AI is poised to transform everything in marketing from ad creation to targeting and even the future role of agencies in the advertising ecosystem.

"As AI-powered agents are increasingly deployed to carry out tasks on behalf of people, advertisers will need to work out how to influence these robot servants," said host Marcus Johnson on a recent episode of the "Behind the Numbers."

Meta's simplified vision

Both Meta and OpenAI have plans to automate much of the work performed by marketers and agencies.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has promised that by the end of 2026, brands will be able to simply tell Meta their objective and budget, and the platform will handle everything else.

• Meanwhile, OpenAI's Sam Altman believes 95% of what marketers currently use agencies for will soon be handled by AI.

"There's truth in it, but it's overstated," said our analyst Yory Wurmser on the episode. "There's still going to be a role for agencies, but it is true that a lot of the lower-touch advertising, the direct response advertising that Meta does at scale, will be made a lot easier and a lot of that can be automated with AI agents."

Meta executives have already walked back some of the AI projections, according to our analyst Jeremy Goldman.

"Agencies aren't going away, in part because they will find other things to do," he said in the episode. "So you're not going to have as much direct social media campaign planning from agencies, but they're going to move towards higher executive-level function type of tasks."

How agencies will evolve

As AI automates more tactical aspects of advertising, agencies are adapting by shifting their focus and capabilities.

"I think it does fundamentally change what they do… They also become technology companies," said Wurmser. He pointed to recent acquisitions as evidence: "You saw it first with Omnicom buying IPG, then WPP buying InfoSum. Publicis is buying Lotame."

These moves signal a strategic pivot toward data ownership and technology consulting. Agencies are positioning themselves to develop insights from this data and build expertise in machine-to-machine advertising (M2M)—where AI agents representing brands communicate with AI platforms—according to Wurmser.

The future of advertising budgets

As AI makes advertising more efficient, a key question emerges: Will these efficiencies lead to reduced ad spending or will marketers simply reinvest those savings into more advertising?

"I think the odds are really good that digital ad spending and ad spending in general is going to go up," said Wurmser. "Each ad should be more efficient with better targeting, so in that way, I expect to see digital ad spending going up."

He also suggested that as AI becomes more prevalent in digital channels, brands may increase investment in channels where they can reach actual humans, such as connected TV, out-of-home advertising, and influencer marketing.

The bottom line: Rather than reducing overall ad spending, AI efficiencies are likely to change how and where advertising dollars are allocated. Brands may run more campaigns, explore new channels, or invest more heavily in brand-building efforts with their AI-enabled savings.

Listen to the full episode.

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