Remember when AI was fun?
It wasn’t that long ago. AI in advertising was the shiny new tool everyone was talking about. It could write copy, create images, analyze mountains of data and help agencies do things that once took hours, or even days, in minutes.
It was exciting.
Then, seemingly overnight, the conversation changed. Suddenly, AI wasn’t the amazing new tool that was going to transform our world. It was going to destroy it. AI was going to take everyone’s job. It was developing a mind of its own. It was creating its own path without humans. Before long, we were only a short step away from I-Robot.
Okay…maybe that’s a little dramatic.
But the concern isn’t completely unfounded. AI is changing the advertising business, and it’s changing it quickly. So perhaps what the industry needs right now isn’t another prediction about the end of the world. Maybe we need a reset.
AI in Advertising Isn’t Going Away
Here’s the reality: Advertising agencies aren’t wondering whether they should use AI anymore.
They’re already using it. According to Forrester and the 4A’s, nine out of ten U.S. marketing agencies now use generative AI, while half use AI agents for marketing execution. The most common applications include creating content, developing media and SEO strategies, research and improving internal productivity.
And the adoption isn’t slowing down.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau reported in September that 69% of marketers are using generative AI in media campaigns. Even more interesting, 86% of advertising buyers said they are changing, or expect to change, how they measure media performance because of conversational AI and AI agents.
That’s not an experiment anymore.
That’s an industry changing in real time.
Where AI Helps Advertising Agencies
There are some pretty obvious reasons agencies are embracing AI. AI can help with research. It can sort through enormous amounts of information, identify patterns, summarize findings and help teams get to the starting line faster. It can help with creative development. A creative team can explore dozens of concepts, headlines, images or approaches before deciding which ideas are worth developing. It can help with media. AI can analyze performance, identify opportunities and automate certain campaign decisions. And it can help with all the stuff nobody really wants to spend their day doing.
That’s important.
If AI can take some of the repetitive work off someone’s plate, that doesn’t necessarily make the person less valuable. It can give that person more time to do the work that actually requires experience, creativity and judgment. That’s where I think we need to change the conversation.
The Human Part Still Matters
Advertising has never been just about producing more stuff faster. It’s about knowing what to say, why to say it, who needs to hear it and how to make them care. AI can help answer some of those questions. But it doesn’t automatically understand a client’s business, a customer’s emotions, a company’s history or what makes one brand different from another. And there is another concern worth paying attention to: efficiency cannot become more important than creativity.
Forrester has specifically warned that agencies’ focus on productivity and cost savings can come at the expense of creativity and differentiation. That may be one of the biggest lessons of this AI moment. If every agency uses the same tools, asks AI to produce the same kind of work and accepts the first answer it receives, the result isn’t better advertising. It’s just more advertising.
So, Is AI Good or Bad for Advertising?
I don’t think that’s the right question.
A calculator didn’t eliminate the need for people who understand mathematics.
Computers didn’t eliminate designers.
Digital cameras didn’t eliminate photographers.
The tools changed.
The people who learned how to use the tools changed with them.
Advertising will do the same.
There will be jobs and responsibilities that change. Some work will be automated. Agencies will have to rethink how they staff projects, price services and demonstrate value. Those are real changes—not science fiction. But the industry isn’t disappearing. In fact, McKinsey’s 2026 research found that three-quarters of advertisers surveyed expect AI to increase total media spending, while more than half said AI has already reshaped how consumers discover and consider products.
That’s not the picture of an industry preparing to shut its doors.
It’s the picture of an industry adapting.
The Real Question
Maybe the future of advertising isn’t humans versus AI. Maybe it’s humans who know how to use AI versus humans who don’t. The real advantage may belong to the person who knows how to ask the right question, recognize a bad answer, improve a mediocre idea and bring human experience and judgment to the final product.
AI can generate an idea. It can generate 100 ideas. But somebody still has to decide whether any of them are good ideas. That’s not the end of advertising. It’s the next chapter.
So maybe we don’t need to panic about AI. Maybe we just need to learn how to use it…And use it well.
78Madison I.T. Team
78Madison is a full-service marketing communications firm and advertising agency located in Winter Springs, Florida, near Orlando. We help businesses develop smart, strategic brands and bring them to life through advertising, digital marketing, web development, social media, and other communications channels. Interested in a conversation? Contact Joe Bouch at jbouch@78madison.com.