Volkswagen Group

85% of Marketing AI Projects Fail — Not Due to Tech

A Marketing Tech Monitor 2026 survey of around 1,600 decision-makers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland finds AI is a top strategic priority for many CMOs, yet most marketing AI initiatives remain focused on automation rather than transformation. Common use cases are content management (87%), customer-communication analysis (77%) and conversational AI in customer service (71%). External research (Stanford, Harvard) and the DACH survey indicate up to 70–85% of AI projects miss their goals, producing estimated sunk IT costs of over €21 billion in 2026 across the three countries. Causes cited include insufficient functional understanding (56%), weak process foundations, fragmented pilot projects, and organizational barriers. Companies that succeed report higher maturity, end-to-end process understanding, defined roadmaps and prioritized use cases.

Volkswagen Q2 Profit Falls One Third

Volkswagen reported a significant profit decline in Q2 2026, with after-tax profit falling 32.9% to €1.54 billion versus €2.29 billion in Q2 2025. Deliveries across the group fell about 9% to 2.08 million vehicles, while sales in China dropped by more than one third to 424,300 units. The company said it is cutting its sales outlook and plans new cost-saving measures including reviewing up to 50,000 jobs worldwide and four German plants, in addition to previously announced reductions through 2030. The plans have drawn resistance from the works council, unions and the state of Lower Saxony.

Bild, Sport Bild and Welt record digital reach

Axel Springer reports record digital audience and video performance for its sports brands during the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Bild recorded more than 300 million page views across the tournament (doubling traffic versus 2022) and over 30 million video views (excluding autoplay), including a single post-Germany-exit day with more than 30 million page views. Sport Bild reached over 40 million page views and more than 2.5 million video views, tripling its 2022 results. Welt reported 36 million page views (+37% vs 2022) and more than six million video starts. Associated platforms TorAlarm and Transfermarkt also reported record usage and downloads, while several advertisers (Volkswagen, Interwetten, Zalando, Ergo, Hyundai, Ford, Uber Eats) ran video formats around the event.