Media agencies are balancing the acceleration of proprietary AI tools with human oversight. But the role of planners has already changed, moving from hands-on campaign builders to conductors and AI-powered “strategists”.
At EssenceMedia, in-house technology, WPP Open, has been a “game-changer”.
“We definitely aren’t relying on generic tools. IN WPP Open we’ve built a deeply integrated, proprietary ecosystem that connects AI-powered planning, production, creative and commerce capability alongside client 1PD (first party data) in a secure privacy-safe platform,” said Alex Williams, Sydney head of planning.
“In my opinion, this is a game-changer for driving effectiveness for our clients.”
He said both the agency and its clients have seen the benefits of using the technology to streamline the marketing process.
“The speed and accuracy in which we can bring together vast datasets, all important client context and human ingenuity is so exciting," he said.
“With WPP Open, planners have access to datasets and the capability to make sense of them, which I could only dream of when I started my planning career in the early 2010s.
“It cuts out the dead time you spend ‘looking’ for the data to inform your decision-making as all the data is in one place, always up to date and tailored to your client’s category by default.”
Campaign planning is not a set and forget, and has become, more so than ever, a continuous process of optimisation.
WPP Open helps the team stay ahead of industry trends and make quicker decisions, particularly when planning for digital campaigns which are already competing against the rapid nature of the ecosystem.
“WPP Open saves us time by helping us stay ahead of the trends in real time," Williams said.
"By giving the subject matter experts access to all of the data they need our planners can make the best decision to drive outcomes in today’s fast moving landscape.
“Take screens planning for example, the playing field changes at such a pace it’s immensely difficult to predict without AI-powered capabilities, at the risk of using a metaphor that alienates the youth of our industry, at times it can feel like trying to hit that final spaceship on a level of Space Invaders.
“To keep that analogy going, as the alien ship gets lower and lower, faster and faster, aiming where the ship is (the ship is the consumer) is utterly futile as they will fly past your ill-timed blaster shot just like the landscape will have changed five months after you’ve signed off your annual media plans.”
Alex Pacey, chief product officer at OMG, calls the choice between proprietary or “off-the-shelf” AI technology a liability for those trying to survive the fast-moving permeation of tech across the media landscape.
Omnicom has built its own AI system, Omni, that works as the foundation, and outsourced generative AI solutions.
This includes partnerships with leading AI tools like Microsoft Azure OpenAI, Google Cloud Vertex AI with Gemini and Imagen, Amazon Bedrock, and Adobe Firefly.
Omni focuses on helping the agency with more complex work tasks across its creative, media, commerce and measurement sectors.
“We have deliberately constructed a hybrid architecture precisely because the marketing challenges we solve demand flexibility, speed, and relentless optimisation,” said Pacey.
“Omni is not trying to reinvent the wheel on foundational AI models.
“We are model-agnostic by design, which means we can deploy over 40 different models depending on which is optimal for the task at hand. This flexibility is not just about performance; it is about risk management and avoiding lock-in."
Pacey said the company's competitive advantage is in the proprietary layer its solutions create.
"Tools like Activation AI, which optimises media bidding in real-time, or ARC, which scales creative assets across channels, are distinctly ours," he said.
“We have invested heavily in cultural intelligence through our Q system, which ingests data from over 9,000 global sources to identify and quantify cultural trends before they become obvious.
“On the commerce side, Flywheel uses custom agents to handle everything from demand forecasting to launch optimisation. The playbook is clear: leverage world-class foundational models while building proprietary solutions that only you can deploy. That is where differentiation lives.”
The agency has seen a surge in productivity across multiple sectors and a reported 200% increase in processing speed for data operations.
Creative production has seen processes cut to six days from six weeks for major consumer packaged goods (CPG) clients.
AI agents are shortening the timelines of account teams with more time to focus on strategy and relationships, with tasks like pitch decks and pre-sale material delegated to agents and reducing time for sales representatives by 80-90%.
And predictive insight tools have also sped up market launch timelines by 70%.
Flywheel employees have earned time back, on average, eight hours each week.
“The time savings we are seeing are not marginal improvements; they are fundamentally reshaping how marketing operations function,” said Pacey.
The traditional framework for marketing operations, with which campaigns were rigid and planned against calendars, has changed, aged by the speed of AI automation. Optimisation from data insights and market signals is now achievable in real-time.
“The old model was: plan, produce, launch, measure. The new model is continuous optimisation," he said.
“AI is systematically automating the most time intensive operational bottlenecks including data synthesis, creative rendering, bid optimisation, and collateral production.
“As autonomous systems become more capable, roughly doubling in sophistication every seven months, the time freed up compounds.
