Why AI in Advertising Isn’t Quite the Game-Changer Agencies Expected (Yet)

Artificial intelligence (AI) has swiftly transitioned from a buzzword to a cornerstone of operations in the advertising world. What was once the domain of speculative debate is now shaping workflows, strategies and creative processes across agencies worldwide. Yet, while its integration is widespread, the focus now shifts to how agencies are experimenting with AI to enhance efficiency and explore new possibilities.

Recent studies highlight the scope of AI adoption in advertising. Foresters ‘The State Of Generative AI Inside US Agencies’ report found that 91 per cent of U.S. agencies are actively using or exploring generative AI tools. In the UK, similar trends are emerging, with 57 per cent of marketers reporting that their organisations have already adopted generative AI tools or are in the process of running pilots. These tools have transformed brainstorming, campaign planning and content creation, enabling creatives to iterate faster and strategists to make more data-informed decisions. Notably, Meta continues to see strong adoption of its generative AI ad tools, with more than a million advertisers using the tools and 15 million ads created with them in August 2024 alone. However, as many leaders in the industry point out, the true value of AI lies not in automation alone but in its ability to augment human creativity.

This dual nature of AI—streamlining the mundane while sparking innovation—is evident in the strategies of agencies like VCCP and St. Luke’s. Both have championed AI-driven platforms that allow for scaled creative testing and real-time consumer insights. Such applications not only enhance campaign effectiveness but also bring the consumer’s voice, like Cadbury’s ‘My Cadbury Era’, into the creative process more seamlessly than ever before. For these agencies, AI isn’t just about doing things faster; it’s about doing things differently.

The acceleration of AI adoption is also fueled by client expectations. A survey from Intuit MailChimp found that 88 per cent of marketers reported viewing AI as essential to staying competitive, agencies are under pressure to deliver AI-powered solutions that meet these demands. As TMW’s MD Emma Norman observes, this dynamic has led to the creation of AI tools within the agency’s Human Understanding Lab, which has unlocked valuable content and driven value for clients. Similarly, earlier this year, Susan Jones, chief digital officer of Diageo, shared with Vogue Business that the company is using AI to drive both productivity and innovation. “We’re using AI to drive efficiency with tools like our own version of ChatGPT and a platform to help marketers comply with our marketing code,” she explained. The result is a deeper collaboration between agencies and their clients, with AI acting as both a facilitator and an enabler.

Accenture's $3 billion AI investment has led to the development of digital tools that enhance efficiency and foster creative collaboration. These tools shift focus from repetitive tasks, enabling teams to think more strategically and innovatively, according to CSO Will Hodge.

Yet, this technological transformation isn’t without its challenges. Some industry voices caution against overhyping AI's capabilities, pointing out that while the tools are powerful, they are far from replacing the nuanced judgment and emotional resonance that human creativity brings to advertising. As Mark Eaves, founder of Gravity Road notes, the true innovation lies in how agencies blend AI capabilities with “bright, restless minds” to push the boundaries of what’s possible. AI might set the stage, but it’s the human performers who steal the show.

In a similar vein, Owen Lee from FCB London highlights that while AI tools significantly enhance research and creation processes, they still cannot replace the essence of human creativity. For Lee and his team, AI provides the efficiency and support needed to focus more on ideation and strategy—areas where human creativity continues to lead. This underscores a recurring theme in the industry: AI should serve as a collaborator, augmenting the creative process rather than attempting to replace it.

Looking ahead, the potential of AI remains vast—and largely untapped. PwC projects that AI could add $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, surpassing the combined economic output of China and India. Whether it’s through enhancing personalization, pre-testing creative concepts, or developing entirely new consumer experiences, AI’s influence is only set to expand. As businesses continue to integrate these technologies, the opportunities for innovation and growth are boundless.

So, has the addition of AI solutions made the profound impact that was anticipated so far? Creative Salon spoke with agency leaders exploring AI integration in advertising.

Will Hodge, CSO, Accenture Song

Over the last year, we have really cycled a lot faster than anybody else. By that, I mean the great promise of gen AI specifically, in terms of where it can drive far greater efficiencies across all aspects of marketing has been something that's a big narrative that's been out in the world for a long time and has been permeating the year. We've got such deep relationships with amazing AI partners [NVIDIA, Nuance, Okta, etc…] and it's meant that we've been able to use and get access to different tools and technologies and apply them to client challenges to see where the true benefits lie.

The truth is, it's not always the most amazing tool to drive efficiency, and actually, what we know at Accenture Song is that it is a brilliant tool when it's in the hands of humans. We've made sure that we've developed an amazing suite of tools that can be used and applied across different aspects of the marketing process and ecosystem.

Gen AI has allowed us to create more space, more time for thinking, discussion, and debate, and that's something that everyone should and will benefit from, I'm sure.

The headline number that's been discussed before from Accenture at a global level, is our $3 billion investment. One of the things we're looking at is developing different workbenches that use different types of digital agents that we develop in partnership with people like Nvidia that means that it's the processes that change and get access to digital agents that allow us to do our work better. So that $3 billion investment runs through from training, which has been a really big focus of ours over this last year, but also in terms of the nature of those partnerships and how we are a leader in the ecosystem around gen AI. A lot of people in our industry have a lot of partnerships with the same types of technology companies, but the quality of our relationships we feel is stronger and deeper given the fact that we can draw on the relationships that already exist within Accenture.

