Being spun by industry sources -- especially ad
agencies positioning themselves as being an "industry-first" -- is nothing new for trade journalists like me, but lately, the claims have become AI-powered, literally.
So when I received two
pitches -- days apart -- this week from two agencies claiming to be the ad industry's first end-to-end AI agency platforms, I did what I increasingly do these days: I turned to some AIs.
Specifically, I asked four AI chatbots I subscribe to -- OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini, and xAI's Grok -- to vet the claims using the same prompt: "Which was the first
end-to-end AI agency platform."
I'm not claiming the bots are the most authoritative sources on the subject, but they are super fast at giving results, and given the semantic "industry-first"
claim, I figured they're as good a source as any.
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Interestingly, they didn't agree, although they ostensibly were searching the same -- or at least similar -- online information sources they
were trained on.
Veylan, which issued a press release on Monday asserting the claim, was cited as "industry-first" by two of the AIs: Claude and Gemini.
The Brief, which issued its press release this morning, was cited by one: Grok.
AgencyOS, which RevHealth announced July 30, 2024, was cited by
one: ChatGPT.
Needless to say, like all industry-first claims, this one is difficult for me to personally vet, so apologies for citing some AIs.
For what it's worth, I prompted each
one of them with the same follow-up question: "How many end-to-end AI agency platforms are there today," and the responses fell on a spectrum from a handful to a laundry list (Grok's, which came with
a meaningful discussion about what defines an "end-to-end AI agency platform."), though all of them pointed out the "definitional" challenge of the claim itself.
I'll just leave you with
Gemini's, because I think it was best encapsulated:
The Quest for the "First" AI Ad Agency
Identifying the "first" AI ad agency is a nuanced historical question. The roots of AI in
advertising can be traced back to the 1990s with the advent of data-driven marketing and programmatic advertising, which used algorithms to automate ad buying.
However, the modern conception
of an AI ad agency -- one that utilizes machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI for creative and strategic tasks -- is a more recent phenomenon. While no single agency can definitively
claim the title of the absolute first, a few pioneers and key moments stand out:
Early Innovators: Companies like Cognitiv, founded in 2015, were among the first to
build their services around deep learning for advertising.
The AI Creative Director: A significant milestone occurred in 2015 when McCann Japan appointed an AI,
named AI-CD β, as a creative director.
The "AI-First" Wave: In more recent years, a new breed of agency has emerged that explicitly brands itself as "AI-first."
Industry-Specific Pioneers: We are also witnessing the rise of specialized AI agencies.
In conclusion, while the exact number of "AI" ad agencies remains
elusive due to the widespread and varied adoption of artificial intelligence, it is clear that AI is no longer a niche specialization but a fundamental component of the modern advertising
industry.
Similarly, while a single "first" is difficult to name, the history of AI in advertising is marked by a series of innovative companies and groundbreaking experiments that have paved
the way for the AI-driven landscape we see today.