Week of August 3, 2026
AI writes the email, a human still grades it
When it comes to measuring email performance, most marketers are still working without AI in the loop.
46%
46% still analyze their email performance manually. Only 1 in 10 runs a hybrid setup that blends platform AI with their own tools.
Source: AI Lab webinar survey
“Analysis is the easiest gap to close and, frankly, the one I care about least closing myself. I'd rather let AI build the dashboard and analyze performance so I can re-invest the extra hours into making sure the copy still sounds like a brand or person who respects our reader's inbox.”
Katherine Kim, Senior Content Marketing Manager, ActiveCampaign
Analysis
What the numbers actually mean.
Marketers trust AI to write, not yet to measure.
Nearly half still analyze email performance by hand, and only 1 in 10 blends platform AI with their own tools. eMarketer reports the same tilt, with marketers reaching for AI first on creation tasks and leaving analysis largely manual.
Measurement is the last part of the job AI reaches.
Writing is quick and low stakes, so it went first. Interpreting the numbers and deciding the next move takes judgment, and that's the part marketers hold onto. It's the same shape as the maturity data, where Validate is what teams build last, which suggests this isn't an email quirk but how AI adoption tends to move.
The measurement gap is the easiest one left to close.
Grading by hand is slow, and it's usually where a campaign stalls between one send and the next. Handing AI the read, not just the draft, is what closes the loop between writing something and improving it. That makes the marketers still doing analysis manually the clearest near-term upgrade on the board.
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More data from the AI Lab.
