AI adoption in marketing is creating almost as much work as it saves, according to a new report from Optimizely.
The survey of more than 2,000 marketing leaders across seven countries found that the time gained through automation is increasingly being absorbed by the effort needed to check, fix and manage what AI produces — a phenomenon Optimizely is calling the “revision tax.”
According to the findings, more than three-quarters of marketers now spend at least three hours a week correcting AI-generated content, with fact-checking and hallucination review cited as the single biggest driver of that extra workload, ahead of switching between disconnected systems.
The pressure to keep pace is also leading to some uncomfortable shortcuts. A quarter of respondents admitted they often or frquently publish AI content they know isn’t fully on-brand when deadlines are tight, and nearly a third said they pass off AI-generated work as their own original output.
Only a small fraction of marketers — 4 percent — said AI actually saves them time at every stage of their workflow, and just one in five work from a single integrated AI platform rather than a patchwork of separate tools.
The research also points to a widening perception gap between leadership and frontline teams. While a large majority of C-suite respondents believe AI adoption is well aligned across their organisation, only a minority of analysts agree — and it’s those closer to day-to-day execution who feel the brunt of reviewing and correcting AI output.
Notably, senior leaders were also the group most likely to admit passing off fully AI-generated work as their own, at nearly double the rate of managers.
A Growing ‘Sea of Sameness’
Optimizely’s data suggests the strain isn’t just operational — it may be creative. Only 30 percent of marketers believe their brand’s voice is genuinely distinctive anymore, and many worry that heavy reliance on AI is narrowing space for original thinking, with some pointing to a growing “sea of sameness” across brand content.
“AI was supposed to give marketers room to think. What most teams got instead was more to manage,” said Tara Corey, SVP of Marketing at Optimizely, adding that without the right infrastructure, teams end up improvising — from corner-cutting to off-brand output — but that this is a fixable problem.
The study was conducted by Savanta on Optimizely’s behalf between May and June 2026, surveying just over 2,000 marketing leaders across the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Australia and the UAE.
