Hamburg – October 29, 2026 -- 41 percent of communications leaders already have at least half of their content created by or with the help of AI, yet fewer than half regularly check whether their measures work. This is according to the IMPACT Study 2026 by PER Group, based on a survey of 300 decision-makers.
70 percent of executives plan AI-majority content within five years
Today, AI is used mainly for personalized customer outreach (31 percent) and to increase communication volume with target groups (28 percent). Looking ahead, 70 percent of communications leaders plan to produce more than half of their content with AI within five years.
Only 15 percent coordinate AI systems for complex tasks
Communications departments show a skills gap in agentic AI. Just 15 percent of leaders use coordinated AI systems that can carry out complex tasks.
Social listening leads internal analytics skills at 41 percent
Departments already hold several building blocks for impact-oriented AI use: social listening (41 percent), predictive analytics (30 percent) and attribution modelling (26 percent).
PER Group Managing Director Roland Heintze argues that these tools alone do not change outcomes. In his view, AI makes content cheaper and faster to produce, which raises output but creates a risk to impact, since more texts, posts and personalized content say nothing about changed perceptions or behavior. He says maturity will be judged by the quality of decisions that technology enables, not by the number of AI tools deployed, and calls for an "Impact Architecture" aligning strategy, data, processes and technology.
Survey covers 300 executives at DACH companies with 500+ staff
The representative online survey polled 100 board members and managing directors (C-level) and 200 decision-makers from marketing and corporate communications. All work at companies with more than 500 employees in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.