65% CMOs expect AI to redefine their roles by 2028, as AI agents reshapes marketing & commerce: Report

Netcore has released its Agentic Predictions 2026 report, forecasting that autonomous AI agents will significantly transform marketing, commerce, and growth accountability over the next 12-24 months. The report identifies 2026 as the tipping point when marketing will move from generative AI experiments and proofs of concept to agentic execution at scale.

A key finding of the report is the shift from isolated AI assistants to orchestrated multi-agent systems (MAS) that operate across the entire marketing lifecycle, including content creation, segmentation, decisioning, optimisation, and insights.

The data points to rapid momentum: multi-agent systems outperform single-agent architectures by 90.2% on complex tasks (Anthropic, 2025); 56% of organisations report improved scalability after adopting multi-agent approaches (Forrester, 2025); 50% of enterprises say MAS adoption creates competitive differentiation (Gartner, 2025); and Gartner recorded a 1,445% surge in multi-agent system-related queries between 2024 and 2025.

The report notes that specialised agents now operate under an always-on orchestrator, continuously adapting to customer behavior and business goals in real time, replacing fragmented stacks and manual coordination with self-optimising marketing engines.

The report also introduces the concept of Brand Twins, always-on, brand-owned AI agents that deeply understand individual consumers and act on their behalf. Brand Twins aim to shift marketing from mass outreach toward highly relevant interactions, addressing the challenge of attention collapse.

According to HubSpot, 73% of consumers skim content, with only 27% engaging meaningfully, while Samba Recovery data shows that the average human attention span has fallen to 8.25 seconds. Brand Twins continuously learn consumer intent, preferences, and behaviour, enabling fewer but more impactful interactions.

E-commerce is expected to be the first sector fully transformed by agentic AI. The report cites Gartner projections that by 2030, AI agents will influence 20% of e-commerce transactions, 33% of organisations will adopt agentic AI by 2028, and 15% of AI agents will make daily autonomous decisions.

It predicts the emergence of agent-to-agent commerce, where brand agents and consumer agents negotiate pricing, promotions, inventory, and recommendations in real time, making commerce dynamic, adaptive, and continuously optimised.

As AI agents filter consumer choices, the report emphasises that human attention becomes a scarce and valuable resource. It also predicts a shift toward outcome-based pricing for marketing technology, highlighting widespread inefficiencies: 55% of marketers are dissatisfied with martech cost versus value (MarTech), cost sensitivity rose from 37% in 2023 to 61% in 2024, 99% of marketers underutilise their martech stack, 47% of leaders cite stack complexity as a barrier to value realization (McKinsey), and 40% cannot measure ROI.

The report forecasts a redefinition of the CMO role. With autonomous execution, leadership accountability moves upstream, and 65% of CMOs believe AI will fundamentally change their role within two years (Gartner, 2025).

Commenting on the report, Rajesh Jain, Founder and Managing Director, Netcore Cloud, said, “2025 was about proving that AI works. 2026 will be about proving that it delivers. As autonomous agents take over execution, marketing’s real constraint is no longer technology - it’s attention, outcomes, and accountability. Agentic systems fundamentally change the equation by making growth measurable, continuous, and owned. This is not a tooling upgrade; it’s a new operating model for marketing.”

Drawing on research from Gartner, Forrester, McKinsey, Anthropic, HubSpot, and Netcore’s internal insights, the report highlighted multi-agent systems, Brand Twins, agentic commerce, human attention, outcome-based pricing, and profitability as defining trends for consumer agentic marketing.