• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, January 24, 2024

Transformation. Change management.  Business Realignment.  These are terms thrown around daily in today’s technology industries as companies react to changing market conditions after years of hiring and spending to maintain growth in the wake of a global pandemic.

These terms typically accompany a round of layoffs or restructuring, and with them comes a heavy weight of stress and anxiety.  If you survive these changes, you are gifted with an increased workload and the promise of future growth.

The problem is, these changes have been nonstop for the last six years in the ad-tech industry, dating back to pre-pandemic times when people were already worried about a market correction.

Some people like change.  Some people don’t.  I personally thrive on it, but only because I am at peace with some of my more OCD tendencies and to me, change means something new to focus on and envelop my never-settled brain.  Still, even I get tired of change when it is thrust upon me.  When you’re in the driver’s seat, change can feel manageable because you are in control.  When you’re in the backseat and forced to live with the change, it can be hard to digest.  You never feel settled.

This last year was a difficult one for many people, but I think 2024 is going to be a bit more relaxed and comfortable.  My rationale for that is simple: Politics and AI are going to be the stories of the year, and strangely enough these will be comfortable for the industry of advertising as a whole.   Let me explain.

An election year is typically a boon for advertising because of the political money flooding into the market.  That creates demand and higher prices for advertisers, which helps the ad-tech businesses to do well.  This year is going to be a hotly contested election with both sides being forced to spend a lot of money. There may even be money flooding in to simply persuade people to vote, since some people may choose to sit this one out, unfortunately.  Those dollars will deliver revenue save jobs and keep these companies afloat into 2025.    

AI was the story for 2023 as it became a means of reducing workforce and creating efficiency.  In my eyes, the cuts related to AI were reactionary, with companies using them as an excuse.  Most companies could not have feasibly integrated AI into their stack and reduced workforce that quickly.  No, these cuts were in the works already and this year, many companies will truly be integrating AI into their platforms in way that will create more efficiency as they head into 2025.

I believe that most cuts have already taken place, and now it is about using the AI to get ahead of those cuts and create new opportunities.  I don’t think ad tech will be creating a mass number of jobs in 2024, but I do think the jobs already here are safe.  The industry needed to have a correction, and that has now happened.

This could be a year of growth for the business as it finds ways to take that influx of spend from politics without creating new jobs that would be in jeopardy the following year.

Yes , 2024 is looking to be a good one, with less stress and anxiety, and more confidence in the market for advertising and marketing.  Maybe this will be the year of less “change management” and more “efficiency unlocking” for corporate America.