Digital advertising has always grown and changed as technology evolves and with the continued development of artificial intelligence, digital advertising is seeing major shifts.
Digital advertising has always grown and changed as technology evolves. With the continued development of artificial intelligence, digital advertising is seeing major shifts.
AI has been front and center in minds and headlines through 2023 and 2024, with no signs of slowing down. The rise of platforms like ChatGPT and debates surrounding legal regulations have captured the imaginations of advertisers and audiences across the globe.
After all, with so many use cases, AI has the potential to revolutionize a broad range of industries.
According to a 2018 study from McKinsey, out of the 400 most advanced industry use cases for AI, marketing was shown to have the greatest potential value. AI was already being utilized across the world by marketing departments to improve their strategies, plan their advertisements, and even create content.
Since then, the number of departments using AI globally has only grown. Generative AI entered the conversion with a bang in 2023 and since then tech giants and advertisers have scrambled to be on the front lines of the latest AI trends.
A study conducted in 2021 by Semrush showed that marketing and sales departments are already prioritizing AI and machine learning, with departments having 40% greater success when doing so.
Since this study was conducted, technology has only improved, making the use case for AI even stronger. The use of AI is also only slated to grow; the same Semrush study concluded that the AI market will reach $190.61 billion in market value by the year 2025.
The state of AI in advertising
In advertising, AI is most often used to assist with analytics, programmatic buying, and customer service tasks. Artificial intelligence can be used to answer questions like “How many potential customers will see my ad?” and “How can I optimize my campaign’s reach?” AI has the potential to transform more marketing campaigns into success stories.
In particular, predictive AI has massive potential for advertising optimization. While predictive AI isn’t new, its potential remains unrealized in the world of advertising. This technology can be used to more effectively target customers and optimize campaigns for maximum reach at the lowest cost possible.
AI for targeting
One of the best current use cases for AI in marketing is to improve returns on investment. By using AI to collect and analyze data to better target potential customers, advertisements can be shown to the right audiences, the right number of times – reducing costs substantially.
In a 2021 study, 48% of companies were already using AI to improve their targeting data and this number continues to grow year after year.
The AI controversy
As mentioned previously, there is still a great deal of controversy surrounding AI. In part, this is due to a lack of understanding in the general public of what AI is and can do. On the other hand, there are still a lot of legal unknowns when it comes to AI, both in terms of data collection and content creation.
As AI technology grows, so do the number of ethical conversations happening around it.
Some of the ethical issues raised by UNESCO include:
- A lack of transparency: How AI makes its decisions is not known by users.
- A lack of AI neutrality: Since AI is made by humans, it carries human bias.
- A lack of data privacy: Surveillance and data gathering practices are not always known or consented to.
There are also blurred lines when it comes to the ownership of artwork and written content created by AI.
Many of these concerns are currently being addressed by governing bodies around the world. In 2023 the Biden administration signed an executive order to help ensure the fair development of AI moving forward. California also put forward a bill in 2024 proposing the mandatory watermarking of all AI-created works. Additionally, current regulations surrounding copyright and technology development apply to the creation and use of AI – regulations that are likely to evolve in the coming years as AI furthers its growth.
Companies have responded to this legal backlash by throwing their support behind efforts to regulate AI going forward. OpenAI (the developer behind ChatGPT) and Adobe both openly supported California’s new AI watermarking bill, with OpenAI’s Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon saying, “New technology and standards can help people understand the origin of content they find online, and avoid confusion between human-generated and photorealistic AI-generated content.”
AI trends in digital advertising for 2025
AI can be used for a wide range of advertising activities, but some of more effective than others. These are some of the best ways that AI can be used in advertising.
Tedious jobs
There are certain necessary jobs that are tedious, uninteresting, and repetitive. These kinds of jobs are perfect for AI. Jason White, the co-founder of Jiffy.ai, says that “there are certain “dirty jobs” and that these jobs “human beings don’t really like doing” are ideal case uses for AI because not only can the technology do these jobs well, but employees will breathe a sigh of relief at not having to do them.
Media optimization
AI is ideal for optimizing media campaigns. In a test run by Good Apple, the marketing was able to double optimizations by using AI rather than manual production. This resulted in a 64% improvement in cost per acquisition. This kind of time-saving frees up employees for creative work and strategy (the innately human components of marketing).
Campaign refinement
AI can play a vital role in refining and optimizing advertising campaigns. Theorem, a B2B company, saw up to a 50% increase in the speed of its campaign executions as well as decreases in error rates. This kind of refinement leads to huge savings that can be reinvested in growth and engagement.
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