AI Brand Agent, an intelligent assistant that can analyze brand data and guidelines to generate custom insights, predict trends, and recommend content strategies tailored to each client's unique brand identity -- launched this week from Mod Op, a full-service digital marketing agency.

This launch is the first in a series specializing in specific tasks. Brand Agent changes the way creative teams at agencies access and apply the brand’s information about its products and services.

Predictive analysis will become the most interesting part of AI in advertising, especially for mobile. Eric Bertrand, CEO of Mod Op, says AI does not just automate processes -- it enhances human creativity and strategic thinking in ways that weren’t possible before.

The new Mod Op Brand Agent chat runs in a web-based user interface that only Mod Op employees can access. There is not an app, but the chat interface is an application. The trend will lead companies to take many of these services to mobile, similar to Google and Microsoft.

Google in early March introduced a feature called AI Mode in the mobile search app, which now appears in its desktop search engine. Last week it enabled multimodal search capabilities in the Google app for Android and iOS devices, combining visual and text inputs.

Turkish startup Boby.ai received $1.25 million to build AI-powered mobile apps from London Venture Partners. It is one of many companies that is gaining financing. 

Worldwide downloads of generative AI apps nearly reached 1.5 billion last year, according to Sensor Tower, and IAP revenue from those apps has grown considerably, from $9 million in 2021 to $1.27 billion in 2024.

ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and ByteDance’s Doubao were the most-downloaded apps in the category last year, per the report.

The two combined technologies — AI and mobile — will be used to capitalize on device and services for advertising, and a report published by Zibtek, a Utah-based custom software development company, estimated the duo to reach $251.1 billion by 2033, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.6%.

Zibtek’s report suggests that 61% of businesses gain a competitive advantage using AI and mobile, and 59% see revenue growth mainly because AI drives predictive analysis, personalization, automation, and engagement. Using AI-enabled recommendation engines, Netflix and Spotify boost engagement rates of over 80%.

It’s interesting when thinking back to the turn of this century. Advertisers were beginning to talk about the year of mobile.

There was not just one “year of mobile” for advertising. The industry experienced significant prominence as the rise of smartphones and mobile internet access led to a surge in mobile ad spending in the early 2000s. That evolved to include in-app ads and other formats. 

We’re witnessing the same thing with AI. Reported use of AI increased in 2024. In the latest McKinsey survey, 78% of respondents said their organizations use AI in at least one business function, up from 72% in early 2024 and 55% in 2023.