MMA and Monks Explore What It Takes to Scale Agentic AI in Marketing

New research from Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA), conducted with Monks, examines how large marketing organizations are deploying agentic AI, what prevents them from scaling, and how the 31% of respondents taking a hands-on approach operate differently.

Based on a survey of 100 senior marketers, the research explores adoption across marketing functions, including the level of autonomy organizations give AI agents and the infrastructure needed to move beyond experimentation. A 60-minute session will unpack the findings, focusing on what organizations further along in adoption have built, funded, and measured.

The discussion will examine four constraints shaping the ability to scale: data readiness, workflow connectivity, governance, and funding. It will also provide benchmarks to help marketers assess their progress against peers, from their stage of adoption to deployment across individual functions.

Measurement will be another central theme, particularly the evidence needed to secure investment beyond pilot programs. The session will address why demonstrating incremental lift matters, why teams struggle to produce that evidence, and how measurement can extend beyond time savings to capture business impact.

The research also looks at practices within the hands-on group, including guardrails, audit logs, and dedicated budgets. These findings offer a closer view of the operational foundations supporting more advanced adoption.

Looking ahead, the session will explore respondents’ priorities for the next 12 months, including where they expect to expand agentic AI, which tasks they want to automate, and the barriers still standing in their way.

The survey draws primarily on senior leaders at large companies. Roughly nine in 10 respondents hold director-level positions or above, and more than 80% work at companies reporting at least $1 billion in annual revenue. Additionally, 57% represent organizations with 10,000 or more employees, while 54% report annual paid media spending of at least $25 million; 16% declined to disclose that spending.

With 95% of respondents representing companies headquartered in North America, the findings primarily reflect that market. Results for the hands-on segment are based on 31 respondents and should be interpreted as directional, as they have not been tested for statistical significance.