Insight: The Rise of 'Agentic AI 3.0'
Enterprises are entering a third phase of AI adoption, moving from isolated models and brittle bolt-on tools to integrated "agentic AI," according to Evinova CTO Sean Connolly. In this "AI 3.0" paradigm, AI agents act as the connective tissue for entire workflows, with humans shifting to roles as expert orchestrators. Connolly notes that while 95% of organizations currently see no return on Gen AI investment, this reflects early adoption challenges, not a lack of potential.
- Agentic AI is being positioned as a creative partner that can autonomously execute complex, multi-step workflows, freeing up human teams to focus on strategy and high-level creative concepts. This shift is already showing efficiency gains, with 43% of creative professionals reporting they save one to four hours per week using AI tools. - The rise of multimodal AI allows models to process and generate content from a variety of inputs, including text, images, and audio. For example, handbag brand Misela used AI to create a global campaign by integrating real product images into AI-generated backgrounds of various international locations, significantly reducing production time and cost. - Dimension Studio has developed an end-to-end AI content production pipeline that reduced the production time for an animated short to one-third of what it would have been using traditional methods. The pipeline supported a two-person team from initial storyboarding and character design to virtual camera control and final voiceover. - A key trend in creative workflows is using AI as a collaborative "sparring partner" by setting up multiple AI agents in different roles, such as strategist and creative director, and having them dialogue with each other to develop initial concepts. - Brands are leveraging generative AI for large-scale personalization in their campaigns. For instance, Cadbury created a campaign where AI generated personalized video ads for thousands of small retailers featuring a celebrity likeness and voice, with each store owner able to insert their own shop name. - The role of the Chief Marketing Officer is evolving with AI adoption, with 81% of marketing leaders now directly accountable for the digital customer experience. Successful CMOs are partnering more with HR to focus on upskilling their teams in data literacy and prompt engineering to ensure AI is adopted effectively. - Forrester predicts that by 2030, advertising agencies will have automated 7.5% of jobs, leading to a shift in the agency business model. This is prompting agencies to reposition themselves as strategic orchestrators of AI, focusing on brand storytelling and cultural nuance, which are areas where human creativity remains essential. - While large language models have dominated, there is a move toward using smaller, more focused language models that can be customized for specific tasks and are more efficient, requiring less computing power. Some agencies are building their own custom-trained AI models to better align with specific brand strategies.
