Australian entrepreneurs are grappling with vital maturity gaps, underutilised tech and restructures in opposition to a backdrop of huge AI disruption and financial upheaval, a brand new report has highlighted.
The Digital, Advertising & eComm in Focus 2025 report, charts hanging developments throughout the strategic and technological maturity of manufacturers participating with digital, advertising and marketing and eCommerce in Australia.
The report has surfaced a wealth of arresting key insights from throughout the native advertising and marketing panorama, together with:
- Nearly 75% of Australian manufacturers are both at present resizing their enterprise or are planning to take action sooner or later
- 73% of leaders state their advertising and marketing finances has remained static or been decreased
- 59% of manufacturers are experimenting with or scaling efforts round GenAI and AI extra broadly to drive personalisation
- Solely 19% of manufacturers really feel they’ve semi / sturdy utilisation of their marTech instruments
- Greater than half (53%) of Australian manufacturers self-report lagging behind in buyer and first-party information capabilities
- Simply 14% of Australian manufacturers consider they’re making significant progress in the direction of a unified view of the client
- Solely 4 in 10 leaders agree their manufacturers have clear plans to evolve in keeping with proposed privateness act modifications
- ‘Rising applied sciences’ is now the primary ability hole in advertising and marketing groups
- When evaluating themselves with world leaders, 75% of manufacturers really feel as if their eCommerce maturity lags
- Over half (54%) of respondents have low ranges of belief in retail media networks
Produced by Melbourne based mostly digital, information and eCommerce advisory & consultancy Arktic Fox in collaboration with recruitment agency Six Levels Govt, the examine, now in its fifth 12 months, surveyed greater than 200 senior advertising and marketing and enterprise leaders on the subjects of strategic priorities, buyer expertise (CX), marTech, AI, information & analytics, privateness, expertise, eCommerce, and retail media.
The examine means that whereas most manufacturers are conscious of the important thing developments impacting the broad advertising and marketing and digital panorama, such because the acceleration of generative AI, the significance of first-party information, privateness regulation amendments, expertise challenges, and the rise of retail media, funding and functionality is commonly not at present aligned with such ambitions.
Arktic Fox Founder & Director and report writer Teresa Sperti says this 12 months’s examine painted an eye-opening image of the Australian advertising and marketing and digital trade, set in opposition to a backdrop of rising financial strain, intensifying competitors and shifting buyer expectations.
“We see a number of maturity gaps and lag throughout marTech, information and analytics, buyer expertise and extra,” she says. “We’re additionally seeing a transparent shift in mindset from manufacturers this 12 months round generative AI. Some are shifting past experimentation: re-skilling groups, embedding AI in workflows, and constructing governance to help scale.”
In 2025, there’s a clear shift towards extra emphasis on AI and GenAI
Generative AI is dominating discourse throughout advertising and marketing occasions, social media and the press.
Instruments like ChatGPT, now producing over one billion searches every day, are quickly changing into a part of shoppers’ and professionals’ on a regular basis lives and have created the most important upheaval in search and expertise supply that we’ve seen in many years.
Manufacturers are shifting rapidly to adapt. Within the US, Amazon’s AI device Rufus is reworking how shoppers uncover and store for merchandise. Domestically, NAB is leveraging AI algorithms to match prospects with bankers based mostly on particular person wants.
This 12 months’s report findings replicate this groundswell of AI utilisation intent and adoption, with information suggesting stable experimentation and a few manufacturers beginning to scale AI use circumstances.
The report reveals that 59% of manufacturers are experimenting with or scaling efforts round generative AI and AI extra broadly to drive personalisation efforts. Half of manufacturers are experimenting with GenAI for content material technology, and nearly 1 / 4 (24%) are scaling up efforts right here.
Practically half (49%) of manufacturers are experimenting with utilizing AI for insights technology, with 19% scaling up.
That is additionally mirrored within the expertise manufacturers wish to purchase. After 4 years of information and analytics being considered as the highest expertise hole inside advertising and marketing & digital groups, rising applied sciences has now taken the highest spot.
The chance for progress within the AI area stays appreciable. Presently, extra superior ranges of AI adoption are usually confined to bigger corporations. Simply 13% of leaders consider their organisation is superior in leveraging predictive analytics, with these largely being manufacturers with revenues in extra of $100 million.
“However whereas adoption is rising, most manufacturers nonetheless face boundaries to unlocking AI’s full potential,” Arktic Fox’s Sperti says. “Solely 14% have a mature, unified buyer view, regardless of it being a key funding space. With out sturdy information foundations, efforts to make use of AI for personalisation and expertise supply will fall quick.
“Based mostly on what we’re observing in market, AI utilisation continues to be being pushed by effectivity based mostly performs and while some manufacturers are scaling their efforts extra refined use of AI | genAI for expertise supply continues to be a chance for many.”
First-party information technique lags within the age of privateness compliance
In information, analytics and privateness, the report highlights a widening hole between main organisations in areas of information and analytics vs laggards. Regardless of rising funding in first-party information methods, half of all surveyed leaders (53%) acknowledge that their model’s functionality in buyer and first-party information technique is lagging out there.
