Agencies are mostly using genAI on the creative side, including to generate concepts, according to a study by global consultancy Forrester.
The US survey found three quarters (74%) of decision-makers at US agencies are using genAI for creative ideas.
And more than half (59%) are using it to summarise audience insights and marketing performance results (49%).
However, Jay Pattisall, VP and principal analyst, says agencies’ ability to tap into the seemingly boundless opportunities of generative AI (genAI) is running into a stubborn human obstacle: the lack of AI expertise and employee concerns of obsolescence.
A new Forrester report, The State Of Generative AI Inside US Agencies, 2024, shows that among the top challenges is lack of necessary skills or training and employee cultural resistance.
“This human obstacle is a part of an agency AI fear factor that the industry must take immediate steps to overcome,” says Pattisall.
“The failure to rise to the AI moment puts the future of the agency industry and a decade of agencies’ business change at risk.
“GenAI not only promises to be the next biggest thing since the smartphone but also the likely ingredient to unlock the expansion of the agency economic model away from commoditized services and toward value-add creativity algorithms.
“GenAI infused with the creative process is the final element to a new system of value for brands: data intelligence and technology scale combined with human creative intuition.
“At Forrester, we call this intelligent creativity and believe that it will energise the creative process (i.e., change how marketing is created and by whom), expand the value produced for brands, and modernise the economic model governing marketing services.
“To say that agency leaders understand the significance of the moment is an understatement, because 77% believe that genAI is a disruptor and nearly a third call genAI a major disruption that will change their business forever.”
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