09/08/2026
The Age of Algorithmic Media is here. Advertising needs a new kind of agency.
Great piece from Stuart Meyler on why AI is a bigger shift for this industry than digital ever was.
His core argument: every media transition — newspapers, radio, TV, cable, digital — followed the same pattern. New complexity, new specialists, more demand for agency help, not less. History rhymes.
But this one's different. Digital changed where advertising happened. AI is changing how it happens — who (or what) decides targeting, bidding, creative selection, and budget allocation. That's a much bigger shift, and bolting AI tools onto an old agency model won't cut it, any more than adding a "digital department" saved traditional agencies in 2001.
A few things that stood out:
→ Platform AI optimizes for the platform. Google's AI will always favor more Google spend. Meta's favors more Meta spend. You still need someone on your side of the table — arguably more than ever.
→ An AI-native agency doesn't just work faster. It does things the old model couldn't do at all: simulating audiences before a dollar is spent, pre-testing thousands of creative variations, forecasting outcomes instead of just reporting them.
→ Trust is not a software feature. As machines take on more decisions, the human judgment, independence, and accountability an agency brings only becomes more valuable, not less.
Stuart also lays out six concrete questions to ask any agency about how it actually uses AI — worth a read if you're evaluating partners right now.
Full article in comments 👇