Marketers are hesitating to bring artificial intelligence into influencer marketing and connected TV, according to new research from D+ Research, Digiday's research arm.

That finding cuts against the industry's loudest narrative. Over the past two years, vendors, agencies and platforms have pitched AI as the answer to nearly every workflow in advertising — from creative generation to media buying to measurement. The D+ Research report shows that, at least in influencer marketing and CTV, buyers are not yet buying it.

The hesitation matters commercially. Influencer marketing and connected TV are two of the fastest-growing line items in brand budgets, and both are channels where vendors have pushed AI tools hardest: automated creator discovery, generated scripts, performance forecasting and audience modeling. If practitioners hold back there, AI vendors face a real adoption gap rather than a marketing problem.

Why does this matter for ad tech and media buyers?

The report lands at a moment when AI adoption claims far outpace verified usage. Trade coverage routinely repeats vendor promises about AI-powered campaign tools. D+ Research pushes back with a simple data point: in influencer and CTV specifically, marketers themselves report reluctance to adopt.

That reluctance signals where the burden of proof now sits. Toolmakers who want budget from influencer teams and CTV buyers will need to demonstrate concrete results, not capability demos.

For operators, the practical read is straightforward:

• Influencer marketing: AI-driven creator matching, content generation and fraud detection remain available, but practitioner uptake lags the hype.
• CTV: Despite the channel's data-rich selling points, marketers have not moved AI into core planning and buying workflows at scale.
• Budget planning: Teams allocating 2025 spend should treat vendor AI claims in these two channels with skepticism until adoption evidence catches up.

What does the hesitation tell us?

Two of adland's most-hyped channels are also two of its messiest. Influencer marketing still struggles with measurement standardization, creator vetting and brand-safety questions. CTV planning remains fragmented across walled-garden platforms with inconsistent measurement. AI tools promise to clean up exactly these problems — and marketers have heard that promise before.

The D+ Research finding suggests buyers distinguish between channels where AI has proven utility, such as search and programmatic display optimization, and channels where the underlying data remains noisy. When the input data is unreliable, marketers appear unwilling to let an algorithm make the call.

It also suggests a procurement reality: many influencer and CTV campaigns still run through boutique agencies, creator networks and platform-direct sales teams rather than large programmatic stacks. AI tooling has historically followed the programmatic money. Channels that sit outside that infrastructure get AI features later, and adopt them slower.

What comes next?

Watch for vendors to respond with case studies, pilot programs and guarantees aimed specifically at influencer and CTV buyers. The gap the report identifies — high AI supply, low marketer demand — is exactly the kind of opening that pricing concessions and free trials tend to fill.

For marketers, the report offers cover to move slowly. When Digiday's own research arm documents hesitation across the buyer base, holding back on AI procurement in these two channels looks less like falling behind and more like consensus practice.

The full findings appear in the D+ Research report, "Marketers hesitate to adopt AI for influencer and CTV marketing," published by Digiday.