Singapore— A new global study finds a significant gap between the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in advertising and marketers’ confidence in using it effectively, particularly in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
According to a MiQ-led report, 72% of marketers across 16 countries plan to increase their use of AI in the next 12 months, but only 45% are confident they can successfully apply AI.
In APAC, Singapore leads the adoption rate, with 51% of marketers using multiple AI systems for marketing, while in Thailand, 62% of workers report integrating generative AI into their personal and professional tasks. Japan also showed high confidence in their knowledge (51% fully confident), but has been slow to adopt, with only 66% planning to further leverage AI.
Additionally, larger businesses in Australia are more likely to adopt AI, with 82% of organizations with 200 or more employees using AI tools and 21% applying AI for marketing automation.
However, despite increased adoption, reliability gaps remain. In Singapore, only 38% of marketers have sufficient confidence in their team’s ability to optimize performance against key marketing KPIs, while in Thailand, only one-third believe they have the right measurement systems in place.
Globally, 38% of marketers say they don’t have enough training on AI tools, and 40% report that their organization doesn’t fully understand AI or large-scale language models (LLM).
Meanwhile, measurement practices vary by region, with Australian marketers relying heavily on proxy metrics such as website visits, bounce rate and session duration (49%) alongside engagement metrics. In Singapore, 55% use engagement metrics like click-through rate and social interactions alongside financial metrics like ROI and ROAS. Thai marketers also focus on financial metrics (46%), while Japanese marketers focus on web traffic (49%). However, less than half of marketers in these markets feel that their measurement systems adequately track performance against the right goals.
Globally, social media management (40%), marketing automation (39%), and customer engagement (38%) are the most common applications. Among these, regional differences are clear. In Australia, visual design tools (39%) and social media management (38%) are the most widely used. In Japan, content creation (46%), visual design (38%), and ad creative optimization (37%) are the most common. Singapore focuses on consumer behavior and purchase journey applications (29% each). Thailand emphasizes targeting strategies along the customer purchase journey (31%).
The report also identifies a 27 percentage point gap between AI usage and readiness, suggesting there is an opportunity for marketers to enhance training, integrate AI into performance measurement, and deploy connected partner-agnostic solutions to increase reliability and effectiveness.
Jason Scott, MiQ JAPAC CEO, “While Southeast Asia is emerging as a transformative region when it comes to AI adoption, this study shows that levels of trust and adoption in AI vary.Challenges center around knowledge gaps and measurement.”
He added: “In Singapore, for example, only 38% of marketers have sufficient confidence in their team’s ability to optimize their performance against marketing KPIs, one of the lowest results in the survey, while in Thailand, only 38% of marketers have sufficient confidence in their team’s ability to optimize their performance against marketing KPIs, while in Thailand Only one-third strongly believe they have the right measurement systems in place to measure their performance, which is also one of the lowest scores in our survey. This speaks to how few marketers are completely confident in their abilities and tools.”
Jordan Bitterman, MiQ Chief Marketing Officeralso added, “We find that most marketers are stuck in the early stages of the trust curve. We are at the beginning of a journey that will ultimately move us all up the trust curve by applying AI to many of our mission-critical operations. Usage currently exceeds readiness by 27 percent, and we believe this is a genuine opportunity. To close the gap, industry leaders must leverage tools and training.”
Overall, the findings highlight that while AI adoption in advertising is accelerating, many marketers still lack confidence in the early stages, and highlight the need for improved training, measurement frameworks, and human oversight to realize AI’s full potential.
