The Future Of Ad Agencies In An AI-Driven World

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Prefer watching instead of reading? Watch the video here. Prefer reading instead? Scroll down for the full text. Prefer listening instead? Scroll up for the audio player.

P.S. The video and audio are in sync, so you can switch between them or control playback as needed. Enjoy Greyhound Standpoint insights in the format that suits you best. Join the conversation on social media using #GreyhoundStandpoint.

---

For the last few months, Swiggy, India’s hyperlocal food delivery platform, had been involved in the beta testing of Google’s advertising-focused AI solutions to boost its reach to audiences. One of these solutions was an improved version of Performance Max, which allows e-commerce users to re-engage with existing customers who are inactive.

Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO and Chief Analyst at Greyhound Research, said Meta’s end-to-end advertising vision marks a “structural rupture” in how advertising is executed.

“This shift erodes the agency’s historical domain of media planning and creative scale. However, this is a forced reinvention moment for agencies. The long-term value of creative strategy, brand stewardship, and ethical guardrails remains beyond the reach of today’s AI,” said Gogia, advising agencies to deliver value where AI falls short. These areas include cultural intelligence, creative originality, and campaign governance.

As quoted in The Hindu Business Line, in an article authored by Vallari Sanzgiri published on July 14, 2025.

Beyond the Media Quote: Our View, In Full

Can AI for advertising by Big Tech players like Meta and Google make ad agencies obsolete?

We at Greyhound Research believe that while AI-led ad automation will hollow out many traditional agency functions, it will not render agencies obsolete. Meta’s end-to-end advertising vision—where brands simply input product details and budgets for the AI to generate campaigns autonomously—marks a structural rupture in how advertising is executed. This shift erodes the agency’s historical domain of media planning and creative scale. However, obsolescence is not a foregone conclusion. We view this as a forced reinvention moment for agencies. The long-term value of creative strategy, brand stewardship, and ethical guardrails remains beyond the reach of today’s AI. Agencies that recast themselves as interpreters and auditors of AI platforms—guiding prompts, ensuring cultural fidelity, and validating algorithmic outcomes—can continue to stay central in the client decision-making process. The risk lies with agencies that cling to transactional execution models rather than evolving into high-value orchestrators.

How will an ad agency’s role change in such circumstances?

At Greyhound Research, we believe the agency’s role is being recast—from media execution partners to strategic stewards of brand integrity in an AI-dominated environment. As platform-native AI tools automate large swathes of the advertising funnel, agencies must now deliver value where AI falls short: cultural intelligence, creative originality, and campaign governance. We see agencies increasingly acting as AI co-pilots—responsible for training, calibrating, and supervising generative outputs across formats. Their remit will extend into new domains like prompt engineering, bias detection, and ethics compliance. This requires agencies to reskill, build AI capability stacks, and develop proprietary tooling that sits atop platform ecosystems. The most resilient agencies will be those that own the narrative layer of advertising—ensuring that automated campaigns remain on-brand, locally relevant, and socially accountable.

How will AI in advertising affect the entire advertising model, especially in India?

We at Greyhound Research recognise India as a frontline laboratory for AI-led advertising transformation. With Meta and Google dominating the mobile ad ecosystem and AI tools becoming embedded in campaign workflows, we are witnessing a structural shift from agency-led to platform-led advertising models—especially among small and mid-sized businesses. In India, the automation of media and creative tasks has enabled a wave of advertisers who previously lacked resources or expertise. However, we caution that this democratisation comes at a creative cost. The efficiency of AI risks flattening cultural nuance, reducing ad diversity, and reinforcing template-driven communication. In such a context, we believe the role of human-led narrative design becomes even more vital. The Indian market, with its linguistic and socio-cultural complexity, requires more than just machine-led personalisation—it demands interpretation, empathy, and contextual storytelling. That’s where future-fit agencies must lead.

Is there any way for ad agencies to compete with Meta and Google in such a scenario?

At Greyhound Research, we are firm in our belief that agencies should not attempt to out-automate the platforms, but out-contextualise them. Competing with Meta and Google on infrastructure is futile—but translating platform capability into brand authenticity, campaign resilience, and cross-platform fluency is where agencies can assert dominance. We advise agencies to reposition themselves as AI enablers, not adversaries—offering layered services such as strategic AI input design, independent campaign QA, and post-algorithm creative lift. The agencies that survive this platform onslaught will be those that provide brand safety netting, algorithmic transparency, and creative uniqueness in a world increasingly defined by generative sameness. This shift demands new investments, new skills, and a renewed commitment to delivering value that platforms cannot internalise.

Will advertisers gravitate towards the big companies rather than ad agencies?

We at Greyhound Research observe a clear migration of performance-focused advertisers toward direct platform engagement—especially in markets like India, where self-serve AI tools offer speed and scale. However, this migration does not eliminate the need for agencies. It simply reshapes the agency’s relevance from executor to strategic interpreter. As advertisers deepen their investments in Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ campaigns, the tactical budget flows into platform AI. Yet, we find that enterprise marketers continue to rely on agencies for upstream brand strategy, cross-platform orchestration, and long-horizon creative ideation. The divide is no longer between in-house and agency, but between AI-generated efficiency and human-led meaning. Advertisers will increasingly adopt hybrid operating models—delegating execution to platforms while retaining agencies for oversight, insight, and alignment to brand values.

What would this mean for the user? Will we see more ads-based models for accessing services?

At Greyhound Research, we believe the growing reliance on AI-led advertising is accelerating the shift toward ad-funded access models—especially in value-conscious markets like India. OTT, news, and gaming platforms are reengineering their monetisation strategies to include intelligent ad placements, and this is directly tied to the rise of more efficient AI-powered campaign tools. For the user, this means more personalised, contextually embedded, and sometimes imperceptibly native ad experiences. While such experiences can enhance relevance, they also blur the lines between content and commerce. We foresee a scenario where ads become omnipresent but increasingly indistinguishable—raising concerns around consent, fatigue, and data ethics. The upside is greater access to services without financial barriers. The downside is the invisible trade-off: attention becomes currency, and AI models shape consumption through algorithmic persuasion. We urge stakeholders—agencies, regulators, and platforms—to centre user dignity in this transformation. AI-led advertising should not only deliver ROI but also uphold equity, clarity, and trust in the digital experience.

Copyright Policy. All content contained on the Greyhound Research website is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published, or broadcast without the prior written permission of Greyhound Research or, in the case of third-party materials, the prior written consent of the copyright owner of that content. You may not alter, delete, obscure, or conceal any trademark, copyright, or other notice appearing in any Greyhound Research content. We request our readers not to copy Greyhound Research content and not republish or redistribute them (in whole or partially) via emails or republishing them in any media, including websites, newsletters, or intranets. We understand that you may want to share this content with others, so we’ve added tools under each content piece that allow you to share the content. If you have any questions, please get in touch with our Community Relations Team at connect@thofgr.com.