On the identical time, 83% of manufacturers rank first-party and buyer information technique as essential or essential to their strategic route over the subsequent 12-24 months.
Growing a unified view of the client topped a listing of funding focus areas, with greater than half of all manufacturers prioritising the unification of information. Id decision, thought-about a key pillar of enhancing the decision of buyer information, stays a low precedence, with solely 25% of these surveyed urgent it as a key space of funding.
This level of distinction is illuminating for Amperity Space Vice President for Australia, Billy Loizou.
“For corporations with over a billion {dollars} in income, unifying buyer information was the primary precedence. Nonetheless identification decision was a a lot decrease precedence,” he says.
“That is actually eye opening since you want identification decision with a view to get to a unified view of the client. With out strong identification decision, personalisation fails and progress stalls. Closing this hole isn’t non-obligatory; it’s a strategic crucial for any enterprise severe about success.”
In terms of prioritising and understanding privateness, the report reveals that almost all organisations stay underprepared for upcoming privateness modifications. Lower than half of surveyed leaders (47%) agree that the Privateness Act modifications are properly understood by the advertising and marketing and/or digital staff.
Moreover, simply 4 in 10 leaders agree their manufacturers have a transparent plan to evolve in keeping with the proposed privateness act modifications. Beneath half (48%) of leaders consider their govt group understands the significance of adapting and sees it as a key technique precedence to handle how privateness is managed.
One other hanging stat, as talked about, is that simply 14% of manufacturers consider they’re advancing of their endeavours to construct a unified view of the client. That is significantly noteworthy as we anticipate a unified buyer view to be a major driver for funding in these sorts of options.
Commenting on the info, Arktic Fox’s Sperti notes that whereas manufacturers have invested closely in first-party information and marTech, many aren’t seeing the return.
“Too usually, unifying information turns into the tip aim whereas activation and perception technology are missed,” she says.
“So there’s a disconnect between ambition and realisation. Knowledge activation and alternative identification, must be constructed as capabilities, if manufacturers are in a position to actually mature of their buyer information technique endeavours and that functionality needs to be constructed past one or two people.”
Expertise strikes in the direction of composable, better of breed options, whereas utilisation falls quick
Wanting on the state of the advertising and marketing expertise device stack in Australian organisations, the report cites a number of developments impacting the sector. These embody AI adoption, increasing device units, a shift away from monolithic platforms towards composable, best-of-breed stacks, and a shift towards constructing homegrown options.
Insights counsel that manufacturers need to make most of what they’ve already obtained, with 51% of manufacturers targeted on sweating the property and implementing the tech they’ve procured, versus shopping for extra tech or consolidating it. 23% of manufacturers plan to obtain and put money into new marTech while 18% plan to consolidate, a recurring pattern which reinforces that manufacturers are underneath strain to ship ROI and show worth.
Whereas 49% of manufacturers agree they’re underneath strain to show return and worth from marTech platforms, utilisation stays low; simply 19% of manufacturers really feel they’ve semi or sturdy utilisation of their marTech instruments.
Arktic Fox’s Sperti says it’s clear from these figures that utilisation stays a serious problem for a lot of manufacturers.
“Our analysis reveals those that lean in the direction of extra versatile, composable stacks (76%) report higher uptake and utilisation of their marTech, which is why we’re seeing a shift away from monolithic, single-vendor options,” she says.
“The pull in the direction of single-vendor options is commonly from IT which suggests the actual problem is aligning IT with the broader technique. Too usually, tech staff selections for marTech are made for consolation, price and management, not functionality and influence for the tip customers.”
Jaye Vernon, Space Vice President for cloud-based buyer engagement platform Braze, notes the criticality of getting a associate on the desk that brings an evidence-based perspective to assist form technique and drive tangible enterprise outcomes.
“The manufacturers that lead are people who align cross-functionally, interact prospects within the moments that matter, and deal with each interplay as a chance to construct belief,” Vernon says.
“Taking it a step additional, these which are specializing in making human, responsive engagement not simply attainable however sensible at scale is what units profitable CX methods aside.”
Concerning the report
The web survey behind the report was performed between February and April 2025. Respondents labored in industries together with retail, FMCG, client items, prescription drugs, monetary companies, not-for-profits, manufacturing, schooling, skilled companies, and extra.
The analysis was produced with the help of three key sponsors: cloud-based buyer engagement platform Braze, buyer information cloud platform supplier Amperity, and product expertise administration platform Salsify.
The complete report, which incorporates many extra insights, statistics and charts, in addition to insights from trade leaders, is now obtainable for obtain by clicking right here.
About Arktic Fox:
Arktic Fox is an advisory, consulting and studying organisation partnering with leaders to higher exploit alternatives within the digital, information and ecommerce area and drive profitable and sustainable outcomes within the digital age. Go to their web site or LinkedIn web page to search out out extra concerning the 2025 examine to realize worthwhile insights about learn how to steer your model by means of these unsure instances and trade challenges.
