• by Carlos Mendez , Op-Ed Contributor, December 13, 2017

The age of machines has been prophesized for years. What was once fantasy is quickly becoming reality and the advertising industry, like others, will be changed forever. Artificial intelligence is already performing traditional human jobs, and it’s doing it better. Advertising professionals that ignore this will most certainly be left in the dust.

To be fair, the industry has not sat by idly while the threat of AI magnifies. Some have invested in chief AI officers while others invested in AI startups via their venture arms. But this only scratches the surface. These changes to the job of advertising will require both a cultural and skill-based shift. Now that AI’s power can be harnessed, here’s where the opportunities still lie:

• Bridging the Big Data gap. As Scott Hagedom, CEO of Heart & Sciences, pointed out, this disjointed relationship remains a critical challenge for the agency model, specifically the gap between creative iteration and analysis. AI can be the savior and it can help marketers and agencies, to be agile by testing design with sophistication and scale. For example, Subway´s creative agency uses a dashboard that in real-time identifies which assets are working best based on colors, sentiment, context and emotions. This is done with the latest AI technology to identify emotions in a person’s face with just an image, and has empowered the agency to generate better iterations of their work. Agencies can own this process, along with the data, and carve out an essential niche in the new world of advertising. 
• Fueling AI with data. AI is fueled by data, but brands around the globe continue to struggle to obtain, store and organize information. This is a current skillset deficiency that will grow exponentially important for marketers of the future. Some agencies have already capitalized on this need. RGA, Anomaly, Sid Lee, Droga5 and many others now offer services that expand beyond creative and include technology support. The challenge now is creating integrated systems that manage real-time data flows and feed into a client’s AI system. This is an opportunity for agencies to capitalize on, though it is no easy task.  Agencies can play a fundamental role in building this pipeline by creating CRM systems, clients web pages, coordinating with sales and metrics analytics systems. Processing this information with infrastructures like Google´s VMs, Pub Sub, Big Query and Kubernetes is also a critically important role.
• Using AI to boost performance. While AI may be able to do your job better, there are many areas where humans still excel. Successfully integrating AI with human work is accomplished by reorganizing personnel structure. Take for example, planners, who analyze people to provide insight to creatives. AI can do this in real-time, with no need to go into the field and wait weeks for the results.

Adapting to this new reality means restructuring roles. Should agencies employ data scientists instead of planners? Or should account managers be able to analyze data and provide briefs based on that data?  

Whatever direction an ad agency chooses to go, it is momentum towards AI that is necessary for survival. Whether embraced or not, AI is here and here to stay. Only learning to work in harmony with it, rather than against it, is the way of the future.