Budgets are up for 80%

Yep, you read that right. Over 80% of businesses are increasing their budgets for content and creative production in 2026. There’s also a big jump in those expecting “significant increases” in their budgets, up from 19% in 2023 to 29% today. So, is your own creative budget stagnant or reducing, and, if so, why? 

AI is increasing content volume for 75%

AI has increased the volume of content being produced for 75% of organisations. Plus now over half (51%) of businesses say they rely on AI to speed up their content creation, tagging, and organisation. They may be working harder, but are they working smarter? Read on.

More than half still rely on manual workflows

When it comes to content workflows, 54% of organisations still have manual and time-intensive processes in place, compared to 43% who are more mature with mostly standardised and automated ways of working. This is hugely important, as workflow maturity is what drives performance and productivity: teams with advanced workflows are far more likely to see significant ROI increases (48%) than those who are less advanced.

Only 1/3rd are fast enough

One for the hares and tortoises now. Did you know only 32% of marketers can update their content or product information across channels immediately (i.e. in real-time or on the same day). The other two-thirds need a few days (43%) or up to a week (19%). 

The ‘so what factor’? Only 16% of slower organisations reported significant revenue increases in the past year, compared to a huge 65% of fast-acting businesses who saw a big revenue rise. That’s a strong correlation which is well worth remembering.

9 in 10 can’t keep content consistent

The vast majority of teams (88%) say they struggle to keep product content consistent across channels. And 56% still manage product information separately from the digital assets used to market and sell products.

ROI is x4 higher with integrated solutions

We also asked marketers whether their tech stack was integrated or not, then compared this against their content ROI. We found content and creative teams with full connectivity between product content and digital assets were more than four times more likely to have significant improvements in content ROI over the past year, compared to teams without full connectivity (56% vs 13%).

Winning or losing?

Our report has found a clear divide between marketing teams which are AI-forward, fully-connected and realising strong content ROI – and those which are stuck in clunky, low-growth content chaos. But where does your organisation sit? 

These fantastic facts only scratch the surface. Canto has 30 pages of invaluable insights in our State of Digital Content 2026 report. If you’re the sort of marketer who wants to work smarter and better in 2026, then it’s well worth a read.

Canto is the intelligent content hub for more than 4,000 modern brands, unifying brand and product content in one centralised platform and accelerating the content lifecycle with AI. Download Canto’s State of Digital Content 2026 report free now.