As AI innovation moves at pace, the ad industry’s skills must keep up
IAB UK chief strategy officer James Chandler will be discussing use of AI in a live recording of the AI Haven’t Got A Clue podcast at The Future of Media London on 5 November
Opinion
If we’re to bring everyone along as part of the AI revolution, more people need to be equipped with the skills to use AI tools confidently and effectively.
Here’s a challenge: find an article about AI that doesn’t mention the “breakneck speed” that it’s developing at. I’ve already brought it up, but it’s rare to come across one that doesn’t.
And it’s true — there is a breakthrough, new announcement or promising application happening every day, whether that’s Meta’s ambitions to create superintelligence or Havas’ Brand Insights AI tool to help advertisers navigate large language models.
These developments deserve to grab headlines but, with the spotlight firmly on the next new news, are we talking enough about how people in our industry are actually using AI day to day? Are we sharing the knowledge that promises to unlock greater productivity in a new era of work?
To put it bluntly: no. If we’re to bring everyone along as part of this revolution, more people need to be equipped with the skills to use AI tools confidently and effectively.
That means going beyond the early adopters and devoted ChatGPTers to reach people in our industry who might have dabbled but are far from maximising the potential of the tools currently on offer.
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What the data tells us
The data backs up the fact that AI adoption is far from universal.
According to Harvard Business School, women are using AI at a 25% lower rate than men globally, while they are 16 percentage points less likely than men to use AI in the same job, reports Time.
Closer to home, the 2025 All In Census found men are six percentage points more likely to use AI regularly to complete tasks at work. While that may not sound significant in the context of the above statistics, consider that we already have a growing gender pay gap in our industry.
If men are more likely to utilise AI, the productivity gap that opens up will only compound the broader gender inequality we’re already failing to address.
Age is an important factor too. A McKinsey & Company survey found that millennials are the most active generation of AI users, with 62% of employees aged 35-44 reporting high levels of expertise, compared with 22% of baby boomers.
Meanwhile, the All In Census found that those aged under 25 regularly use AI to complete work tasks, with rates falling for 55- to 64-year-olds. That matters, particularly given our desire to retain and attract older talent. AI tools should definitely not become the reserve of the young.
To change this, there needs to be a collective willingness to share skills and dissolve some of the trepidation that is inevitable when we repeatedly hear that innovation is moving at the speed of light.
The human factor
Over the past few months, I’ve been on a mission to find out what people in our industry need in order to get more out of the AI tools on offer.
I’ve spoken to IAB members across publishers, agencies, brands and adtech to get a sense of where adoption stands and what support is needed to make sure the benefits of this game-changing technology are spread further.
The answer came back loud and clear: show us what works. Alongside a general demand for advice on where to find educational support, everyone just wants to know what is actually delivering for others, how to equip staff with the skills to boost productivity and where to targeted efforts to implement AI-driven work flows.
It’s not rocket science, but it makes a lot of sense. Beneath the breaking news and sci-fi-worthy headlines that AI’s growth generates lies the ever-present human need to ask: so, what are you doing with it then?
To that end, IAB UK will be working to fill the gaps in the coming months with more AI expertise to help equip people with practical skills. More future-facing insight to understand how to make the most of the opportunities on offer. More best-in-class examples of how businesses are utilising AI internally to enhance work processes and outputs, as well as within ad campaigns.
Alongside these core areas, there is also a job to do to promote the cross-industry work that addresses shared challenges arising in the AI space.
For example, a lot of people are talking about the threat that AI poses to publishers, but are enough aware of or feeding into IAB Tech Lab’s AI Content Monetization Protocols, which aim to protect the intellectual property of publishers while still allowing AI systems to learn and create outputs from content? The more that do, the stronger the end product will be.
Ultimately, people across our industry must be equipped to use AI effectively — regardless of their age, gender or tech-savviness — because it’s only then that we will truly unlock the promised potential of AI.
Sophia Haynes is director of transformation at IAB UK