Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, plans to allow advertisers to fully create and target campaigns using artificial intelligence tools by the end of next year. The move has sent shock waves through the traditional marketing industry, posing a direct threat to advertising and media agencies that handle client campaigns and budgets.
The AI tools under development, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, will enable brands using Meta's advertising platform to generate ads from a product image and a planned marketing spend. This goes beyond existing AI features that allow advertisers to tweak existing ads before they appear on Facebook and Instagram.
The new system could disintermediate traditional advertising creation, planning, and buying roles played by agencies, and open up a long tail of advertisers with small budgets that cannot afford to retain marketing services companies. The AI would create entire ads—including imagery, video, and text—and target them to users based on a client's budget, with features like geolocation tailoring offers to users' likely destinations of interest.
News of Meta's planned AI rollout emerged on Monday, causing shares in major marketing services firms to fall. WPP dropped 3% in early trading, while Publicis Groupe and Havas fell 3.9% and 3% respectively. Meta already makes $160bn (£118bn) annually from advertising, and the new tools could significantly swell that figure.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, has described the development as “a redefinition of the category of advertising.” In April, Meta updated its spending outlook for next year, planning to invest between $64bn and $72bn in capital expenditure, including AI infrastructure—up from an earlier forecast of $65bn. Despite concerns, Meta insists it is not trying to kill off traditional agencies. Alex Schultz, chief marketing officer, said in a LinkedIn post: “We believe in the future of agencies… AI will enable agencies and advertisers to focus precious time and resources on the creativity that matters.” However, he added that AI tools would help “level the playing field” for small and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford agency services.
