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The advertising industry is experiencing its most significant transformation since the rise of digital marketing. At the heart of this change is the intersection of artificial intelligence and data – a combination that's rewriting the rules for media agencies. But while most discussions focus on AI tools and automation, the real revolution is happening in how agencies understand and utilize data to deliver value.
In a recent webinar, we invited industry leaders to explore this transformation. Our panel included Mari Kim Novak, CEO and Founder, MKnCo Advisory, Inc., Jon Reilly, CEO and Co-Founder, Akkio, and Tyler Pietz, CEO and Co-Founder, Anthrologic. Their discussion revealed not just how AI is changing the game, but how it's fundamentally altering the relationship between agencies, data, and client success.
What emerged was a picture of an industry at a pivotal moment. The old metrics of success – the size of your data sets, the complexity of your systems, even the scale of your organization – are being replaced by new measures centered on speed, insight, and outcomes. Here are the key insights that emerged from our discussion.
The past decade saw agencies racing to accumulate as much data as possible. But as Jon Reilly pointed out during our discussion, the game has changed: "The goal of the media company is to improve the return on advertising spend for the client or the brand... and to maximize that. And so therefore, the company that can perform that job the best will generally win."
It's no longer about who has the most data – it's about who can use it most effectively to drive results.
One of the biggest challenges agencies face is making sense of multiple data sources. As Reilly explained, "Any given task could require you to dip into 5 to 10 different data sets." The good news? AI is making this process significantly more efficient.
Modern AI tools are automating many routine data tasks, allowing professionals to focus on strategy rather than getting bogged down in technical implementation. This means teams can spend more time thinking about what they're trying to accomplish and less time writing SQL queries or dealing with data dictionaries.
Tyler Pietz highlighted a dramatic shift in how quickly agencies can now process and act on data: "Now that can be done in a matter of seconds, and then the next question can be asked in a matter of seconds... What if we did this versus that."
This acceleration goes well beyond efficiency – it's focused on transforming how agencies can interact with their clients and respond to market changes. What once took weeks of meetings and email chains can now be analyzed and acted upon almost instantly.
Perhaps most surprisingly, AI is leveling the playing field between large and small agencies. Mari Kim Novak observed that "AI will level the playing field in a very interesting way... smaller shops that have a very, very high level of specificity can be a really amazing partner."
This means specialized agencies with deep expertise in particular areas can now compete effectively with larger firms, provided they leverage AI effectively.
Based on our experts' insights, here are the key areas agencies should focus on:
The transformation of data usage in media agencies is fundamentally changing how agencies deliver value to their clients. As Jon Reilly noted, we're seeing "a sort of a pivotal moment where all of this data is going to be now able to be leveraged in really really effective and efficient ways and in surprising ways that maybe we haven't really thought of before."
The winners in this new landscape will be those who can best harness AI to turn data into actionable insights and measurable results for their clients.
Want to learn how your agency can better leverage AI for data analysis? Watch the full webinar here.