Assembly's Kate Nible on AI's impact on agencies at Advertising Week

Check out this great summary of our conversation at Advertising Week on Gen AI’s role in the creative process and agency relationship.

Agencies aren’t just dabbling in generative AI anymore... They’re restructuring around it. At Advertising Week New York, leaders from WPP and Assembly Global shared how AI is transforming workflows, creative processes, and team structures—and why change management, not technology, is now the real challenge. They also pointed to the creative upside: shifting from low-funnel efficiencies to big ideas, new ways of working, and rethinking how agencies partner with clients. Read my full recap in ADWEEK: 🔗 https://lnkd.in/drnVWK4Q

It's fair to say that almost every disruption in digital marketing starts with consumer behavior. The explosion of AI is no different. We surveyed over 1,000 U.S. shoppers to explore their awareness and adoption of AI search, and what we found was telling, to say the least. While some consumers were still typing keywords into legacy search engines, 60% of them opted into the journey of AI search and shopping, where the recommendations were hyper personalized and the deals they were looking for weren't buried on page two. Discovery no longer begins on the SERP. It’s starting in AI, and we’ve got the data to back it up. See the evidence for yourself in our newest AI Search Report. 🔎 https://lnkd.in/ej5isTpy #AIsearch #SearchAdvertising #DigitalInnovation

Assembly Global'S Chief Media Officer, Jason Lim, recently joined an incredible lineup of industry leaders at ADWEEK’s Group Chat: “Using AI to Turn Smarter Signals Into Sales.” Alongside experts from Mondelēz International, Interpublic Group (IPG), Chobani, Starcom, and Fetch, Jason explored how AI is transforming marketing. Jason shared how today’s data and AI capabilities enable marketers to go beyond understanding what consumers bought yesterday to predicting what they’ll want tomorrow — helping brands stay relevant, agile, and performance-driven. Big thanks to Adweek and Fetch for hosting the discussion. #Adweek #AI #DataDrivenMarketing #MediaStrategy #Assembly #AdvertisingWeekNY Read the full article here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eppizAiA

Gen Z is leading the way when it comes to trusting AI, according to our new report: https://bit.ly/3VJ06OU Here’s what we found: - 30% of Gen Z buyers say they always or very often trust AI-generated content - That’s compared to just 20% of all surveyed buyers This makes sense for a generation raised in a tech-first world. They’re comfortable experimenting with new tools, and bringing that mindset into the buying process. If your content is showing up in AI search results and summaries, Gen Z is more likely than other generations to trust it, so make sure you’re part of the conversation.

EMARKETER Chart of the Day Key stat: 90% or more of consumer goods’ decision-makers are using AI technologies, including generative, predictive, and agentic AI, or plan to use them in the next two years, according to a June 2025 survey from Salesforce. Beyond the chart: Nearly half (46%) of advertisers plan to use AI for creating media strategies in 2025, up slightly from 2024, according to a DoubleVerify report. Marketers are increasingly turning to AI for help with dynamic creative optimization (40%), campaign activation (41%), and summarizing media briefs (31%), per the same report. #ArtificialIntelligence #MarTech

📊 Role of AI in Personalized Outreach 💡 The TransUnion 2024 Debt Collection Industry Report highlights that 44% of companies using AI leverage it to create personalized outreach strategies for better consumer engagement. 💡 Insight: Personalization improves consumer relationships and drives higher recovery rates. 📖 Learn more about AI-powered personalization at https://zurl.co/75keJ. 📢 How are you using AI to tailor your outreach strategies? Let’s collaborate below! Suggested Graphic: A pie chart showing AI use cases in personalized outreach. #AIPersonalization #ConsumerEngagement #ReceivablesInfo #FactFriday

AI needs humans to make ads resonate. Consumers say the most impactful ads come when AI is guided by human creativity and empathy. That’s the difference between ads that feel automated and ads that truly connect. Our new report, AI and Advertising Today: What Consumers Expect, explores how brands can combine AI’s efficiency with human insight to earn attention and trust. Download the full report here: https://bit.ly/4gFPqKx

When Smartly embarked on this research, we set out to understand how consumers really feel about AI in advertising. I’ll admit, I expected skepticism. Maybe even distrust. The kind of “keep it away from my feed” energy. What we discovered? Quite literally the opposite. ▪️ 73% say AI adds more relevance when it understands context ▪️ Most say: give us both - - AI for speed, people for trust ▪️ Nearly 90% now use AI weekly, and daily use climbing fast We aren’t afraid of AI, we're ready for it. And so are marketers, who are embracing AI not to replace human creativity, but to scale it. When technology amplifies what marketers do best -- what people do best -- emotion, intuition, storytelling... that’s when advertising gets really interesting. cc: Julia Berk Alicia Mickelsen Sara Griggs

Such an interesting takeaway: consumers aren’t pushing back against AI, they’re ready for it. Great insights from Brianna Gays and the Smartly team.