Netcore released its Netcore Agentic Predictions 2026, a data-driven thought-leadership on agentic marketing report outlining how autonomous AI agents will fundamentally reshape marketing, commerce, and growth accountability over the next 12–24 months.
The report positions 2026 as the inflection point where marketing moves decisively from generative AI pilots and proofs of concept to agentic execution at scale.
Drawing on industry research from Gartner, Forrester, McKinsey, Anthropic, HubSpot, and Netcore’s operating insights across global enterprises, the report concludes that consumer agentic marketing in 2026 will be defined by multi-agent systems, Brand Twins, Agentic Commerce, human attention, outcomes-based pricing, and profitability.
Multi-agent systems move from pilots to performance
A core finding of Netcore Agentic Predictions 2026 is the transition from isolated AI assistants to orchestrated multi-agent systems (MAS) that operate across the full marketing lifecycle; content, 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)
- 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 behaviour and business goals in real time.
This replaces fragmented stacks and manual coordination with self-optimising marketing engines.
Brand Twins replace reach with relevance
The report introduces Brand Twins as a defining construct of the consumer agentic era. These are always-on, brand-owned AI agents that deeply understand individual consumers and act on their behalf, moving marketing away from mass outreach toward relevance at scale.
The urgency is driven by attention collapse:
- 73% of consumers skim content, while only 27% engage meaningfully (HubSpot)
- The average human attention span has fallen to 8.25 seconds, lower than a goldfish’s 9 seconds (Samba Recovery)
According to the report, Brand Twins continuously learn consumer intent, preferences, and behaviour, enabling fewer but more relevant interactions. Marketing becomes quieter, more contextual, and increasingly trust-led.
Agentic commerce reaches a tipping point
E-commerce is identified as the first sector to fully feel the impact of agentic AI. Key indicators cited in Netcore Agentic Predictions 2026 include:
- By 2030, AI agents will influence 20% of e-commerce transactions (Gartner)
- By 2028, 33% of organisations will adopt agentic AI
- By 2028, 15% of AI agents will make daily autonomous decisions (Gartner)
The report predicts the emergence of agent-to-agent (A2A) commerce, where brand agents and consumer agents negotiate pricing, promotions, inventory, and recommendations in real time, making commerce dynamic, adaptive, and continuously optimised.
Human attention becomes the ultimate growth moat
As consumers increasingly rely on AI agents to filter choices, the report forecasts a dual-audience reality – humans and AI agents acting in parallel.
This shift elevates attention as the scarcest resource:
- Human attention spans declined from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds by 2013, and continue to compress
- AI agents act as gatekeepers, screening relevance before humans engage
The report concludes that brands capable of appealing to human emotion and agent logic simultaneously will convert attention into loyalty, customer lifetime value, and long-term growth.
Outcome-based pricing replaces martech sprawl
One of the report’s strongest predictions is a structural reset in how marketing technology is priced and evaluated.
The data highlights widespread inefficiency:
- 55% of marketers are dissatisfied with martech cost versus value (MarTech)
- Martech cost sensitivity rose from 37% in 2023 to 61% in 2024
- 99% of marketers underutilise their martech stack
- 40% cannot measure ROI, and 18% report no clear ROI (SalesManago)
- 47% of leaders cite stack complexity as the barrier to realising value (McKinsey)
The report predicts a shift toward outcome-based pricing, where brands pay for measurable results, conversions, revenue, and customer lifetime value—rather than licenses and usage.
The CMO is redefined
As execution becomes autonomous, leadership accountability moves upstream.
65% of CMOs believe AI will fundamentally change their role within the next two years (Gartner, 2025)
Netcore Agentic Predictions 2026 forecasts the evolution of the CMO into a Chief AI and Chief Profits Officer, responsible for orchestrating AI systems and directly owning growth outcomes.
“2025 was about proving that AI works. 2026 will be about proving that it delivers,” said Rajesh Jain, Founder & MD, Netcore Cloud. “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.”
