AI impact on advertising jobs

AI Revolution in Advertising

WPP and other companies are launching AI-generated campaigns as Meta, the owner of Facebook, intends to allow businesses to create their own ads. WPP chief Mark Read is stepping down as the agency deals with AI. From utilizing motion capture tech to enable Rahul Dravid to give personalized coaching tips to children, to an algorithm using Shakespeare’s handwriting to power a robotic arm rewriting Romeo and Juliet, AI is quickly changing the advertising industry.

WPP created AI adverts for Cadbury’s Bournvita and Bic, and is spending £300m each year on data, tech, and machine learning to stay competitive. Mark Read has called AI “fundamental” to the company's future while acknowledging it will significantly alter the advertising workforce. Read will leave at the end of this year, after almost seven years as chief executive and more than 30 at WPP, as the company struggles to compete and counter moves by big tech into the AI-driven future of advertising.

The Role of Big Tech

The issue for ad agencies comes from a familiar place. Google and Meta have built tools for publishers and ad buyers, dominating online advertising for over a decade. Big tech took almost two-thirds of the £45bn spent by advertisers in the UK this year. Now, Mark Zuckerberg wants to take over ad creation using AI tools on social media sites, raising fears of the “death of creativity” and job cuts at agencies.

These tools are expected to be rolled out by the end of next year, with Zuckerberg describing them as a “redefinition of the category of advertising.” He said last month that you wouldn’t need creative, targeting, or measurement, other than reading the results, which seems to make much of the ad industry unnecessary.

Agencies like WPP, Publicis, and Omnicom are investing in AI tools and working with tech companies like Meta and Google to retain clients. One ad agency chief executive believes AI will eliminate many jobs but that strategy, consumer insight, and conceptual roles will be safer than production and the realization of ideas.

At the Enders Deloitte conference, Stephan Pretorius, who called himself “WPP’s AI guy,” said that “creativity, in its purest form, remains a human skill.” He claimed AI replaces tasks, not jobs, but admitted agencies need to restructure and client relationships are changing, and commercial models and team structures must change.

WPP announced there would be redundancies globally across WPP Media, formerly GroupM. Another ad agency chief executive said clients expect them to invest in AI so they can cut budgets and ask for fee reductions.

Industry Impact and Future

The AI revolution does not appear to be having a big impact on the UK industry so far. Last year, there were 26,787 people employed in media, creative, and digital agencies, according to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA). The IPA has measured the market since 1960, when there were 19,000 employees. Advertising spending has grown from £60m in 1938 to a forecast of over £45bn this year, according to the Advertising Association/Warc.

Agency heads think major advertisers see too much brand risk in handing over creative to AI, which currently cannot make top-quality ads. One creative agency chief said AI work often looks “glossy, very idealized and slightly plasticky looking” but that this will change. He added that AI will eventually react to conceptual prompting.

Zuckerberg clarified that the AI tools are primarily for small and medium-sized businesses. He said that if you’re working with an agency, you’ll probably continue to do so. But if you’re hacking something together, Meta will be able to create and test thousands of versions of your creative.

Meta and Google believe they have “democratized” advertising by enabling small businesses to run campaigns. One ad agency boss calls this a smokescreen, saying that they now take nearly two-thirds of all UK ad spend.

Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of S4 Capital, called Meta and Google “frenemies.” Patrick Garvey, co-founder of We Are Pi, said Meta’s promise to “auto-generate your ad in seconds” means the production sausage factory is about to be fully mechanised and that it’s the death of outdated agency models. He says Meta’s approach to AI is like the “fast food of advertising.”