Pip Hulbert, CEO, VML

Yes, I think it’s made a much bigger impact this year than I expected. We now have WPP Open, the world's most diverse dataset across media, performance, client, and industry insights enabling us to enhance decision-making across the entire end-to-end customer journey improving efficiency and effectiveness. What we can do in a matter of minutes is incredible, creative work is becoming more personalised, and we can easily pre-test to ensure effectiveness and increase commercial results.

Helen Bennett, CEO, Weber Shandwick

In terms of our client work, we’ve now embedded AI into how we plan and optimise campaign narratives and messaging, while also using it to protect brand safety, guard against misinformation and pre-empt areas of risk and reward. Knowing what’s around the corner gives us the freedom to unlock bigger, bolder initiatives and creative ideas.

Reassuringly, we haven’t seen the ‘race to the bottom’ of automation that many predicted – yes, it’s allowed us to work at a faster pace and many aspects of our work are now much more streamlined, but the need for inspired solutions to connect and cut-through means the value placed on critical thinking and brave ideas is also higher than ever.

Emma Norman, managing director, TMW

Profound is a strong word! We are definitely seeing big benefits, particularly in our proprietary social listening and data automation tools. But, given the extent of some predictions over the last couple of years, it’s probably important not to overstate the current state of play.

The fundamentals of the business remain the same. But it has offered us some interesting opportunities to play with this new space. We’ve built AI tools within our Human Understanding Lab team for individual clients, which are unlocking valuable content and adding real value to the everyday. The art, as ever, is not losing the human touch and tone in delivery.

I don’t think anyone knows exactly how much AI will shape the industry in the next few years, but having seen a glimpse of the possibilities through our own innovation this year, and being exposed to the sheer scale of investment in this area throughout Accenture, I am confident that all Song agencies are in a uniquely future-proofed position.

Lisa De Bonis, CEO, Huge

We are consistently using AI-powered tools across our operations, from pitching to strategy to creative, with the strong belief that these tools can fuel creativity and innovation, not replace it. But that’s just table stakes. As we mentioned in reference to OLI (and other Intelligent Experiences we have in development), the biggest impact of GenAI is in the development of digital solutions to real-life problems.

Mark Eaves, founder, Gravity Road

I get slightly amused by all the talk about the impact that AI will have on our industry. The big declarations of future investment by the big holding companies keep market analysts happy. Look around. The change has already happened. If the use of Gen AI tools (responsible tools with the proper governance) isn’t already deeply engrained in your company’s creative workflow - and I don’t just mean pre-visualisation, I mean right through to output - you’ve lost ground.

As I’ve said, anybody who is still doing “the everyday” of work in manual ways will get beaten to the finish line by sharper, tech-powered folk.

What this allows is fresh space for bright restless minds with great taste and judgement, thinking irrationally, to use these tools to create all kinds of new ideas and experiences. It’s not just about moving image.

Owen Lee, CCO, FCB London

AI has completely transformed the way we work. All the strategists and creatives are incorporating our bespoke platforms as well as publicly-available tools in their day-to-day, which has revolutionised the way we research, create, and craft, enriching our strategic rigour and giving us more time for creative ideation – the stuff the machine can’t do… yet.

Gareth Mercer, founder, Pablo

Profound is a bit far, but it's certainly had a positive impact. For Wilkinson Sword we were the first in the UK to find a well-crafted and cost effective way to do all of our translations for markets thanks to AI. This is now everywhere which shows you how quickly tech can move. AI has also been vital in many production areas and logistical areas and as many people are finding it is excellent at visualising what's in our weird heads so we can align easier with our clients and partners.

So far AI is a fantastic tool with many capabilities, but it doesn’t threaten the thing we are really good at and hasn’t been sent from the future to kill us. Yet.

Michael Lee, chief strategy officer, VCCP London

It was always a leap of faith (obviously), to proclaim our positive belief that Gen AI could be a springboard for great creative originality, not simply a technology that would automate jobs out of existence. I would say that the profound impact it's had in VCCP hasn't been down to a specific AI solution, but more to the launch of faith and the culture it created across the business. People have embraced its creative potential as a tool rather than feared it, and developed the craft skills to get exceptional results from training the various models we've produced. All the most successful ideas that have emerged from faith, be it Daisy, the O2 Bubl generator, or the Cadbury 200th anniversary poster, all have in common the fact that they would not have been conceived without first knowing what was now possible through Gen AI.

Neil Henderson, CEO, St Luke

Like many transformative technologies, the tendency is to over-estimate the impact in the short term, and under-estimate it in the long term. For pretty much every task we do in the agency, we’ve had a sales call from an AI company promising that their tool can do it better, faster, cheaper.

Sure enough, AI does have a role to play in pretty much every side of the business - for example we’re using it to record meetings, conduct research, analyse, develop strategies, in creative development and early stage concepting. But what we’re finding is that most of it makes agency work more efficient. We can cover more ground, quicker, with the same resource.

That’s important, but it isn’t a game-changer. Where we’re most excited is where we see the opportunity for AI to make us more effective. Not to do things quicker and cheaper, but to do things we couldn’t have done before. So far we’ve discovered two genuinely transformative uses. The first is creative testing at scale, to apply the same sort of rigour that previously was reserved for the big creative assets like TV, to whole full-funnel campaigns. The second is bringing the consumer’s voice into the room in many more stages of strategy development, through AI consumer personas. Doubtless, as the tech matures, we’ll discover more.