Agentic AI in advertising: Are Your Accounts Ready for the Next Tech Wave?

Are media sellers worried that AI technology will take their jobs in the next five years? Our State of Media Sales survey reveals that only 11% of sales professionals have this concern. Two recent reports on agentic AI in advertising show where the industry is and how far it has to go.

How far apart are media companies and advertisers on agentic AI?

Digiday’s State of the Industry Report is all about what “publishers, advertisers and agencies” are doing with agentic AI. And an AdAge report summarizes the AI positioning offered by TV media companies during the recent “upfronts” season. Both reports highlight significant chaos in the industry, underscoring the importance of the human touch during the media selling process.

How are publishers approaching agentic AI?

The purpose of the Digiday research, conducted by Optable, was to identify the use of “autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents to plan, transact and optimize media.”

Some early adopter publishers are “ready and beginning to scale” (18%). Far more are experimenting or moving quickly. The efforts are somewhat disjointed because, as with any new technology, nobody is certain about what is possible yet.

The most prevalent use of agentic AI in advertising so far is for media buying and optimization (70%) and measurement and reporting (58%). Around 47% of publishers are using agentic AI for audience discovery and planning.

Around 29% of publishers actively use AI agents in production. At this point, publishers point out that they can’t yet tackle “technical complexities” or the internal organization when it comes to creating agentic AI.

Ultimately, 44% of the publishers in this study hope the technology will help them find more advertisers.

How are your accounts using agentic AI?

Media buyers are interested in using AI technology to optimize their ad spend. They envision the savings will happen by finding the right audiences and planning better media spending. While they appreciate the time savings found in full automation, they aren’t ready to let programs run autonomously. They understand that a single AI hallucination can negatively impact their brand (63%).

As brands move ahead with agentic AI in advertising, cautiously, 79% see improved performance and increased success of marketing goals.

Some users may build their own tools. Others may sign up for solutions  offered by third parties.

How are TV media companies deploying agentic AI?

The Digiday survey on publishers came out at the same time that AdAge reported on how TV media companies are touting their AI prowess. During the recent TV upfront season, analysts noted that TV media companies like Disney and Amazon wanted buyers to know that they are AI optimized. They hope their new features and capabilities will result in more ad spending commitments.

One interesting offering, from Amazon, addresses the problem of consumers who are sick of seeing the same ad on CTV from a brand. Media buyers who sign up for Amazon’s new Dynamic TV Creative can personalize ads. Viewers will see different calls to action, headlines and product details when an ad is served up multiple times.

The upfront season usually comes with promises designed to encourage buyers to commit funds to specific programming. In the process this year, sellers detailed their agentic AI tools and how they will benefit marketers.

But many buyers came away from the upfront event with the impression that agentic AI tools do not yet offer an “end-to-end solution.”

Conclusion

Agentic AI in advertising is rapidly expanding in the world of media buying and selling. Sellers are pitching. For now, buyers remain cautious. They don’t want to waste their budgets. But they also need to reach their target audiences.

One of the best ways to find that information is with an AdMall subscription. You can show your accounts which media formats make the biggest impression on their target audience. And when you dig deeper, you’ll see the types of TV shows, radio shows and podcasts that the target audience notices.

If you are pitching a new agentic AI in advertising tool, be sure it relates to your accounts’ needs. Be prepared to show them how the tool will assist them in meeting their top goals — which is usually to increase revenue and market share.

Image by Sanket Mishra  on Pexels.