According to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, 95% of the work currently done by marketing agencies, creative professionals and specialists, will soon be handled by AI. In the event that his prediction comes true, we are heading for an extinction event!

The warning signs were already on the horizon. In a 2022 survey, 56% of client respondents said they thought ad agencies overpromised and underdelivered and 53% believed their agencies were becoming complacent.

A typical Pakistani ad agency suffers from severe financial pressures, especially in terms of cash flows, because of their over-reliance on public sector or government advertising – a scenario, you could say, changes from a doomsday event (for example, having a lack of manpower due to budgetary reasons) to nirvana (by using AI and being able to complete their projects despite limited manpower). Yes, you read that correctly. Given that the typical ad agency has inefficiency baked into its system, AI can now churn out ‘inspired’ work in a fraction of the time it would take a designer/visualiser in a Pakistani ad agency to do so without having to spend a minute’s research on Pinterest, Behance, Ads of the World or other international award show sites.

Rather than retaining large in-house design and studio teams to create ‘inspired’ work at the risk of developing a reputation for plagiarism, agency owners are about to realise that a creative department is a luxury they cannot afford – and who would blame them in an industry grappling with eroding margins and client distrust? After all, the seth and his clients want work delivered faster, with fewer overheads and a superior output pipeline.

To the agency owner… Sir, before you go any further, please note that this nirvana comes with its own dangers. With every agency able to deliver low-cost, mid-to-low quality creative output, margins will shrink further. In a world where everyone uses the same AI tools in the same category with similar prompts, output will start to look similar and creativity will become a commodity. This will lead to a future where a client’s nephew who generates creative output using ChatGPT 19 or Midjourney 22 will become a reality. Already disillusioned, the actual creative mind might just choose to exit the industry entirely.

If agencies are to survive this wave of automation, they must conquer the value chain and do it fast.

AI cannot yet build emotional connections or craft long-term brand narratives based on a deep social and human context or understand cultural nuances, especially language nuances. These are and will remain distinct human capabilities and form the bedrock upon which the foundation of a successful agency will rest in the age of AI. In fact, to survive beyond this initial wave of AI, we must redefine our value as an agency and understand that although machines can generate content, they still cannot build the long-term emotional connections with consumers that brands need.

Agencies that become strategic brand partners rather than mere content factories will succeed. Agencies have to embrace a culture of ideas that are bigger than ads because ideas will be the currency of the future and motivate action. Therefore, agencies need to start building stronger emotional connections, craft long-term brand narratives based on a deep social and human context, and understand the cultural nuances at play.

First off, agencies will need to work with academia’s sociology, economics and anthropology departments to ensure a steady supply of brand strategists. They will need to develop partnerships with good design schools and resist the urge to hire ‘visualisers’ who may be fast at churning out layouts but are not necessarily creative. Agencies need real art directors who understand the fundamentals of design, not people who work the app. Agencies need to upskill their studio staff by teaching them prompting, editing and curating skills to ensure they become AI collaborators capable of using AI as a tool and not as a replacement. Agencies also need to pool their resources to access better AI tools, training and shared infrastructure, form co-creative alliances, and start a dialogue to develop industry-wide AI ethics and innovation frameworks. Doing this will not only cut costs, it will unlock real innovation.

Advertising will not be killed by AI, but I earnestly pray bad advertising is. I hope that AI also kills the need among clients to gravitate to the safe option and do what has been done before. To my friends at PAA, you need to do more than chase public sector recoveries. Pakistani agencies have arrived at a critical juncture. One path leads to irrelevance and the other to reinvention. Irrelevance is a place where work is generic, talent exits and clients do it themselves. Reinvention is the place where agencies become ideators and strategic storytellers. They can either embrace the tools of tomorrow to rediscover the power of ideas or continue to cling to business models that are breaking apart under the weight of the seth.

AI will not change advertising. It will separate those who create from those who produce. Pakistani agencies have a choice to make and they must make it quickly. Time is running out.

Imtisal Abbasi has been working in various creative leadership positions at IAL Saatchi & Saatchi for 20 years and has developed groundbreaking campaigns in geographies as diverse as Africa, Eastern Europe, China, the Middle East and South Asia. imtisalabbasi@gmail.com