AdNews' Sydney L!VE AI: Winners & Losers in Adland unpacked the hype from reality with a deep dive into the implications of artificial intelligence on agencies.
In the half-day conference at The Eveleigh attendees heard about agency fees, pitching and diversified revenue streams to potential job losses and restructures.
Opening the day Dentsu Creative ANZ head of creative technology James Bush spotlighted the major stakeholders driving the current AI revolution.
"Microsoft is leading the way in these relationships and I don't think it's going to create anything good," Bush said.
Next Forrester principal analyst Xiaofeng Wang revealed Generative AI will impact a lot more jobs than it will displace, with the total jobs lost from AI and automation by 2030 less than 5%.
"Ad agency jobs with low generative AI influence are data entry keyers, broadcast announcers and human resource managers," Wang said.
"Ad jobs with a higher generative influence, but that are harder to automate, include computer programmers, statisticians and editors."
The event's spiciest session saw TrinityP3 Managing Director Darren Woolley lift the lid on cost-based agency fees.
“The traditional agency approach - based on selling hours - was never scalable to the level required," Woolley said.
"While many are selling AI as the solution to the advertising productivity problem, a race to lower costs will harm an industry already suffering from chronic under-investment in the future.”
This Is Flow chief strategy officer Catherine Rushton and Sparro data science specialist Jordan Taylor then discussed how independent agencies are integrating AI in experimental ways.
Thank you to our supporting partners: Blis, Mamamia, Meta, Ryvalmedia. Associate partners: nexxen, Quantcast. And friend of AdNews: IMAA.
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