AI Shifts Ad-Tech And Media-Buying Budgets For 2025
Budgets will shift to emerging AI-powered channels that embrace creative automation and conversational commerce as marketers begin to feel more optimistic about the coming year.
Seventy-five percent of participants in a study from Smartly released today anticipate a budget increase to support change.
“Typically, performance and brands sit on different sides of the business, but we are seeing a convergence with budgets and teams growing with more investments in marketing,” said Brianna Gays, senior vice president of communications and marketing at Smartly. “There’s a need for combined scale.”
Thirty percent of the advertising spend on Smartly’s platform is video that runs through paid social and Google, which she said has increased significantly from last year, creating efficiencies.
Findings from Smartly’s global Digital Advertising Trends 2025 report, released today, identified preferences, business trends and where advertisers want more tools, technology and innovation.
The 2024 commissioned research ran between September and October of 2024. About 459 marketers -- not all Smartly customers -- participated across the U.S, U.K. and APAC at organizations that spend at least $2 million or more in paid social, programmatic and other media annually. The participants work at agencies and brands.
AI’s increasing role in ad-tech and media buying is a notable shift. From a conservative perspective, this change highlights the need for caution around automation’s impact on job markets and the potential stifling of creativity in ad production. While AI can create efficiencies, there's a risk of sidelining human input, which has traditionally been a core driver of effective messaging. Moreover, the centralization of ad spend with major players like Meta may consolidate power in ways that could harm competitive markets, reduce consumer choice, and raise privacy concerns.
~Political Media