Artificial intelligence has rapidly become part of the everyday marketing toolkit, transforming everything from creative development and campaign measurement to analytics and customer engagement. Drawing on two nationwide surveys of more than 200 U.S. advertisers and agencies, this new ARF study explores where AI adoption stands today, which tools marketers rely on most, how organizations are validating AI outputs and the governance practices emerging as AI becomes central to marketing operations.
Member Only Access
As generative AI becomes increasingly integrated into research workflows, what does "human in the loop" actually mean? This latest installment in the ARF and MSI's Psychology of Gen AI series explores how researchers and large language models can work together to develop rigorous research designs—and why human judgment remains indispensable throughout the process. By comparing multiple AI-generated experimental designs and refining them through expert evaluation, the study demonstrates that AI is most valuable as a collaborator that expands possibilities, not as a replacement for methodological expertise.
Member Only Access
Marketers have access to more data than ever before, yet many still struggle to answer the most important question: Did the marketing effort truly make a difference? And if so, how? Lots of metrics exist. So, is collecting more metrics the best approach to evaluating true impact? In this guest article for The Advertising Club of New York, ARF Senior Director of Research & Insights Tracy Adams argues that the future of measurement isn't about collecting more metrics—it's about integrating multiple approaches to build a more complete, decision-ready understanding of marketing impact.
Member Only Access
Retail Media Networks (RMNs) have become a cornerstone of modern advertising, but measurement practices across networks remain inconsistent and difficult to compare. This new ARF study examines 16 major RMNs to uncover how advertising assets, attribution systems, incrementality testing and closed-loop measurement are actually implemented in practice. The findings reveal that while reporting dashboards may appear unified, the underlying measurement systems often rely on disparate sources of retailer data, platform reporting, modeling and privacy-safe integrations. The report offers practical guidance for advertisers evaluating retail media investments and highlights the growing need for industry-wide measurement transparency and standards.
Member Only Access
