AI Week in Focus recap
AI Week in Focus Recap
Last week, The Media Leader took a deep dive into AI in media, reporting on the latest updates and hearing from key industry leaders on how it has moved beyond curiosity into practical application.
Here you can find a roundup of the highlights and insights of our coverage.
Search and discovery
The big takeaway from industry leaders is that AI agents are redefining brand discovery. Marketers can no longer rely on optimising search because, as LiveRamp’s Luke Fenney argues, users are no longer browsing but asking AI agents for recommendations. As a result, brands are now competing to be selected and recommended by AI.
Desire, according to Havas’ Chetan Murthy, is now even more important than visibility alone for brand strategy and, for B2B growth, this requires a shift to what LinkedIn’s Mimi Turner calls ‘buyability’.
The Share of Model is a good tool for helping measure how often AI models mention and describe a brand, and Victor Batista at Jellyfish shares his key points for leveraging the model.
Trust
As AI adoption increases, so does scepticism. While people are generally happy to use AI themselves, they are cautious when it is used by somebody else.
Katie Ingram at Advertising Week Europe believes that means ‘human-made’ will become a marker of quality and, True & North’s David Clayton argues, nothing can replace human connection, particularly when working with clients.
Despite the scepticism, WPP Media’s David Wilding makes the observation that the loneliness epidemic has meant more people are yearning for companionship, whether through AI or companion podcasts.
Measurement
In terms of measurement, advertising is no longer about efficiency, but about value, argues Chalice AI EMEA’s Freddie Turner.
While Ran Avrahamy from AppsFlyer suggests brands must stop adding AI-powered tools and instead strengthen the measurement infrastructure on which AI will sit.
Streaming platform Tubi is the first to integrate into ChatGPT but AUDIENCES’ Matt Wilkinson questions whether media owners risk losing sight of the full audience journey.
AI concerns
Amidst all the buzz around the benefits AI might bring to media businesses, there are also concerns.
James Taylor of Particular Audience unpacks Amazon’s lawsuit against Perplexity for posing security risks to customer data and considers the future with AI agents.
Another concern is around the control of intellectual property for creative talent. TrueRight’s Benjamin Woollams argues talent must adopt the right processes to become AI-ready.
News
OpenAI’s advertising model has been developing in the US since January; we unpacked what you need to know as the company plans to continue the rollout to other markets later this year.
Global ad agencies have begun to not only use AI tools but develop AI platforms themselves. The Media Leader compiled a list of these platforms and explained what each can offer.
And the conversation isn’t over. We also launched the podcast mini-series, Believe It or Not, which unpacks the nuances of AI in media, hosted by former Media Leader editor-in-chief Omar Oakes and former Dentsu International CEO, now AI strategist Hamish Nicklin. Listen to the first episode now.