Sixty per cent of brands will use agentic AI to facilitate streamlined one-to-one interactions with customers by 2028, shifting traditional channel-based approaches and ushering in a new era of personalised, autonomous engagement.
That’s according to boffins at Gartner, which states that these AI agents will act as persistent digital concierges, seamlessly spanning marketing, sales and support to create hyper-personalised experiences.
“This marks the end of channel-based marketing as we know it,” said Emily Weiss, Senior Principal Researcher in the Gartner Marketing practice. “Marketers must prepare by putting strong data governance in place, tracking customer journey changes weekly, and integrating agentic systems into martech stacks to enable secure, ethical personalisation at scale.”
In fact, by 2027, Gartner believes brands will allocate 50% of influencer marketing budgets to content and creator authenticity initiatives.
These will include identity verification, content provenance checks, and anti-deepfake measures, with the goal of optimising engagement and monetisation in AI search environments.
This shift is driven by the surge in AI-generated content and the growing visibility of social-originated content in search results. A Gartner Consumer Community survey of 335 U.S. consumers, conducted in October and November 2025, revealed 78% of consumers say explicit labeling of AI-generated content is “very important” or “the most important factor” in maintaining trust.
“Trust is now the most valuable asset in influencer marketing,” said Weiss. “Brands should adopt clear labeling conventions, invest in third-party verification tools, and monitor creator engagement quality to ensure transparency and compliance as AI-generated content becomes mainstream.”
“These predictions signal a fundamental redefinition of marketing—from channel-based strategies to AI-driven personalization, and from engagement metrics to trust metrics,” added Weiss. “The brands that act now will lead the next era of marketing. Those who delay risk falling behind as technology and consumer expectations evolve at unprecedented speed.”
Photo by Joyce Busola on Unsplash
