How US Ad Agencies Use Generative AI for Creative Ideation

A recent report by Forrester shows that 91% of U.S. advertising agencies are currently using generative AI or considering using it. The ad agencies generative AI report shows that most respondents expect the technology to impact their operations significantly in the next two years.

According to Marketing Dive, big advertising agencies are leveraging AI technologies more than small agencies.

Current Disruption Trends

The Forrester generative AI marketing report shows that AI will disrupt businesses forever. Currently, technology is disrupting creative ad agencies more compared to other agencies. 69% of respondents working in creative agencies said they use the technology. This is 12% more than media agencies that currently use generative AI.

The percentage of creative agencies using AI is likely to increase in the coming years. This will happen as creative teams identify new ways to leverage the innovation, insights, and speed that AI technology provides.

Generative AI Application

The US Ad Agencies Generative AI report identified key ad tech areas where generative AI will have a significant impact. Most respondents (over 70%) reported the technology will impact their content creation processes and marketplace. More than 60% of respondents said that generative AI will impact their interactions with consumers and the kind of content they produce for their audiences.

The Forrester generative AI marketing report shows that ad agency executives are looking to leverage generative AI to improve productivity. The majority of executives reported that they are either using the technology or exploring its use in speeding up and improving the quality of creative ideation and ad production.

74% of respondents said their agencies currently use AI technology for brainstorming and creative ideation. Additionally, 49% of them said asset generation for creative optimization remains a priority.

Performance Tracking

Besides ad creation, the Forrester generative AI report shows that ad agencies use the technology to gather insights from their target audiences. 59% of respondents said they use AI tools to summarize audience insights and organize consumer data sets.

49% of them also use the tool to analyze marketing performance results. Most ad agencies use AI to improve productivity and augment workflows. These include generating consumer personas and profiles, competitor analysis, transcribing calls, and summarizing presentations.

Adoption Barriers

Even with the widespread use of AI in the advertising sector, several challenges hinder its full adoption. Ad agencies exploring generative AI have legal concerns about the technology. These concerns include attribution, IP ownership, liability delineation, and copyright infringement. Employee resistance is also emerging as a significant AI adoption barrier.

“This human obstacle stands apart from the others because employee concerns exist entirely within the agency but are irrationally unpredictable and pertain to employees’ emotional safety. Employee resistance or lack of AI expertise stands ready to undermine agencies’ value, product, and technology investments as well as a decade of agency business model transformation,” the report states.

Additionally, the Forrester ad agencies generative AI report shows that businesses are also concerned about AI’s reliability, data security, privacy, accuracy, governance, and bias.

Forrester’s ‘State of Generative AI Inside U.S. Agencies 2024’ report was derived from a survey conducted between April and May. The survey was conducted jointly by Forrester and the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Respondents of the survey were individuals holding vice president titles or above in U.S. ad agencies.