“Teams spend less time grinding through execution and exponentially more time on strategic orchestration. That is the real productivity unlock."
Pacey said the efficiency transformation is the most consequential shift in marketing operations since programmatic advertising.
“Marketing has historically been episodic: campaign planning, production, launch, then measurement," he said.
“AI fundamentally changes that to a continuous learning model operating at speeds human teams cannot achieve.
“Our AI enabled bid management makes optimisation decisions hourly, adjusting spend allocation based on real-time performance data. That velocity of decision-making is simply impossible to match manually.”
AI is delivering substantial, measurable results for OMG, beyond cost-cutting.
Activation AI has delivered 35% more efficient CPMs (cost per mile or impression) and 20% more efficient CPAs (cost per acquisition) across OMG’s portfolio. For one consumer packaged goods (CPG) client there was a 300% return on ad spend (ROAS).
Another client reported 58% more cost effectiveness as custom algorithms in paid search have significantly reduced cost per acquisition.
The automation of tactical optimisation and execution have also removed the time and budget constraints and planners have the resources to focus on premium quality measures.
This includes neurotesting, rigorous brand compliance frameworks and deep cultural context analysis.
Pacey refers to this "full stack marketer model" as key to ensuring that “efficiency at scale” does not undermine effectiveness.
“That is the full stack marketer model,” he said.
“Efficiency at scale does not have to mean diminished effectiveness; when orchestrated correctly, it actually amplifies long-term ROI. Scale becomes an advantage, not a liability.”
Digital marketing is also becoming both more efficient and safer with AI support.
The agency’s pharmaceutical clients have reported a 100% accuracy for regulatory claims while achieving an 86% improvement for efficiency from faster compliance processes.
iProspect, a Dentsu digital marketing agency, has implemented a strategy which layers the competitive advantages of different owned and off-the-shelf AI models.
This includes enterprise AI, which is widely used across the company for improving productivity and capability, such as Microsoft AI assistant Copilot.
And platform-native optimisation, which includes built-in AI-tools from campaign planning platforms the agency already uses.
Also proprietary internal tools such predictive customer journey modelling, that provides with strategic insights not available from generic off-the-shelf tools.
“We’re incredibly proud of the gains we have made in our utilisation of AI,” associate director, data and analytics, iProspect, Toby Lucas, said.
AI is responsible for 35% to 45% of the media planning work-load. This includes functions such as data gathering and normalisation, audience segmentation, modelling and reporting.
The agency has innovated its audience targeting capabilities using Dentsu’s proprietary AI tool CoPo (consumer in your pocket) to create synthetic audiences they can test strategic ideas on.
“One of the major leaps we’ve made this year is around the creation of synthetic audiences, essentially using AI to role-play specific target segments,” chief strategy officer, iProspect, Nick Kavanagh, said.
“Dentsu’s proprietary tool CoPo [consumer in your pocket] helps our strategist and planners to rapidly test hypothesis or approaches with an AI-enabled proxy of the intended target audience.
"What might have taken weeks previously now takes a couple of hours.”
AI handles repetitive tasks like pacing, managing how campaign spend is spread across the planning calendar, and bidding, buying ad space for digital campaigns, in real-time.
“More broadly we’re now seeing AI handle routine pacing and bidding on campaign delivery, enabling the analysts to focus all their attention on the high-value decisions,” said Lucas.
“This doesn’t just make the work better for our clients but is removing repetitive elements from roles."
The changing role of media planners
The scope of media planners has evolved.
This might appear to be as simple as improved efficiency and quicker workflows, equals an easier job. However, there is more pressure for media planners to reskill across the many “touchpoints” the AI work-relationship has created.
“Industry trends like fragmentation, media landscape change and the growing imperative to justify media spend against incremental business outcomes has meant strategic planners need to have expert knowledge of more than just planning and buying to the most efficient cost per reach point,” Williams said.
“Strategic planners have become the conductors of an ever-evolving orchestra of touchpoints, data, capabilities and trends.”
Despite seeing the pay-offs, Williams argues that his team, the human side, will continue to be integral to sustaining market success. They must remain the leaders.
Williams said human talent will remain the ultimate differentiator in the world of communication planning.
“We are the conductors of a vast orchestra. An orchestra in which AI capabilities and agentic solutions are the instruments playing along to our tune," he said.
“While AI is brilliant at pattern recognition and helping to make sense of large datasets at a breakneck speed, it can’t replicate the human ingenuity and emotional intelligence that a real-life person can bring to the table.
“We need skilled and experienced planners to apply critical judgment to AI’s data, knowing exactly what to prompt to unlock a non-obvious breakthrough idea. That strategic vision and the ability to connect with clients on a human level cannot be replaced.”
