• by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, 2 hours ago

It is earnings season. Over the next few weeks, we will see how the economy is doing. In our industry, key listed businesses across agency holding companies, media companies and tech platforms will deliver an indicator in which direction things are heading. Think Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Omnicom, Alphabet/Google, Amazon, The Trade Desk and WPP. 

Spoiler: They are heading ever further in the direction of AI. Right now, we are in that messy, middle-child phase of AI. We’ve moved past the "Look, it wrote a poem!" novelty stage of generative AI, and according to industry leaders at CES and in recent earnings calls, from Sir Martin Sorrell to  eMarketer, 2026 is officially the year of the agentic workflow.

In other words, we are moving from AI that writes things or answers questions to AI that does things – often autonomously and repetitively. And everyone is all in: Netflix, retail networks, agencies, programmatic platforms, research institutions, and advertisers with in-house capabilities.

This evolution to a tech-dominated world was also reflected in the YouGov Best Global Brand Rankings that came out last week. When I grew up, the top brands consisted of companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Budweiser, Mercedes and Mars. In today’s world, these brands do not feature anywhere near the top anymore. The top 10 now consists of today’s “backbones of life”. And that's why WhatsApp is #1 globally (here is the top 10: WhatsApp, Samsung, YouTube, Google, adidas, Nike, Netflix, Dettol, Colgate and Toyota).

It is noticeable that tech reigns supreme, and fast-moving consumer brands feature hardly at all. This tells us that people today value utility and entertainment over soft drinks or fast food. And I predict that within a year or two, companies like OpenAI and Claude will have made the top 10 as well.

We know that the world is moving in this direction, and it’s all happening fast. However, many marketing orgs are still structured for “the old world.” They have silos for “social," “search" and "creative." They struggle to integrate messaging and touchpoints because they are managed by different departments. They use insights not as a constant feed into action, but as an input into a strategy. And the marketing process is labor-intensive and linear.

Those who are smart have figured out that agentic AI in marketing should be focused on besting these artificial barriers. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in June last year that his automated, AI-powered advertising platform, Advantage+, would fulfill all marketers' needs by the end of 2026—just set your budget, give it to Meta, and you're done. Google, Amazon, and others promise the same. An integration improvement for sure, but they all represent walled gardens, and so integration is still a challenge. But now there's a growing crop of start-ups and agency holding company initiatives promising agentic integration across the platforms.

So we are moving toward full agentic AI-driven automation, both within closed environments and across the broader web. Large-scale use of agents is emerging and growing fast in advertising and marketing.

If your organization remains stuck in rigid silos, you aren't just inefficient; you are becoming incompatible with the very platforms you rely on for growth. The tools are ready to automate your workflow. The only question is whether your leadership is ready to let them do so.