Canva has published research showing that most UK marketing leaders plan to increase spending on AI. It also found that British consumers are more accepting of AI in advertising when it makes adverts more useful or relevant.

Based on a survey of marketing leaders and consumers across seven countries, the report points to a widening gap between the speed of AI adoption in marketing teams and the care brands must take to maintain consumer trust. In the UK sample, 92% of marketing leaders said they already use AI in everyday creative work, while 98% expect to increase their AI budgets.

That uptake reflects pressure on marketing departments to produce more content with limited resources. More than half of UK marketing leaders surveyed said AI now acts as a “director” within their teams, while 31% described it as a “collaborator”.

Many marketers also reported practical benefits. The findings show that 94% save at least four hours a week through AI use, while 28% save more than eight hours. Another 63% said AI had increased marketing-influenced business decisions.

Trust gap

Consumer sentiment was more mixed. While 71% of British consumers said they do not mind AI in adverts if the result is more helpful or relevant, many also said current AI-generated advertising lacks originality and emotional depth.

Seven in ten UK respondents said AI-generated adverts are missing their soul, while 64% said such adverts are so obvious they are laughable. The findings suggest consumers judge advertising less by how it is made than by whether it feels authentic.

That tension runs through the report. Although many consumers accepted a role for AI in making ads more relevant, 82% said they would still rather see adverts made by people, even if AI could improve them. Another 91% said the best advertising still requires a human touch, and 72% said they would be more likely to buy from an advert created entirely by humans.

There was also concern that the growing use of AI could make brand communications look increasingly alike. In the UK, 76% of consumers said the future of advertising will look and feel like the same AI-generated output. Among marketing leaders, 36% said so-called “AI slop” was already a considerable challenge.

Human role

The study found broad agreement that some parts of marketing remain difficult to automate. UK marketing leaders pointed to empathy and emotional intelligence, brand intuition and creative judgment, and the human imperfections that can make work feel original as areas AI cannot replace.

That view may explain why many executives do not see AI as removing the need for creative staff. Eighty per cent of UK marketing leaders said they expect creative roles to grow over the next five years, with greater emphasis on imagination, judgment and direction rather than routine execution.

Age also shaped consumer attitudes. Among Gen Z and Millennial respondents, 72% said they pay more attention to the vibe of an advert than the method used to create it. Three quarters said they do not mind AI polish as long as real people are featured.

Even so, personalisation remains a sensitive issue. Nearly a third of UK consumers said it becomes too personal when an advert seems to know what they are about to buy before they have searched for it. A larger 63% said they do not want brands using AI to predict what they want.

Calls for rules

The findings show strong demand for clearer rules on how AI is used in advertising. More than three quarters of British consumers said they would feel more comfortable with AI-generated adverts if formal company policies governed their use.

There was also a clear expectation that AI-made advertising will soon become harder to identify. The survey found that 86% of UK consumers believe it will one day be impossible to tell whether an advert was made with AI unless the brand discloses it. Most expect that point to arrive within a few years.

Consumers were also specific about what would improve trust. The most common answers were data protection, disclosure of AI use, guarantees that AI is not replacing jobs, and the ability to opt out of AI-generated adverts. A large majority also said they would like a form of privacy control that lets them decide how personal adverts should become.

Emma Robinson, Head of B2B Marketing at Canva, said the issue for brands is not whether AI belongs in marketing but how it is managed. “AI has changed how marketing gets made, but not what makes it effective. Speed and scale matter, but they don’t build trust on their own. The opportunity isn’t only producing more content. It’s building smarter systems where AI drives efficiency while brand governance and creative judgment protect what makes a brand distinctive,” Robinson said.

The survey covered 1,415 marketing leaders at organisations with more than 500 employees and 3,547 consumers across the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, Japan and India. In the UK, the sample included 200 marketing leaders and 509 consumers.