By Mo Dezyanian

“Why do we still have media agencies?” someone asked me recently.

With AI-everything, they went on to say, most media buying is now automated anyway, so what’s the point of a media buyer or a media agency?

I mean, when you think about it…

AI can generate insights at speeds never seen before.

AI has turned the art and science of media buying into more science than art.

There isn’t a media buyer out there that can keep up with AI recommendations.

Every decision rooted in numbers is made better and faster with AI.

I live in that world. At Empathy, we routinely run simulations and models to determine optimum spends across the funnel. We deploy AI to optimize campaigns on the ground and routinely use AI tools to analyze and formulate campaign recommendations.

So I knew the question was a great one because the answer isn’t simple.

It’s true that AI isn’t perfect. It needs supervision and oversight. A few senior staffers build strategy and make big decisions, while the machines do the day-to-day. 

It’s also true that in the business of media there are legacy systems that still rely on manual intervention. Sure, some things are automated, but deals and negotiations are done between people. We can’t just replace that easily. 

And yes, media is equal parts art and science, with real instinct involved in building a media plan that is scalable, relevant and effective. AI can’t do that…yet. 

Three quick – and common – arguments that protect the media buyer’s current job and the media agency. But I think they all fundamentally miss the point.

We shouldn’t be protecting the media buyer’s job as it currently is because the media buyer’s job should change in a very specific way. It already has.

A shattered media world ruled by AI

Before we understand how a media buyer’s job has changed, we need to understand how culture itself has changed. We are no longer talking about a homogenous mainstream, but about a shattered culture full of congregations and subcultures. No two people experience the internet the same way. 

Obviously, the media landscape has never been more fragmented. (Or more vital.)

Modern western discourse revolves around individuality and individual experiences, which is further fuelled by interest-based media. Everyone lives in their bubble. 

What that means is that culture is no longer just about culture but about the sub-categories of culture, about nuances and niches of people’s interests that shape their behaviour, attitudes, thoughts and consumer behaviour. 

AI is accelerating these trends. AI is gaining more traction as the front page of the internet, and machine learning is increasingly dictating what we see and when. As a result, we’re further narrowing our cultural bubbles. Everything from news to music reinforces the things we already enjoy and already believe.

This makes a media buyer’s job particularly difficult because while the numbers matter, context matters more. If no two people experience the internet in the same way, media buyers must become cultural ethnographers. They must understand communities and tribes, with their nuances and languages, so that they can provide context to brands and help inject brands into communities where they are relevant. 

I submit that great ads protect your brand from being ignored while great media protects your brand from being irrelevant.

In the age of AI, media planners need to build culturally relevant plans and then they need to predict the outcomes of those plans.

To the up-and-coming media planners growing up with AI, here are three ways you can do that.

First, question big tech. Big tech companies are a fantastic source of information, data, research and insights, but they don’t replace your critical thinking.

Second, remember that your POV matters. Now more than ever. Media is an opinion, not a spreadsheet. Your opinions about cultures, data and, yes, even about creative work matters (as long as your opinion isn’t just “Boomers don’t like TikTok”). You are the voice of the consumer in the boardroom, so act like it. 

Lastly, think less like a data analyst and more like a journalist. Make an effort to understand culture, language and the current zeitgeist, not just the next foodie trend or viral meme.

Do that, and I promise you AI won’t stand a chance.

Mo Dezyanian is president of Empathy Inc. His cultural research and commentary on media and consumer trends has appeared in the Washington Post, Globe and Mail, on CBC’s The National, CBC Radio and elsewhere.