When Bots Buy From Bots: The Ad Game Just Flipped

When Bots Buy From Bots: The Ad Game Just Flipped

Advertising once ran on human instinct, bold creativity, and pitch-perfect storytelling. Now, it’s being eaten alive by code.

At Cannes, where ad execs toast success with yacht parties and petits fours, the real star was invisible; AI. From Meta’s Advantage+ boosting returns by 22% to Google’s Performance Max driving sales through machine learning, the old creative guard is being outpaced by algorithms that write, measure, and now read ads.

The power shift is stark. Eight of the ten largest ad sellers are tech firms, and their grip tightens as AI automates targeting, creation, and influence. Meta and TikTok offer plug-and-play tools for ad generation.

Startups like Alembic and Evertune track ad impact using pandemic-era contact tracing logic or train LLMs to prefer one bedsheet brand over another. We’re entering a world where marketers design content not for humans, but for bots that influence humans, something I predicted years ago.

• AI now shapes ad creation and consumption
• Creative agencies scramble to prove value
• PR becomes a lever to influence LLMs

If creativity is commoditized and decisions outsourced to agents, who controls the story; the brand, the buyer, or the algorithm?

Read the full article on The Economist.

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