Research Briefing: Agencies see a future for AI as Advertising Week wraps up

By Catherine Wolf • October 19, 2023 • 4 min read •

Ivy Liu

This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series →

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In this week’s Digiday+ Research Briefing, we examine how agencies, fresh off of Advertising Week, see a future shaped by AI, how publishers’ use of X is falling off and how education is becoming key to retail media’s growth, as seen in recent data from Digiday+ Research.

76% percent of agencies expect AI to impact their businesses

The AI boom has been one of the topics dominating conversations among the more than 12,000 industry professionals attending this year’s Advertising Week in New York. Generative AI, in particular, has been in the spotlight, as attendees discussed tools from ChatGPT, Bard and AI-powered Bing to more proprietary solutions. In fact, generative AI is the main form of AI tech agencies use, according to 72% of survey respondents in Digiday+ Research’s second annual report on the state and future of the media agency.

Generative AI can be used in the creative process for everything from research and writing copy iterations to creating images and music. While it poses new safety risks and ethical concerns, based on industry buzz around the topic, it seems inevitable that agencies will continue experimenting with the tech going forward.

The stats:

Seventy-six percent of agency respondents said they expect AI to have the biggest impact on their business over the next few years.

Agencies mostly use generative AI for non-consumer-facing purposes, with 45% of respondents saying they use it for back-end or internal applications. However, an almost equal amount of respondents (42%) use it for a combination of back-end and consumer-facing applications.

Digiday+ Research digest

Publishers are stepping back from X, and it’s no surprise why. Over the past rollercoaster ride of a year, the platform formerly known as Twitter has changed its name, changed its verification practices and removed headlines from posts containing links — in what one publishing executive called “a bozo move.” Not surprisingly, Digiday+ Research found a big drop-off in publishers’ use of X this year, likely a result of many of these changes.

The stats:

Less than three-quarters of publisher pros (73%) said this year that their titles posted content to X in the past month, down from 89% who said the same in 2022.

Publishers consider X to be a lot less brand-appropriate this year. Slightly more than three-quarters of publisher pros (79%) said in 2023 that X is at least somewhat appropriate for their brands, a significant drop from the 92% who said so in 2022.

Not many publishers are advertising on X. Just 21% of publisher pros told Digiday this year that their titles purchased advertising on X in the past month, compared with 26% last year.