AI is sweeping across industries far and wide. The impact on digital marketing and technology has been profound, enabling a level of automation and efficiency that was once unheard of.
But AI in digital marketing isn’t just about doing things faster; it’s about doing them smarter. AI sifts through mountains of data to empower agencies with game-changing insights.
It’s a new era in which business success hinges on the knowledge it can gather and the speed at which it can carry out tasks. However, AI has its hurdles.
Agencies must figure out how to navigate the complexities of integrating AI effectively. Gathering rich insights is step one, but how work is done will fundamentally change, requiring reskilling at every level.
More than licensing and using powerful tools will be necessary; marketers who understand the fundamentals of data science will be most effective in using AI-powered tools. They will play a critical role in leading innovation, process transformation and data strategy to maintain and improve the agency’s value to clients.
Agencies must also address essential questions: How do we help clients while respecting privacy and keeping data safe? How do we find ways for AI to work with people, not replace them? How do we measure gains in efficiency, productivity and quality?
By following a few strategies and best practices, agencies can use AI for the good of clients, their customers, employees and the future.
Spearheading Responsible Innovation with an AI Council
If you’re serious about building an AI practice, establishing an AI Council should be your first step. As part of a larger digital transformation effort, Mod Op brought together a committee of experts who oversee the use of AI and machine learning across the entire agency.
You might wonder, are these experts data scientists or seasoned machine learning professionals? Not necessarily. Instead, the Council brings together specialists in their fields of marketing—amazing front-end developers, graphic designers, copywriters, social media managers, digital media planners … this cross-section of expertise is what makes the Council so effective.
The Mod Op AI Council sets an example of responsible AI use in the industry. Following this model can help your organization embrace AI responsibly and effectively.
Setting the Standard for Responsible AI Adoption
To adopt AI responsibly, you must lay a strong foundation. Take a page out of Mod Op’s book: our AI Council’s first job was to set up a system that ensures AI technologies are used ethically.
We prioritized governance, compliance, data privacy and security by forming a specialized committee to oversee this area. It’s crucial to involve someone from IT to ensure that data security and compliance are always top of mind.
This approach helps build client trust while setting a high standard for responsible AI use in your company.
Evaluating AI Products and Tools
In digital marketing, choosing the right AI tools is essential. Agencies must carefully weigh their options to find the best tech for their team and clients.
An AI Council helps guide this process by setting clear guidelines for evaluating and implementing new AI technologies, ensuring they’re safe, ethical and respectful of privacy. It conducts thorough reviews to ensure that the team has access to the latest and most secure AI advancements.
Marketers who understand how to use AI-powered tools effectively will play a critical role in leading process transformation and data strategy to sustain and enhance the agency’s value to clients. This will help drive results for clients while aligning every AI solution with best practices in data governance.
Development of Proprietary AI Tools and Technologies
Coming out of the AI Council, we saw a need to launch two more critical groups in order to live our vision of fusing Creative + Tech and lead in defining the agency of the future: The AI Transformation Practice Group and the AI Innovation Team.
The AI Council continues to ensure proper use, standards, compliance and monitoring of trends and changes in the space that impact our business and our clients.
But from AI Council learnings, we realized that we are not only embarking on a journey of efficiency—fundamentally changing how we do our work to increase productivity—but we also have the opportunity to deliver client value differently.
We are actively engineering and integrating different AI enabled applications and components into an always on service layer that can be customized to the client and internal business unit.
We are infusing AI into our services via proprietary agents and applications that we’re leveraging internally to go beyond faster offering higher quality deliverables and collaboration with our clients. Our tools and technologies are custom to clients and allow us to continuously produce and scale great work at the right time for the right audience while also giving our clients always on access and insights they can use to democratize brand, customer and industry knowledge across the business.
Best Practices for AI Integration in Agency Operations
When it comes to integrating AI within agency operations, agencies need to strike a balance between automated solutions and human creativity to boost efficiency without compromising quality. Generative AI tools can empower teams to explore new ideas and refine their work with instant feedback.
The goal isn’t to replace people but to help them shine. Give your team the time and tools to explore, ask questions and improve their work in ways they’ve never tried before.
This approach boosts productivity and efficiency while also fueling creativity. Now, teams can tackle projects they never had the time or confidence to take on. Thoughtfully using AI can help agencies build better experiences and deliver stronger business results for clients.
Example AI Products and Success Stories
When used effectively, these innovative AI tools can drive remarkable growth, improve campaign performance and optimize overall digital strategy.
For instance, Mod Op Uses Perplexity.ai to quickly clean insights about a client’s industry, position in the market against competitors and trends, changes and behaviors of their target audience. Mod Op uses this data in combination with proprietary agency data and applications to craft briefs, initiate creative concepting and inform media plans, website development and content and PR strategies.
Mod Op also uses its proprietary Brand Agent in concert with clients to ideate, test creative concepts and learn more about what has worked and not worked in the past. The Brand Agent eliminates the wait time for analysts to pull reports and gives teams the information they need in the moment to keep creative and strategic conversations going.
To protect client sensitivities around data, Mod Op established specific guidelines and best practices for using these technologies to maximize value.
Outlook and Strategic Vision for AI in Marketing
AI evolves rapidly and will change how agencies operate and build client relationships. To keep up, agencies must adapt to shifting client demands and find new growth opportunities.
The goal is simple: use AI ethically and effectively to help clients. This means customizing AI solutions to fit each client’s needs and delivering real, measurable results. Ultimately, using AI and data science will provide the impact marketers need for overall client success.
As AI advances, agencies should blend automated insights with human creativity to offer personalized strategies and build stronger client relationships. Finding the right balance between tech and the human touch positions agencies as trusted advisors to guide clients through the confusing AI landscape with practical advice and best practices for implementing AI safely and effectively.
