This article was originally published in February 2025 and was last updated June 12, 2025.
- Tension: Advertising professionals fear that AI will strip their work of value—but also realize they can’t stop the algorithmic wave.
- Noise: Industry headlines fixate on job losses and doom‑and‑gloom creativity obituaries, masking the real transformation underway.
- Direct Message: Mastering AI in advertising isn’t about resisting automation—it’s about reclaiming creative authority over machines.
To learn more about our editorial approach, explore The Direct Message methodology.
Just four months ago, in early February 2025, Sir Martin Sorrell—founder of WPP and executive chairman of S4 Capital—outlined a clear message: artificial intelligence is not just another tool in advertising—it’s a fundamental disruptor.
Drawing attention to platforms like Meta’s Advantage+, which generates over $20 billion annually through AI-automated media buying and creative services, Sorrell argued that traditional agency structures must evolve or risk becoming irrelevant.
By June, he had reaffirmed that clients are increasingly reallocating marketing budgets toward AI-enabled solutions.
While this shift introduces uncertainty for conventional roles, Sorrell’s view is not entirely pessimistic—his own firm, S4 Capital, continues to invest in integrating AI to enhance, not replace, human creativity.
But today’s reckoning isn’t meant to scare; it’s a wake-up call. As AI shifts from novelty to norm, understanding what it really means—not just what it does—is vital.
Beneath the disruption lies a deeper opportunity: to reclaim creative leadership, shape new client-agency dynamics, and balance machine-driven efficiency with human insight.
What It Is / How It Works
AI in advertising spans two main domains:
- Media planning and buying systems employ programmatic algorithms that optimize ad placements in real time. Sorrell draws parallels to financial markets: “BlackRock or Blackstone… do they do things manually or semi automatically?” He adds bluntly that “media planners” of old are facing obsolescence.
- Creative generation tools—using generative AI—can produce images, video, copy, and entire campaign assets at scale. Tech giants like Meta are launching platforms where marketers can simply set objectives, connect billing, and let AI “spit out” a fully formed ad.
The result? Faster, cheaper output—personalized at scale—but with significantly fewer hands on deck. Agencies are pivoting: humans validate algorithms, engineer prompts, and focus on differentiators no AI can replicate.
The Deeper Tension Behind This Topic
At an existential level, the industry is wrestling with its identity. Advertising professionals have long equated creativity with job security and cultural capital.
Now, the very foundations—media strategy, art direction, copywriting—are being automated. Sorrell says the shift will “completely gut” what goes on in media planning, and Meta’s Zuckerberg is even talking about delivering ads without needing creative, targeting, or measurement teams.
But behind this disruption lies an opportunity: to redefine what advertising is. Is success measured in headcounts and hours? Or in unique insights, brand resonance, and ethical delivery?
Those brave enough to reframe their work stand to emerge not obsolete, but indispensable.
What Gets in the Way
Two misleading narratives muddy the waters:
- Media anxiety and creative pessimism: Headlines suggest AI is killing creativity—a narrative popularized by Mark Read, WPP’s departing CEO, and echoed by The Guardian’s “death of creativity” stories. But this oversimplifies the nuance: as Sorrell notes, creative skills still matter more than ever when personalization and scale collide.
- Tech triumphalism: Platforms imply that AI alone can handle everything—from ideation to billing—so why bother with humans? Meta’s vision (generate objectives, pay, and done) ignores essential questions about client goals, brand context, and ethics
These voices perpetuate fear or hubris, instead of pushing toward a balanced, human‑centered vision.
The Direct Message
Creativity isn’t disappearing—it’s being refocused. The power will shift from execution to orchestration, from manual labor to creative leadership.
Integrating This Insight
From Fear to Framing
Stop viewing AI as a job‑threatening beast. Reframe it as an amplifier—capable of freeing your time from repetitive tasks, so you can shape strategy with depth and nuance.
Human + Machine is the New Benchmark
Advertisers must cultivate creative orchestration—the ability to guide AI systems toward meaningful outputs. As Sorrell says, “if everyone is producing personalized ads at scale, how do you differentiate?” The answer lies in human creativity, even in prompt design.
Embrace New Roles
The “marketing prompt engineer” is emerging in some agencies. These hybrid roles pair domain knowledge with technical fluency—steering AI while embedding brand values, ethical guardrails, and real-world context.
Redefine Value Models
As AI cuts costs, agencies need to pivot from hourly billing toward outcome-based pricing or value-focused models. MediaLink reports that output-based pay tied to AI-generated assets is “cracking the foundation of process”. Navigating this shift effectively could yield competitive differentiation.
Ethics and Transparency Matter
With AI, transparency isn’t optional—it’s essential. Whether safeguarding against bias or disclosing generative content origins, agencies must build trust. Self‑regulation is key, as Sorrell emphasizes, given that regulators can’t keep pace.
Conclusion
AI isn’t an intruder—it’s a catalyst.
It invites the advertising industry to reset expectations, redefine roles, and recommit to creativity as its true core.
The future belongs to those who refuse to view AI as a replacement, and instead understand it as an amplifier—an opportunity to do more meaningful, creative work, faster, and at scale.
