By Kimeko McCoy • June 9, 2026 •
The promise of AI efficiency versus the messy, financial-based reality is creating ongoing tension as the industry continues to debate whether AI expedites work, scales creative and curbs costs.
“Whether or not it does or doesn’t is still completely all over the place,” said Vic Drabicky, founder and CEO at January Digital, an independent media agency and consultancy, based in New York.
Brands like Coca-Cola have used AI to create constantly updated, hyper-personalized digital personas to scale creative from talent partnerships. Brands and their agency partners have started using agents to plan, execute, and optimize ad purchases.
At the same time, clients have high expectations, looking to AI to automate so much that it could start to cut into agency margins. Companies shelled out on AI tools while return on investments are still pending. To put some numbers to it, 40% of companies that measure their AI cost savings realized reductions of 10% or less — expectations were higher for more meaningful improvement, according to a new Bain & Co. global survey of large companies and reported by Bloomberg.
