The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) today announced the release of the 2026 Canadian Marketers’ AI Readiness Report, revealing meaningful year-over-year progress as Canadian marketers move from experimenting with artificial intelligence to applying it more deeply and responsibly in their work.
Completed in partnership with strategy and powered by twenty44’s proprietary AI readiness platform, the report benchmarks Canadian marketing professionals’ real-world AI readiness and proficiency across four dimensions: openness, knowledge and skills, application ability, and risk and ethics awareness.
The results point to an industry gaining momentum. The overall AI/44 Workforce Assessment Score increased to 51 in 2026, up three points from 48 in 2025, with three of the four dimensions improving year over year.
“Canadian marketers have made meaningful progress in how they use and manage AI over the past year,” said Esther Benzie, president and CEO of the CMA. “We’re seeing greater adoption, stronger skills and much more deliberate approaches to responsible AI use. At the same time, this research gives us a clear view of where the next opportunities lie. These insights will help the CMA continue to support marketers as AI becomes an increasingly important part of the profession.”
Canadian marketers are moving from experimentation to application
Ability to apply AI recorded the largest year-over-year gain, increasing eight points to 52. More than half (51%) of Canadian marketers now use AI at work daily or more often, up from 41% last year.
Marketers are becoming more sophisticated in how they use AI. The proportion reporting only basic use cases (e.g. search, proofing and simple writing) dropped from 38% to 22%, while advanced uses, such as automation, complex analysis and code grew from 19% to 29%.
“Canadian marketers aren’t simply using AI more—they’re getting better at applying it to meaningful work,” said Steve Mast, managing partner at twenty44. “We’re seeing basic usage decline while more sophisticated applications grow. Canadian marketers are already ahead of the average knowledge worker in several important areas. The opportunity now is to build on that momentum with hands-on coaching that helps people apply AI to their real workflows and turn today’s early wins into everyday capabilities.”
Responsible AI adoption is accelerating
One of the strongest positive shifts is in risk and ethics awareness, which increased eight points to 48.
Organizations are making progress on governance and training. The proportion of marketers who describe their organization’s AI policy as “very clear” increased from 26% to 35%. The number of respondents who described training as “very effective” doubled to 24%, and the percentage receiving no AI training fell from 38% to 24%. Hands-on practice and real-world examples are the top-rated factors in effective training, followed by clear guidelines and guardrails and job-specific use cases.
Skills are improving—with a clear opportunity to accelerate
Knowledge and skills increased four points to 52, with Canadian marketers’ prompting proficiency already slightly ahead of the average knowledge worker. Nearly three-quarters of marketers can state a clear goal when prompting AI. The next opportunity is to build greater proficiency in providing context, structuring prompts and using advanced techniques such as iteration and constraints.
Marketers’ confidence in AI’s practical value is also growing. Every major benefit category measured increased year over year, including efficiency and time savings, task automation and streamlining, enhanced content creation, and improved data analysis and insights.
Openness has declined as organizations adapt to the pace of change
AI openness was the only dimension to decline in 2026, falling eight points to 52, which provides a clear signal of where to focus next.
The 2026 Canadian Marketers’ AI Readiness Report identifies four priorities for maintaining the industry’s momentum: strengthen prompting skills, close remaining policy gaps, approach AI adoption as change management, and make training hands-on and specific. Together, the findings show a Canadian marketing profession that has made meaningful progress in just one year—and has a clearer understanding of how to turn accelerating AI adoption into sustained organizational value.
