We’ve already seen some of the downsides of AI with the creation of deep fake posts and the proliferation of misinformation although there are many positive uses of AI that are benefiting humans and Canadian businesses. Bad actors will always find ways to exploit technology, but Canadian media agencies are using AI for forces of good through applications that benefit their clients and give their employees tools for improved productivity.

Sarah Thompson, president of media for Dentsu Canada cautions that the industry needs to ensure AI is used ethically, something consumers are concerned about as well, and ensure that the industry is mitigating consumer concerns about data misuse, security and surveillance. “We are using AI actively on clients in the space of research, paid search execution and analytics – the areas where we need to improve productivity, analyze vast amounts of data to find opportunities and insights and create more executional excellence.”

Dentsu Media is creating new ways of working with Microsoft CoPilot across the organization and Thompson says it is incredibly helpful to get quick answers to what would have required multiple queries and sifting, and it enhances the productivity of staff in their day-to-day tasks, helping the agency get smarter about the art and science of media strategy planning and buying.

Last year, Cairns Oneil launched its AI tool, NOVA. Agency president Devon MacDonald says NOVA uses generative AI to creates content based on individual user and audience data signals. “It is further optimized through AI in our dynamic creative optimization platform. The content generated from this tool outperforms base campaign content by two times. Our reporting platform uses machine learning to provide campaign optimization recommendations to our teams based on campaign objectives.”

ChatGPT was coded into Cairns Oneil’s ad server so, using an API feed, the AI tool develops content based on the client brief. MacDonald says, “We started with audience signals to determine which ad should be served and have now progressed to one-to-one content served. The client value has been tremendous. The tool can create hundreds of iterations or thousands of versions in milliseconds, with performance optimized based on performance.”

Within the IPG Mediabrands Canada agency network, AI impacts its work from media planning and optimization to measurement. The agency has embraced AI to streamline operations and synchronize various aspects of multichannel campaign lifecycles, allowing teams to respond to changes quickly.

Thiago DaSilva, senior VP, head of programmatic and operations at Kinesso, says, “As our network continues to innovate, we are exploring novel approaches to AI-driven targeting, harnessing synthetic data and advanced contextual targeting techniques to reach and engage audiences in unprecedented ways.”

In August of last year, IPG Mediabrands struck a deal with Google to utilize its generative AI tools to develop applications. There are currently two products in the pipeline BrandVoice AI, which will organize the essence of brands so that written and image-based content can be ideated, briefed, and drafted and BrandPortrait AI, a conversational platform where strategists can chat with AI to help plan ad campaigns and amplify research.

In late 2023, Kinesso, the performance marketing unit within IPG Mediabrands, globally launched My Bot, a proprietary tool that leverages Google’s PaLM 2 language model. The new supercharged assistant is designed with specificity to augment skills for day-to-day tasks, making it easier to manage multiple projects and workflows more effectively. DaSilva says AI-powered planning tools are emerging as crucial components for agency teams to ensure that strategies and tactics remain effective amidst the ever-evolving digital landscapes.

GroupM agencies have been using AI for quite some time through an in-house product called Copilot. Gautham Pingali, executive VP performance and innovation for GroupM says it is giving clients improvement in performance and efficiencies of 22.5% and even more. “On the client side, we’ve seen a lot of value and instead of our teams having to spend more time pulling the data, slicing and dicing it to figure out what the best next move is, they’re able to see the data come in, in a significantly cleaner way, a lot quicker. It’s helping both sides of the ecosystem with products like that.”

Five or 10 years ago, Pingali says media mix modelling (MMM) was heavy lifting taking six or eight months to create a model. AI technology now makes MMM accessible for clients both from a speed and cost standpoint. “From optimization to dynamic creation, to planning, we’ve already done amazing modeling work around reporting, which has improved that tremendously. It’s helping us create and unlock value for our clients a lot faster, more effectively and cost effectively. I think that’s where a lot of low hanging fruit and excitement is coming from.”

Pingali says technology is not in a place yet where AI can completely take over decision making and perhaps it shouldn’t get to the point. Paraphrasing a quote often attributed to Bill Gates, Pingali says, “We overestimated the role and value of technologies in the short term and underestimated in the long term.” I think as media and business leaders, it’s our job to find what the utility is right now, but also prepare and build deductions for what the real long-term value is going to look like. This still is very early in the game.”