Title: Today’s AI Stories and Takeaways for Marketers
Date: Thursday, 8 May 2025
Artificial intelligence continues to reshape digital marketing, from creative production and programmatic media to customer engagement and platform monetisation. Today’s round-up looks at how generative AI is accelerating content workflows, why ad formats are getting more interactive and data-driven, and what emerging monetisation models say about the future of ad-funded services. Whether you run growth, creative, or performance marketing, these shifts present significant opportunities and challenges ahead.
Key Stories
AI-Powered Personalisation & Automation Are Raising the Bar
AI continues to revolutionise digital marketing through hyper-personalisation, dynamic content delivery, and smarter targeting. Deep learning models are driving predictive customer insights, enabling marketers to finely segment audiences and serve hyper-targeted messages across channels. Generative AI now supports everything from SEO and paid search copy to high-speed content development at scale, radically improving campaign velocity and efficiency.
– Brands like Zalando are producing campaign imagery in days instead of weeks, cutting costs by up to 90%.
– AI-generated content is helping teams maintain brand consistency while deploying assets across formats faster than ever.
Interactive Ad Formats Are the New Standard
Video-based platforms are embracing more immersive and less interruptive ad experiences. Future Today unveiled a new suite of interactive ad formats targeting connected TV, promising better viewer engagement and performance outcomes. These formats integrate directly into viewing experiences and are backed by a privacy-first ad marketplace offering transparent performance data and future-proofed targeting.
– Expect higher conversion and engagement rates from formats that feel native and responsive, rather than disruptive.
Programmatic Advertising Driven by AI
Advancements in AI are bringing greater precision to programmatic buying. By analysing vast stores of behavioural data, AI can now optimise media buys, creative variations, and delivery in real time. Both tech giants and startups are investing in AI-powered programmatic stacks that allow dynamic audience targeting, smarter bidding, and automatic creative testing.
– These capabilities mean that marketers can increasingly rely on AI to not only identify audiences but also deliver the most resonant creative at the perfect moment.
AI and Marketing: The Workflow Transformation
AI is redefining how brands create and deliver marketing content—both in terms of speed and cost. From automated chatbots engaging with consumers to synthetic models producing photo-real campaign visuals, the operational footprint of marketing is rapidly changing.
– Across industries, creative teams are integrating AI tools to manage production at scale while aligning with brand guidelines.
– Chatbots and AI agents are now handling a larger portion of customer interactions, from product recommendations to service resolutions.
AI Business Models and Ethical Considerations
AI is disrupting not only how marketing is done, but also how it’s monetised. OpenAI, for example, is exploring ad-based monetisation for free ChatGPT users, facing industry concerns over the ethics of ad-driven AI platforms. Meanwhile, platforms like Salesforce continue investing in agentic AI—systems that can operate semi-autonomously to execute tasks like campaign activation or budget optimisation.
– The shift toward agentic AI hints at a future where large swaths of marketing execution may be outsourced to digital agents.
– Concerns are rising over the sustainability of content-driven business models in a post-search, AI-first internet—especially if generative AI continues to source content without driving traffic back to creators.
What This Means for Marketers
– Reassess Workflow Efficiency: If you haven’t yet integrated AI tools into your production stack, you’re leaving time and money on the table—especially for asset-heavy campaigns with tight turnarounds.
– Embrace Interactive Formats: Consider shifting media budgets toward immersive, dynamic ad formats—especially on OTT and streaming platforms—to better capture attention in a premium viewing environment.
– Adopt Predictive Targeting: AI-powered segmentation and personalisation are unlocking new levels of campaign precision. Test these capabilities in your media buying workflow to improve performance lift.
– Monitor Emerging Platforms: Keep an eye on how OpenAI and other AI platforms pursue monetisation. As these ecosystems evolve, they could present new native ad inventory or affiliate-style integrations.
– Prepare for AI Agents: Autonomous marketing assistants could soon handle everything from trafficking media to personalising funnels. Start building internal competency around agentic AI to future-proof your team.
Stay ahead. Stay adaptive. AI isn’t just upgrading marketing—it’s rewriting the rules.