Williams calls the hybrid relationship between AI and human talent, “exciting”. This will be a defining trend for the future of media planning.
The agency has already undergone change in the past year and a half since the integration of AI agents across different teams. This is for functions like knowledge sharing, training and data aggregation and analytics, “particularly in the world of measurement to consolidate PCAs and identify trends”.
AI will continue to be part of decision-making for agencies, but this will be “low-stake”. This points to the relevancy of media planners and not the replacement that tech worry-culture may suggest.
“The future of planning is undoubtedly hybrid with experts at the helm of teams consisting of humans, supplemented by AI,” he said.
“AI automated planning will help with laying the initial foundations and table stakes but I don’t hold much stock in planning becoming automated completely, formulaic planning can only get you so far, and you won’t be unique in having that capability.
“There’s no competitive advantage if your competitors are using similar algorithms, you’ll all end up saying the same thing, to the same people, in the same spaces.
“Competitive advantage comes from the human leading your comms planning. A human who now has much more time, energy and power to tackle the big rocks, the kind of rocks that drive game changing outcomes.”
Pacey points to a future “Infinite Intelligence", which also rejects the human versus AI narrative. AI is an essential tool for “speed, scale, consistency and automation”.
But it strengthens, or “multiplies” invaluable human skills and insights, rather than replacing the role of media planners entirely.
“Let me be clear: the future is not human versus AI. It is human multiplied by AI,” he said.
“We call this Infinite Intelligence. The organisations that understand this distinction will win.
“Right now, we operate under what we call Human in the Loop, a framework that acknowledges what AI brings (speed, scale, consistency, automation) and what only humans provide (accountability, strategic vision, empathy, creativity, judgement, and cultural understanding).
“These are not complementary nice to haves; they are foundational requirements. “Someone needs to codify brand voice and ethical principles into the systems that guide autonomous agents.
"Someone needs to make high-stakes decisions, handle negotiations, and ensure that optimisation does not create generic, soulless work. That is human work, and it is more critical now than ever.”
Kavanagh distinguishes between what AI can and can’t do. It can validate, analyse and improve efficiency.
However, it has its limitations and lacks: originality and non-linear thinking, an asset of human insight.
“Within the strategy function specifically, whether it’s stress-testing logic flows or processing large volumes of data, AI has become an essential sounding board, no doubt about it,” he said.
“However, AI can't write strategy, well, good strategy at least! Good strategy is too nuanced, too non-linear, too messy in its development to be written by AI. We have also found AI to be very poor at any kind of original or progressive ideation, so won’t be challenging our team of crack workshop facilitators any time soon.”
What this means for upcoming talent?
The evolution of AI is already in full swing, with Pacey noting the shift from generative AI to agentic AI - the "real accelerator". "Web 4.0" will see AI agents transition from content creators who respond to prompts, to fully autonomous orchestrators of complex, multi-step marketing workflows in an "agent-mediated ecosystem".
This will redefine the skillsets for future hires.
Media planners will create the rule-book for AI to play by and move away from a campaign mindset, as they become the new "system conductors".
"The competitive edge shifts to governance and orchestration," said Pacey.
"Leaders will not manage individual campaigns; they will define strategy and ethical policy as governance as code, essentially architecting the principles and guardrails that guide autonomous agent behaviour at scale.
“The skill becomes managing the learning velocity of adaptive systems, designing the conditions where agents, teams, and strategies evolve safely while remaining aligned with brand purpose. You are no longer a campaign manager; you are a systems architect.
"The talent we are competing for in three years will be fundamentally different from the talent we compete for today. That requires intentional reskilling, cultural adaptation, and a willingness to think in systems rather than campaigns. That is where the future of marketing leadership lives."
The push-pull relationship between agencies leveraging AI technology and sustaining the craft of the marketing process from human-led work, will endure.
"Media planning will stay a hybrid craft of art + science,” said Toby Lucas at iProspect.
“AI will push the science (data, modelling, optimisation) further forward, but humans will be even more central in setting direction, creating the “so what,” and making the cultural and commercial judgement calls that turn outputs into impact.”
The cultural and critical value of media planners will continue to be a force.
“In two to three years, I’d expect AI to automate 60–70% of the mechanical planning workload, while 30–40% remains distinctly human-led strategy, creativity, negotiation, client counsel, and the translation of signals into a story and a plan people actually buy into.”
Have something to say on this? Share your views in the comments section below. Or if you have a news story or tip-off, drop us a line at adnews@yaffa.com.au
Sign up to the AdNews newsletter, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for breaking stories and campaigns throughout the day.