It’s been more than a year and a half now since Mark Zuckerberg said this on a Meta earnings call:
Over the longer term, advertisers will basically just be able to tell us a business objective and a budget, and we’re going to do the rest for them.
It was controversial at the time, mostly because it felt like fantasy based on Meta’s integrations of AI to that point. But with each new advancement, both within Meta Ads Manager and outside of it, we get closer to the statement being a potential reality.
It’s not abstract anymore. Fully automated campaigns are Meta’s goal, and we’re beginning to see the building blocks that will make it possible.
The question isn’t whether some version of Zuckerberg’s vision is coming. You have to bury your head in the sand to deny it. The biggest question is how this evolution will impact the future roles of advertisers.
I’ve grappled with these questions myself. I’ve never claimed to be particularly good at predicting the future, but I try to pay attention to where the current trends are taking us. It’s critical we begin to figure out how we contribute to this future, if we haven’t already.
Admittedly, my brain cramps while thinking through some of the scenarios. They’re scary and mind-bending, but also counterintuitive and contradictory.
I won’t have answers in this post. What I do know is that most of the takes I’ve seen on this fall into one of two camps, and both of them are likely wrong.
Two Extreme Reactions
The impact of AI on the future of media buying, Meta advertising, and the digital agency is a common discussion these days. The vast majority of opinions fall into one of two camps.
1. The modern advertiser is dead.
This opinion assumes that AI will make advertisers obsolete. We’ll all be replaced by AI, either through Meta’s enhancements or third-party integrations. It’s time to begin looking for a backup occupation.
2. AI is flawed and people will always be needed.
This opinion assumes the noticeable flaws of today’s AI will exist in a similar way a year or more from now. People on this extreme cite the many limitations of AI in its current state. They may even call it a fad.
By nature, we like to simplify things. When thinking of the future, it’s nearly impossible to think about the nuance related to factors that do not currently exist. So it’s easy, as a way of dealing with the unknown, to approach the future of AI in advertising as either devastating or not that big of a deal.
Two Extremes of the Market
While I try to predict where this will go, I like to think of two very opposite types of brands as a thought exercise.
1. The biggest brand.
Whenever I’m asked about using AI to create and manage a campaign from start to finish, I like to think of a company like Nike. Would they trust their brand to an AI agent? Fully automated copy and creative without legal approval? Unlikely.
The most bullish AI supporters may say that there will simply be an AI agent with branding or legal expertise (and that’s not crazy), but it’s hard to believe the biggest brands would be okay with that, at least early.
A lot of what looks like ads management at that level is really the work of translating brand strategy into media decisions. Sponsorships, talent, and brand campaigns are all work that is unlikely to transition to AI agents. Big brands like Nike will certainly invest in AI, but there are areas where they’re likely to be slowest to adapt, if they do at all.
2. The smallest brand.
The more I think about the prospects of automated campaign creation and management, the more I think it applies most to the smallest brands. It’s the “easy” button for small businesses that don’t have the resources to hire someone. It’s the “Boost” button of the future.
These brands have limited budget and either weren’t going to hire someone to manage their ads anyway, or they’re unlikely to commit to that relationship long-term. They haven’t seen the results when someone has managed their ads before (mainly because it’s so hard with small budgets), but they can at least replicate that performance without hiring someone.
While there may be flaws in this thinking, I can see why the smallest brands may be the best market for fully automated campaigns and ad management. No humans, no third-party integrations, just Meta’s built-in “tell us what you want and we’ll create it for you” feature.
These seem like reasonably likely scenarios, but they both touch on extremes. Most advertisers, and most of the brands they work with, will live somewhere in between.
The Middle
Extreme predictions are the simplest explanations, without nuance. Brands at both extremes will rarely reflect the majority. Much of the truth is going to be found in the middle.
It makes sense that the smallest brands would prefer the easy button and the largest brands would resist it. In the middle is a vast range of mid-sized brands with enough complexity that the easy button isn’t enough, but not enough scale to justify a full team.
“The middle” is where the future of the Meta advertiser and agency will be defined. Much of that will depend on how they make themselves useful, valuable, and irreplaceable as everything evolves. What more can they provide that the easy button can’t?
There are several questions that need to be answered that will help determine what’s next for this industry. And I don’t have clear answers for them.
First is what I call “The Auction Paradox.” Meta ads are delivered using an auction. This system relies on some ads being better than others to help determine what wins. If every brand has an AI agent optimizing against the same signals, where does the advantage come from? It would seem there needs to be something outside the optimization layer to do the work.
There’s also the access question, which might ultimately solve The Auction Paradox. It would be easy to assume that, thanks to capitalism, the better AI agents will cost more. Brands with the most sophisticated and expensive AI agents may have a structural advantage over the smaller advertisers and brands.
AI tools are largely accessible to most right now. It’s more a question of education. But it wouldn’t be surprising if these costs accelerated into a tiered system that would price out the majority.
Another question I have is about how the future advertiser works. Is the future advertiser managing multiple AI agents? Maybe they’ll be more efficient as a result, so they’re able to manage more clients. This could, conceivably, raise the bar on expectations related to quality and volume of work an advertiser takes on.
And finally, the future of Meta advertisers and agencies is found in the space in between that can answer this question: What new advertising-related needs and occupations are developed because of AI? Do they make up for the ones that are replaced?
What My Own AI Use Shows Me
I won’t claim to have all of the answers, or even any of them. But the clearest version of an answer keeps coming from my own work with AI.
My use of AI continues to expand with advancements in available tools and my own understanding of how I can use them. AI lets me do things I wouldn’t have considered before, and it lets me do them quickly.
This mainly includes the small things, like landing pages and featured images for blog posts. The output I’m able to generate is better than anything I could have created myself before, while taking far less time and effort.
I fully understand that the things I’m creating with AI still aren’t as good as the output a design expert could generate, particularly a design expert with the same or better tools. And that’s where we get to an important point that can be tied to the future of advertising.
If you work in design and ignore AI, the bar is being raised. If you previously produced average or below-average work, you will be easily replaced. But if you embrace AI to make your pre-AI work better and more efficient, you can improve both the quality and efficiency of your output.
The pattern doesn’t stop at design. Don’t ignore AI. It will replace many tasks. If you produce average results without AI, you will be replaced.
Those who survive will be the ones most educated about what’s changing and how to take advantage of it. Maybe most importantly, observe where new opportunities with AI appear.
Occupations related to online advertising are unlikely to disappear. But they’ll surely look different. The social media marketer who specialized in MySpace 20 years ago was forced to adjust. The same will be true here. If you don’t, you’ll become obsolete.
Some will use AI to become more employable. Some will move from ad management to software development to manage your ads. Instead of hiring people, you are buying software that was created by those who were displaced.
There’s one final layer to consider. The world of AI agents will be its own web of complexity. Which AI should you use? What produces the best output?
That requires an expert in itself.
AI Is Inevitable
It’s natural to assume the simple answer, and to predict the extremes. It’s easy to claim nuance and expect something in between. What you can’t do is ignore it altogether.
The ones who don’t make it will hope AI is a fad, or assume that the human touch, doing exactly what they’re doing now, will always be useful. That’s a dangerous game.
The fact that you are reading this post and care about how AI impacts your future puts you a step ahead. The majority are either unaware or unwilling to think about it.
Your Turn
How do you think AI will impact the future of Meta advertising, specifically, and the ad space, generally?
Let me know in the comments below!
