The growing use of artificial intelligence is impacting almost all aspects of the media and advertising worlds in 2023. Now GroupM predicts AI’s tentacles will impact at least half of all ad dollars by the end of the year.
“Artificial intelligence is likely to inform, or touch in some way, at least half of all advertising revenue by the end of 2023,” says Kate Scott-Dawkins, Global President of GroupM Business Intelligence.
The WPP-owned agency expects AI will do more than disrupt how marketers optimize their media campaigns. It will also usher in a wave of AI-backed startups during the next two to five years.
The agency says the pervasive impact of AI in the ad world means brands will be well-served by having proactive guidelines and the right partners to navigate the changes “so that choices in budget allocation and the use of AI are made intentionally with the long-term health of the business in mind.”
GroupM’s 2023 Global Mid-Year Forecast calls on advertising industry stakeholders to use AI “conscientiously and with appropriate safety measures in place.
“Generative AI is introducing some existential — and legal — questions to the channel,” the GroupM report says. “AI-generated DJs and hosts lead to questions around automation and consumer trust, while AI-generated music will force the industry to address copyright laws in the age of artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, AI has reignited concerns among advertisers about whether digital advertising actually delivers on what Google, Facebook and other tech giants claim it does. “They have reservations about engaging in a high-stakes game called ‘Trust the Robot,’ wherein they relinquish their valuable data and control over how their campaign goals should be achieved to AI systems,” according to a story in Digiday by Seb Joseph and Krystal Scanlon. The big platform companies have each rolled out their own AI-powered ad tools that handle multiple aspects of ad campaign management: Google’s Performance Max, Meta’s Advantage+, and TikTok’s Smart Performance Campaigns.
Advertisers have reservations about handing over their parameters, data and advertising assets to the digital giants, whose algorithms then take control of the advertising optimization process.
“Historically — and to a large extent still — this trust issue is the core challenge Google has faced with their predictive AI tools,” Jeremy Hull, Chief Product Officer at ad agency Brainlabs, tells Digiday. “At Google Marketing Live they announced several welcome features that increase transparency — not as much as advertisers have asked for, but still welcome visibility. Google is walking a tricky tightrope.”