• by Cory Treffiletti , Featured Contributor, September 3, 2025

Fall always feels like a time for the hype of summer to settle down and for things to get back to a sense of normalcy.  As we approach this wonderful time of the year, maybe let the hype around AI dim a little bit, too.  Maybe, rather than talking about AI all the time, let’s talk about why we talk about AI all the time.

When you read about AI in the context of media and advertising, it’s always about three things: speed, efficiency and taking people’s jobs.  A cursory review of the trade press will uncover hundreds of articles that cover these topics, and while it may be correct to highlight these issues, these are symptoms rather than solutions. 

All AI is doing is shining a spotlight on issues that need to be addressed. For example, the ad business is inefficient.  We’ve spent almost 25 years on DSP to DMP integration (no matter what label or acronym you apply, every platform is still simply one of these two) and hands on keyboards are still necessary to execute campaigns. 

Agencies proclaimed efficiency, machine learning and software development to create a competitive advantage, but the reality was, they were staffing the back rooms with entry-level college graduates and working them to the bone on limited pay at extended hours -- all with the promise of free dinners and fun excursions that media salespeople tend to pay for. 

Advertising has always wanted to be a technology business, but at its core it is a relationship business, highlighting the relationship between brand and agency, between agency and salespeople, between publishers and consumers, and between publishers and brands.  It has a cyclical, very co-dependent series of relationships. And we are seeing that AI is disrupting some of these relationships by realizing that there truly is software that fulfills some of what was promised.

The ad business will always succeed because of its central proposition: People love content, and content is supported by advertising.   Back in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, publishers began experimenting with back-end systems that managed their sites, featuring content based on algorithms that matched user interest, searches and more. That was a simplistic algorithm compared to what is being created now. 

As sites become less important, the entire experience you have with media will change.  This phase will be about AI engagement and mobile experiences.  Mobile will still be an important visual medium, augmented with AI, whether it be voice-centric or text-centric.  Behind all of this will be a system of delivery that balances ads with content based on behaviors, popularity, effectiveness and more.  All of this will be done quickly, with no hands on keyboards.

AI will absolutely take some people’s jobs, but it will create new ones that none of us have identified yet. 

Rather than talking about AI, let’s talk about the challenges in the ad business -- and then we can see where AI will help solve them.  That’s where things get really interesting.