Kantar vs SurveyMonkey

Kantar Study: Marketers Invest in AI, Consumers Skeptical

A new Kantar study, 'Media Reactions 2026', reveals a significant gap between marketer investment in AI and consumer trust. While 75% of marketers plan to increase ad spending on AI assistants in 2027, only 23% of consumers trust product recommendations from AI. Additionally, 62% of marketers expect generative AI to play a central role in brand recommendations, yet only 32% of consumers use AI assistants to research brands and products. The study also highlights growing uncertainty among marketers: only 57% believe their company has the right media mix, down from 64% the previous year. Kantar's new Ad-Equity ranking shows Google, Amazon, and YouTube leading among consumers, while marketers favor YouTube, Instagram, and Google. The study also notes a shift toward micro- and nano-influencers, with 66% and 61% of marketers planning to increase investment in these segments, respectively.

• 75% of marketers plan to increase ad spend on AI assistants in 2027.
• Only 23% of consumers trust product recommendations from AI.
• 62% of marketers expect generative AI to play a central role in brand recommendations.

AI Deepens Marketing's Measurement Paradox, Kantar Finds

At The Drum Live, measurement experts discussed a paradox: marketers have more data than ever, yet confidence in using it is declining. Kantar previewed research showing declining confidence among 800 senior marketers globally, accelerating over the past year. AI is both a contributor and potential solution, but panelists warned that AI only works as well as the data it's fed. Fragmentation and self-serving platform metrics exacerbate distrust. The consensus favors incrementality and outcome-based measurement over last-touch attribution and surface metrics. Organizational alignment on success definitions is critical. The shift also highlights the short-term vs. long-term balance, with confidence in this balance dropped from 60% to 50% in a year. Preparing measurement systems with proper data taxonomy and C-suite ownership is essential for AI readiness.

• Kantar research (survey of 800 senior marketers) shows declining confidence in media mix and data use, accelerating over the past year.
• 97% of executives believe data volume has outgrown their capacity to connect and understand it.
• Marketer confidence in balancing short-term performance and long-term brand building fell from 60% to 50% in a year.

Kraft Heinz creator strategy: brand effectiveness over engagement metrics

At The Drum Live, Kraft Heinz, Google, and Kantar discussed the evolving creator marketing landscape. Kantar's analysis of 15,000 creator activations found that platform metrics like likes and views align with brand effectiveness only one in three times. Will Cooke of The Kitchen @ Kraft Heinz emphasized focusing on 'uncommon creativity' and giving creators a meaningful role, as seen in the successful Flavours campaign. Google's Khalid Almashgari highlighted creators as a gateway to cultural relevance and announced Open Call, a tool connecting creators with brands. The session stressed the importance of clear briefs and measuring success against marketing objectives rather than short-term engagement.

• Kantar analyzed 15,000 creator activations and found platform metrics align with brand effectiveness only one in three times.
• Kraft Heinz's 'Flavours' creator film outperformed all other content metrics in the past 18 months.
• Google mandates a 50:50 split of creator and brand assets in paid media, resulting in a 2X year-on-year increase in brand lift.

Brands revive human-staffed phone lines amid AI fatigue

Amid growing consumer frustration with AI customer service, several direct-to-consumer brands like Sproos, Made In, and Trade Coffee are reintroducing human-staffed phone lines as a differentiator. A SurveyMonkey study found that 79% of Americans prefer human interaction over AI agents. These brands report increased customer loyalty and deeper insights into customer journeys through phone conversations. The trend highlights a backlash against over-automation and a strategic move to blend human touch with digital efficiency, with some brands even training staff to provide expert advice and sharing call insights with marketing teams.

• 79% of Americans strongly prefer interacting with a human over an AI agent (SurveyMonkey study).
• Sproos, a DTC showerhead brand, launched a human-staffed phone line on Sundays through Fridays, receiving about 30 calls per day.
• Made In cookware operates an AI chatbot but also maintains a phone line, with staff using FaceTime and Zoom for customer assistance.

EU AI Act Disclosure Rules Shape Customer Service Bot Decisions

This CMSWire article examines how brands should determine when to use AI versus human agents in customer service, citing MIT research showing human-AI combinations often underperform the best human-only or AI-only systems. Consumer studies indicate a strong preference for humans in high-stakes interactions, but acceptance of AI for transactional tasks. The EU AI Act Article 50 transparency obligations, effective August 2, 2026, require clear disclosure when interacting with AI. The article argues that transparency, when done well, builds trust and can expand AI's role over time. It offers a framework based on friction, conditional preference, transparency, and frontline knowledge to guide where AI should handle interactions, emphasizing process redesign over simple task reassignment.

• EU AI Act Article 50 transparency obligations require clear disclosure when interacting with AI, effective August 2, 2026.
• MIT Center for Collective Intelligence reviewed 106 experiments and found human-AI combinations underperformed the best human-only or AI-only systems on average.
• Metrigy's 2025-26 consumer study found 84.7% prefer human agents, but 46% will use AI for specific transactional tasks.

SurveyMonkey announces 40 #1 rankings in G2’s Fall 2026 reports

SurveyMonkey announces 40 #1 rankings in G2’s Fall 2026 reports August 27, 2026