Media buying among 'first areas to go' with rise of AI, says MediaMonks co-founder

MediaMonks co-founder Wesley ter Haar has said media buying will be one of the “first areas to go” as artificial intelligence increases tech platforms’ dominance among advertising agencies.

Speaking to Campaign alongside S4 Capital's Sir Martin Sorrell, ter Haar likened media buying to travel agents in the early 2000s before the rise in popularity of online booking sites.

“Media buying feels like the travel agents of the early 2000s, where suddenly they are no longer there and you’re surprised to see them,” he said.

“We’re already seeing in some of the work we’re doing with the platforms that content is directed to the algorithms.”

As explored in a Campaign feature on the topic last year, generative AI has made significant strides in enhancing programmatic advertising by enabling hyper-personalisation and optimising ad creatives, placements and bidding strategies.

Ter Haar added that a large part of media revenue is in service to tech platforms’ algorithms and, as such, it may mean the buying element is the first to be automated by AI.

“So that, to me, feels like on paper they are the first areas to go,” he added. “But, realistically, there's a lot of ingrained behaviour there. There's a lot of complexity, sometimes the big media companies are on the datasets. So it feels like one of the areas that should be disrupted first but, if it goes a bit slower than it should, it’s because of that friction.”

As a result, he predicted a “messy few years” ahead for ad agencies.

“Even though it's going to be a messy few years, you have to be a good partner to your clients,” he said.

Ter Haar and Sorrell are part of a European AI tour delivered by Google and MediaMonks, which is owned by S4 Capital, to help clients address brands’ and agencies’ concerns around AI. 

One of the first workshops of the tour, open to advertisers but closed to journalists, was held in London this week and included a "fireside chat" with Sorrell and Matt Brittin, Google’s EMEA president.

Sorrell told Campaign tech platforms are encroaching on media agencies’ clients and creating direct relationships with them.