It’s no secret that AI has made many rapid changes in various industries, including marketing and advertising. How will advertising agencies and budgets look in the near future? 

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has said that AI will handle everything by the end of 2026, once Meta is told an objective and budget. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, believes that 95% of the work of agencies will be handled by AI in the very near future. Recent date shows that over half of consumers worldwide want an AI-improved experience for finding products and services faster. Whether or not these predictions are accurate is a matter of debate. Analyst Yory Wurmser thinks that while AI will manage much of lower-level advertising tasks, agencies will still have a role to play, especially with higher-level functions and tasks.

Agencies are shifting towards data ownership and technology consulting to provide data insights and expertise in M2M (machine-to-machine) advertising.

But will so much AI automation lead to less ad spending? Or will savings on ad spending result in an investment in more advertising? Analyst Wurmser thinks reinvestment in more advertising is likely. He believes that better advertising efficiency and targeting will result in an increase in digital ad spending.