Report uncovers 3 truths reshaping marketing: Brands struggle to break through the noise, personal AI agents are the new gatekeepers, and technology consolidation is accelerating

Cordial, the leader in messaging for enterprise retail marketing teams, releases “Brands Battle for Attention as AI Redefines the Funnel,” a comprehensive research report revealing that brands are not prepared to effectively engage with consumers as they rapidly adopt personal AI agents throughout the marketing funnel. The report combines the survey results of 1,000 U.S. consumers and 30 marketing executives in the summer of 2025.

• Learn more about the battle for attention in Cordial’s report.

For years, brands have relied on a “louder is better” philosophy: The more touch points and messages, the better. But not anymore. The counterintuitive truth reshaping marketing: As volume has increased, marketers are struggling to break through the noise, with consumer fatigue and declining engagement.

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“We’re in a fundamentally different marketing landscape than we were just months ago,” said Rob Garf, Head of Strategy and Insights at Cordial. “Consumers are more connected and shopping is more fragmented. AI has upended the traditional funnel as consumers increasingly embrace personal agents to discover and purchase products. Brands must break into these walled gardens by optimizing their data, AI, and channels for a seamless and personalized experience wherever a consumer chooses to engage.”

One-third of consumers now regularly use AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude throughout their shopping journey, with Millennials and Gen Z leading adoption at rates 33% and 11% higher than average, respectively. Yet despite this growing consumer behavior, nearly half of all brands (47%) maintain minimal or no AI agent presence, while only 7% have developed comprehensive AI optimization strategies. This disconnect represents a massive blind spot.

Marketers themselves see the importance of these AI agents — ranking them high in channel importance — even as brands fail to keep up. In an attention economy where 90% of organizations plan to increase their marketing channels over the next three years, the brands that master AI agent discoverability will not only gain a competitive advantage but also secure their position in a transformational marketplace.

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Generic communication adds to the noise. While executives estimate only 22% of their messages are truly personalized, a widening performance gap reveals where brands fall on the marketing maturity curve. The culprit? Technological fragmentation — with organizations juggling more than five disparate marketing applications, and 60% expressing low confidence in their customer data.

Only 3% of brands, overall, have the ability to predict what customers actually want by leveraging behavioral data in real time. While “Basic” and “Emerging” brands remain trapped in siloed operations and declining performance, “Optimized” brands have achieved full integration across data, AI and channels to enable personalization in real time and at scale. This elite cohort reports consistently growing performance while fragmented competitors battle stagnant results, enabling personalization in real time and at scale.

As 33% of organizations plan martech consolidation by 2028, the message is clear: In the battle for attention, the brands that synthesize their technology stacks to yield harmonious, AI-driven experiences will do more than improve their relevance rates. They’ll separate themselves from the noise makers.