Separating Hype From Reality - AI In Paid Digital Advertising Right Now

AI is everywhere in headlines. I'm guessing if you are a brand marketer, your emails are full of sales outreach claiming to have the next great AI tool that will solve all your marketing problems.  AI supports much of your campaign execution, but it doesn’t run it on its own. Not yet anyway.

You may be feeling overwhelmed by the concept of AI in digital advertising. As an agency owner, I did too. Then I started investigating and testing. If you're a brand investing $25K or more per month in PPC, paid social or programmatic channels, here's what matters right now.

What AI Is Doing Today

You're already using AI in most major ad buying platforms you use today:

·         Meta Advantage+ automates targeting, bidding, and placements

·         Google Performance Max builds and runs full campaigns using your inputs

·         Amazon Ads uses predictive AI for product recommendations and placements

·         DSPs like Basis and The Trade Desk apply machine learning to bid and for budget optimization.  AI also plays a role in fraud detection, audience scoring, and bid shading—though these functions are baked into DSPs and mostly invisible to advertisers.

You don't need to install anything. It's already on. You just need to manage it well.

Where AI Is Helping Most Right Now

·         Generating ad copy and design variations (Canva, Adobe Firefly, Jasper)

·         Speeding up creative mockups and concepts

·         Producing video scripts and light edits

·         Tagging and organizing assets in content libraries

These tools are faster and cheaper than human-only workflows. But they still need clear direction and review. No AI tool replaces strategy or decision-making.  AI tools help generate assets faster. But human direction, brand safety, and legal review still slow full automation. Treat these tools as accelerators, not replacements.

Where AI Is Not Ready Yet

·         Campaign strategy development

·         Media planning - Tools exist, but adoption and reliability remain limited for most brands without full data integration or internal analytics teams.

·         Budget allocations across channels

·         Attribution modeling

·         Custom segmentation or audience strategy

·         High-stakes reporting or client-facing insights

AI tools don't replace your team or agency's thinking. They mimic and speed up patterns. That's not the same thing.

What You Should Do

You don't need to overhaul your stack. You don't need to chase every new AI tool.

You do need to do this:

·         Learn what platforms already automate

·         Audit how your team uses those automations

·         Test low-risk creative tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Canva, Jasper, or Adobe

·         Talk to your media team about what's manual and what's not

·         Block one hour each week to study one real AI topic

·         If your team already tests advanced tools and workflows, pick one AI use case to test in depth—then measure results against a control.

Why This Matters

Most AI in digital advertising is behind the scenes. You're not behind. You're not late.

But the teams and/or agencies learning AI now will know how to use it later. That's the edge.

For middle-market brands, AI isn't about keeping up with the latest trends. It's about understanding which tools solve real problems and which ones create new ones. Focus on efficiency gains you understand, not automation you don't control.

What's your experience with AI in your paid digital advertising workflows? Drop a comment below - I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Sean Sweeney Founder and CEO, First Position Digital