NOTEWORTHY NEWS: OUR TAKE ON THE LATEST AI/GENAI NEWS

Noteworthy AI News for Agencies - Fifth Edition

By Jeremy Lockhorn , SVP, Creative Technologies & Innovation, 4A's

THE BIG STORY:

Agentic AI is evolving quickly and unlocking new opportunities for agencies. We discussed this capability in our newsletter a couple of weeks ago , and again in our deeper-dive POV on recent announcements from big AI tech leaders.

It remains early days, and these (relatively) primitive agents are far from perfect. Many of of the use cases being tossed around are not specific to the advertising space - they tend to be either consumer-focused (e.g., managing an e-commerce return with a click of a button or a voice command) or enterprise-oriented (e.g., improving customer service/support with both fully automated responses as well as assisting human representatives). But studying what other industries are doing can be a powerful way to help envision the future of agentic AI in our own industry.

A few great pieces on this theme:

• McKinsey summarizes GenAI’s “second wave” in 5 insightful articles .
• A separate McKinsey piece highlights “The promise and the reality of gen AI agents in the enterprise”
• Wired, in a way that only Wired can do - suggests that AI models are entering their stone age and are beginning to use tools. Antropic’s blog also highlights how Claude can now use tools.?

OTHER INTERESTING AI NEWS FOR AGENCIES:

• Continuing with our McKinsey (and learning from other industries) theme - they’ve released results from a new survey showcasing AI adoption across various industries, and - no surprise - it’s growing and beginning to demonstrate more value.
• SearchEngineLand provides 5 strategies for preparing for AI Overviews . The new Google feature has caught a lot of flack since the reveal at I/O, but the tech giant seems determined to retool rather than abandon.?
• OpenAI insiders have sounded alarm bells again around AI safety concerns .
• HBR has a nice piece on different types of GenAI risk and how to mitigate them .?
• Emarketer on the transformation of search .

RECENT AI CAMPAIGN EXAMPLES:

• Digiday reports on the performance of AI-written ads vs. human for U.K. clothing retailer Matalan. Spoiler alert - the AI ads performed better than the human ones, but for a very specific use case that is arguably mostly about an AI trying to game another AI.
• Here’s another example of trying to game an algorithm: LG’s new campaign from TBWA\Chiat\Day offers a playlist of positive videos to infuse more optimism and positivity into social feeds.

Visit our AI/GENAI Hub for the latest guidance from the 4A's.

Missed previous editions of Noteworthy News? Catch up here:

May 31 - #4

May 24 - # 3

May 17 - #2

May 10 - #1

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