WARC: Marketers Cooling on 2026 Outlook Amid Budget Pressure, Other Factors.

Marketer optimism for 2026 is easing as shrinking budgets, uncertainty over U.S. trade policies, rapid AI adoption and the dominance of digital channels weigh on planning, according to the latest Voice of the Marketer report from the World Advertising Research Center (WARC).

The annual survey, part of WARC’s Evolution of Marketing program, reflects responses from more than 1,000 marketers worldwide collected between September and October 2025.

“Despite the decline in marketer optimism, it’s worth pointing out that the majority of both brand and agency marketers (54%) still expect next year to be better than this one,” Stephanie Siew, Senior Research Executive at WARC, says in a news release. “However budget expectations are a lot lower, which will heap more pressure on marketers in 2026.”

Aditya Kishore, WARC’s insight director, said a major concern is the tension “between poor macroeconomic visibility and the need to plan for long-term business growth — which is why more than half see short-termism as a major industry concern.”

The report finds 59% of brand marketers expect business conditions to improve in 2026, but only 19% anticipate higher marketing budgets. Those expecting lower budgets are more likely to increase spending on performance marketing (42%) than brand-building efforts (29%), despite WARC’s warning that overreliance on performance tactics can fuel a “doom loop” of faulty metrics and diminishing returns.

Short-termism is emerging as a heightened industry worry, with 55% of marketers citing it as a major concern — up from 25% in 2022.

Economic uncertainty, intensified by U.S. trade tariffs and related policies, is the top concern shaping 2026 planning, the study reports. Three in five marketers (61%) say they are worried about economic conditions, citing the potential for slowed investment, supply chain disruptions, reduced demand and shrinking margins. North American marketers report the strongest impact.

Four in 10 respondents say they are turning to scenario planning to model different economic outcomes and to restructure teams for greater agility.

“We’ve had a lot of uncertainty this year, which has caused volatility... Markets have proven to be pretty resilient up until now; at some stage, that resilience will start to wane,” said Alex Craddock, Chief Marketing and Content Officer at Citi.

WARC reports a sharp rise in concerns about AI disruption. Three in five marketers (59%) say they are worried about the technology’s impact — more than double the share expressing concern in 2023.

Marketers are using AI most often for summarizing large volumes of text (76%), competitor and category analysis (74%) and generating customer insights (60%). But uncertainty persists about AI’s long-term implications for creative workflows, data control and employment. More than a third of marketers (35%) fear AI will replace several human functions within three years.

Agency teams feel the pressure most acutely, with 40% saying AI poses a threat, compared with 30% of brand marketers. Brands, meanwhile, are leaning into AI to scale faster and reduce costs as budgets tighten. In response, agencies are developing proprietary AI capabilities to compete with tech platforms.

Digital platforms will continue to capture the overwhelming majority of ad dollars. WARC Media projects the global ad market will grow 7.4% this year to $1.17 trillion, with 90.3% of spending going to online-only channels. Marketers plan to increase investment in online video, influencer and creator marketing, and social media.

Paid search remains significant, with spending expected to reach $274 billion in 2026. But WARC notes that growth is slowing as consumers shift searches from traditional engines to platforms such as Amazon and TikTok.

Retail media is another area of expansion: one-third of marketers expect to increase spending, while about 28% to 29% still do not invest in the channel.