The growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) across the advertising industry presents marketers with an opportunity to achieve more than operational efficiency, according to Ben Kaplan, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Nexxen, who has called for a fundamental shift in how businesses approach agentic AI.
Kaplan argues that while much of the industry’s conversation around agentic AI revolves around reducing operational costs, accelerating campaign execution and minimising human intervention, marketers risk overlooking its greater potential to unlock new audiences, create market opportunities and drive sustainable business growth.
Reflecting on the growing number of agentic AI propositions in the market, Kaplan observed that many technology providers continue to position the technology primarily as a cost-saving solution rather than a strategic growth enabler.
“I have witnessed numerous agentic AI pitches this year, and increasingly, they sound alike. The central promise is almost always about doing the same things faster, cheaper and with fewer resources. While those efficiencies are valuable, I am yet to hear enough compelling arguments about how AI can fundamentally expand business growth,” Kaplan said.
He noted that this narrow positioning risks limiting the perceived value of AI to operational savings, rather than recognising its capacity to reshape business models, uncover new customer segments and create additional revenue opportunities.
Citing McKinsey research indicating that 88 per cent of organisations regularly use AI in at least one business function, while approximately 80 per cent prioritise efficiency in their AI initiatives, Kaplan highlighted the disconnect between widespread adoption and measurable business impact. He pointed out that only about 37 per cent of organisations report enterprise-level EBIT impact from AI, with most recording improvements below five per cent.
According to him, the advertising industry, where more than two-thirds of ad buyers reportedly use agents for media buying and campaign execution, must move beyond simply automating existing processes.
Moving Beyond the Efficiency Ceiling
Kaplan cautioned that an AI strategy focused exclusively on efficiency could eventually restrict business growth by repeatedly targeting audiences that already demonstrate an intention to purchase.
He explained that while AI-powered optimisation can improve targeting precision and reduce campaign waste, it does not necessarily expand the pool of potential customers or reveal emerging market opportunities.
“An AI agent will become exceptionally good at achieving the objective it is given. But if that objective is simply to find more people who already resemble your existing customers, you are essentially asking it to optimise within an increasingly limited pool. Efficiency cannot compensate indefinitely for a shrinking customer opportunity,” he said.
He further observed that much of the advertising industry’s reliance on so-called unique signals remains concentrated on conventional interaction data, including clicks, conversions, website visits and purchase histories.
Although these signals provide valuable insights into existing customer behaviour, Kaplan argued that they offer limited visibility into audiences that have yet to interact with a brand.
He maintained that marketers must therefore look beyond historical engagement data and embrace AI systems capable of identifying new audiences, understanding consumption patterns and revealing demand that traditional approaches may overlook.
For Kaplan, the distinction between AI-driven efficiency and AI-driven growth lies not necessarily in the sophistication of the underlying large language models, but in the quality of the data, objectives and strategic thinking guiding their deployment.
He also referenced research suggesting that organisations pursuing growth and innovation alongside efficiency are approximately three times more likely to fundamentally redesign how work gets done than those concentrating primarily on incremental improvements.
Three Ways AI Can Unlock New Advertising Opportunities
Outlining how marketers can transition from optimisation to opportunity creation, Kaplan identified three critical areas where AI can deliver meaningful growth.
First, he explained that AI should help brands discover audiences beyond their established customer profiles by identifying behavioural patterns and consumer segments that may not be visible through their proprietary data.
Second, AI should provide insights into what audiences consume, enabling brands to identify emerging interests, relevant content categories and potential areas for product or service development.
Third, AI should reveal untapped market opportunities by identifying audiences, categories and consumer moments where brands have limited visibility or have not previously considered competing.
Kaplan cited examples from Nexxen’s work with a fitness brand that reached nearly one million streaming households that other channels in its media plan could not access. He also highlighted a mobile gaming application that discovered its players were significant streaming viewers, prompting the development of a new channel strategy based on previously overlooked consumer behaviour.
“These businesses were not simply becoming more efficient at executing existing strategies. They were discovering opportunities they had not previously been able to see. That is where AI becomes a genuine growth driver: when it helps businesses reach new audiences, understand new behaviours and expand their market possibilities,” he said.
Asking Better Questions About AI
Kaplan urged marketers to become more discerning when evaluating AI solutions, arguing that the question should no longer be whether a technology provider offers AI capabilities, but what differentiates its underlying intelligence.
He encouraged businesses to examine the quality and uniqueness of the data powering AI systems, including whether consumption insights and visibility across the end-to-end programmatic advertising transaction are integrated to provide a more comprehensive understanding of audiences and campaign performance.
He also stressed the importance of transparency and human oversight, noting that marketers should be able to understand why an AI system makes particular decisions and retain the ability to challenge or adjust those decisions when necessary.
According to him, combining distinctive data assets, contextual intelligence and transparent decision-making will be essential to ensuring that AI delivers measurable strategic value rather than simply automating existing processes.
Redefining the Future of Marketing Organisations
Looking ahead, Kaplan said the growing capabilities of AI should prompt marketing leaders to reconsider organisational structures, workforce responsibilities and the nature of human contribution.
He argued that an efficiency-led approach could result in fewer employees performing the same tasks, whereas a growth-oriented approach would empower existing teams to pursue new opportunities and undertake more strategic responsibilities.
“As a CMO, I am rethinking how to structure my organisation around AI for growth. If agents take on more of the execution, the opportunity is not simply to have fewer people doing the same work. It is to enable the same or even more people to do different, higher-value work. Human expertise becomes even more important in setting priorities, questioning what the technology can see and determining where the business should go next,” Kaplan said.
He concluded that the real opportunity presented by agentic AI is not merely the ability to reduce costs, save time or streamline marketing operations, but its potential to expand the boundaries of what businesses can achieve.
“For marketers, the ultimate value of AI should not be measured solely by how much work it eliminates or how much time it saves. It should be measured by the opportunities it creates, the audiences it helps businesses discover and the growth it makes possible. The real value lies not in shrinking roles or simply gaining time, but in expanding possibilities,” he added.
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