Europe’s digital advertising trade body has captured AI’s awkward in-between stage: broad adoption, rising spend, and a rulebook that is still half-written.
The headline gap
IAB Europe’s second annual Impact of AI on Digital Advertising Report, published at DMEXCO on September 24, 2026, finds 86% of respondents use AI for marketing. Only 48% have AI guidelines written specifically for advertising and marketing.
The gap runs deeper. 78% have identified a formal owner for AI governance, but fewer than half have channel-specific rules. Investment is moving up: 72% of those answering report higher general AI investment in 2026 than in 2025, and 59% are raising spend on AI marketing technologies. Yet respondents rate AI’s current performance in advertising operations at 2.76 out of 5.
Security now ranks as the number one AI-related concern, with privacy second, reversing the 2025 order. Skills remain the main barrier, cited by 42%.
Why the sample size matters
The study is based on 50 respondents, down from 95 companies in the 2025 edition. Several headline figures rest on smaller bases: the 72% investment number is 21 of 29 respondents, and the 2.76 performance score comes from 21 individuals, according to Market Radar. No external research agency is named.
So this is directional, not a precise picture of the European market. The shift from 85% adoption in 2025 to 86% in 2026 is not a measurable change because the samples are not comparable.
Meanwhile, 38% of respondents are still assessing the EU AI Act’s impact, a reminder that the legal calendar is moving while many teams are still forming a view.
Agentic buying: promised before it is deployed
The most talked-about finding is that 58% expect agentic ad buying to reach operational use or scale within a year. But current deployment is thin: 36 of 47 respondents have no agentic system running day to day, or still have people directing it.
Size divides the sample sharply. Among those answering, 86% of organisations with 501 or more staff report their most advanced production agentic system at Level 2 or above, versus 48% of smaller firms. IAB Europe’s Dimitris Beis put it plainly: “ambition remains ahead of practice in areas such as agentic trading.”
What to do about it
- Use the 58% expectation vs low daily deployment as a buyer’s checklist for agentic tools.
- Write ad-specific AI rules before you scale, not after.
- Treat every percentage here as a pressure point, not a market share.
With 62% of respondents wanting industry guidance on AI marketing, the market still needs frameworks more than another tool.
Source: PPC Land
