critical obstacles to wider adoption, with differing views on whether user data can be used to train AI models.
- 60% of ad tech firms and 48% of agencies report KPI improvements from AI adoption, but publisher benefits are less direct. Looking ahead, over 80% of respondents say they are interested in buying or selling ad space on consumer-facing AI platforms such as LLM-based chatbots.
“The findings show that adoption in both predictive and generative use cases is widespread, but barriers such as shortages in expertise still need to be addressed”, says the association’s data Analyst & sustainability lead, Dimitris Beis.
“The ecosystem is dealing with questions old and new on issues ranging from privacy to governance, highlighting both that it has been underpinned by machine learning for decades and that new capabilities have transformative potential.”
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