Ad Agency Trends 2024: How Agencies Plan to Use AI

This is the time of year that everyone weighs in on what they think the next year will have in store for us. Unsurprisingly, artificial intelligence is on everyone’s minds. Some see AI as a source of good while recognizing it has its downsides as the technology advances. Agency leaders around the globe have their opinions as to where AI will take us in the future, especially as it applies to workflow, brands and marketing, and several shared their thoughts and predictions with Adweek. Stevie Archer, chief creative officer of SS+K AI was front and center in 2023 because of the novelty. In 2024, fewer ideas will be about AI but more of them will actually be made possible by AI. It will become the tool, not the point; the means, not the end. We’re already using it for ideation and pitches, and we’re just scratching the surface of what it can enable.” Jill Applebaum, chief creative officer of Public Inc. We’ll see bigger creative bets that utilize AI. The most creative among us are already scheming. Second, I believe we’ll see a tonal shift to comedy. The darker the world feels, the harder people want to laugh. Lastly, we’ll see brands spend more of their budgets talking about their social impact. Apple invested massively in “Mother Nature” to showcase their sustainability and subsequently in “The Lost Voice” to promote an accessibility feature. We all know that Apple is an industry bellwether and that Gen Z wants to know what brands are doing to make the world a better place. Anastasia Leng, CEO and founder of CreativeX The good news? Speed and cost of content creation will decrease, and the floor for decent bearable ads should too. The bad news? If we struggled during the last few years of content proliferation, it’s time to buckle up—as volume increases by 10 to 100 times, brands will experience quality and decisioning bottlenecks due to there being more content than there are people who can review and approve it. The irony? AI can be applied to solve the problem that AI is generating, building content QA systems that automatically check content for everything from digital suitability to brand consistency and more to ensure that even the ads the robots make for you are aligned to your brand and your existing creative learnings. Rob Kottkamp, chief creative officer of Partners + Napier AI will shift from an experimental trend to an essential tool embedded within the art and advertising world. It’s a force multiplier that will allow creatives to explore new paths and open new lanes of opportunity. Some will resist AI, or use it to cut corners, assuming the risks that will follow. The creative entities that will be most celebrated however, are the ones that begin to openly integrate these tools into their creative process, using them to craft creative ideas that seamlessly blend the talents of both man and machine. Regardless of the approach, our work will be scrutinized more than ever and our industry will have to level up across all disciplines to maintain relevance. Monica Ho, CMO of SOCi AI is enabling marketers to evolve their roles in organizations by streamlining workflows and enhancing efficiency. While AI is a powerful tool, it still requires human oversight. For example, we’ll see content creators transition into more of an editing and curation role, collaborating with AI to easily produce content that resonates with target audiences. Meanwhile, roles like SEO managers will integrate AI as a core responsibility, leveraging Generative Search Experience technology for improved search visibility and user experience, ensuring efficient and effective strategies. This relationship between AI and human expertise will define the future of marketing roles. Stacey Wade, CEO and executive creative director and Dr. Dawn Wade, managing partner and chief strategy officer, Nimbus The rise of AI has helped optimize the day-to-day operations of industries across the board. While there has been a lot of backlash from inherent bias to “cheating at work,” there is also a lot of opportunity to responsibly use this technology from a marketing perspective. This technology also is not going anywhere so we foresee marketing professionals evolving and leveraging these tools to create a more efficient way of work. However, we cannot ignore the biases that inherently come along with its use. As marketers, there is a responsibility to serve as a filter when using AI outputs to ensure we are not unintentionally contributing to the discrimination of marginalized communities and risk being a victim to cancel culture as a result of being tone-deaf. So although these tools are essentially going to help us progress within our industry, it is still up to us leaders creating these campaigns to ensure that the final campaigns that we are creating for our clients do not fall victim to AI’s shortcomings. Marketers’ Gen-AI Priorities for 2024