Advertising 2030: AI ascends, biometrics normalize, sustainability fades, VR stalls, privacy fragments

Mixed Reality: Five trends reshaping advertising by 2030

WPP Media's latest study (April 1-30, 2025) surveyed 60+ experts and points to five shifts that will define how creative teams and media buyers work through 2030. Expect AI-led production, biometric data becoming standard, lower consumer emphasis on sustainability, slower-than-hyped VR adoption, and fragmented privacy rules-each with clear playbooks for action.

Use this as an operator's brief: what's changing, what to do next, and where to focus budget, process, and skills.

Trend 1: AI becomes the creative engine

71.0% of experts expect AI-produced creative content by 2030; 29.0% say it's highly likely. Platforms already show the shift: Meta's Advantage+ tools have lifted ROAS by an average of 22%, and Google's Think Week 2025 showcased Asset Studio for automated asset generation. ITV notes generative tools are opening TV-quality production to SMEs. As one expert put it, "actual production will largely be done by AI," while humans steer concepts and strategy.

"With no doubt our life in advertising content creation will look very different in only five short years," said Karen Nelson-Field. That's the tone: move from trials to production systems.

• Define the human-to-AI split: humans own concepts, briefs, brand voice; AI handles versioning, motion, audio, and formatting.
• Stand up an AI creative stack: text, image, video, voice, localization, and QA. Bake in brand guardrails and legal checks.
• Rebuild testing: multivariate asset generation, feedback loops from performance data, and creative iteration sprints weekly.
• Document IP, disclosure, and usage rights for AI-assisted work.

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Trend 2: Biometric data standardization accelerates

82.3% see biometrics widely used to access, personalize, and secure services by 2030; 43.5% see it as highly likely. Facial recognition sign-ins, fingerprints for payments, and voice authentication are normalizing. "Users want security to be easy," said Google's Joshua Spanier. But consent is non-negotiable: "privacy will be a large blocker… consent will be mandatory," noted Pat Crowley.

• Consent-first design: clear value exchange, explicit opt-in, and easy opt-out. No gray areas.
• Data minimization: collect the least sensitive data needed; prioritize on-device matching where possible.
• Regional playbooks: map where biometrics are permitted, how long you can store them, and disclosure rules.
• Stress-test trust: audit prompts, retention policies, and failure states (what happens if biometrics fail).

Keep a close eye on evolving guidance in the EU. Reference: European Commission: Data protection.

Trend 3: Sustainability priorities decline under cost pressure

74.2% now see sustainability being as important as price by 2030 as unlikely. Consumers under financial strain are trading down. As Helen McRae noted: it's been a nice-to-have. Andrew Stephen observed "regression" in recent years.

• Lead with value: price, utility, durability. Keep sustainability as support, not the headline.
• Reduce media waste anyway: optimize formats, frequency, and supply paths to cut cost and carbon without fanfare.
• Avoid greenwashing risk: substantiate claims, follow regional rules, and keep creatives specific and verifiable.
• Segment by region: in climate-affected areas, environmental messaging may still convert-test before scaling.

Trend 4: VR/AR adoption expectations collapse

Experts see AR glasses, VR headsets, and smart earbuds unlikely to outsell phones and watches by 2030; 0% rated that highly likely. 62.9% also view "more time in virtual worlds than physical" as unlikely. Hardware comfort, cost, and weak use cases hold it back. As IKEA's Kirsten Hasler put it, significant advances are still needed.

• Prioritize near-term formats: mobile AR effects, shoppable video, 3D product views on web-high reach, lower friction.
• Limit VR bets to high-fit categories: gaming, training, events, and premium retail. Reuse assets across social and web.
• Budget for learning, not scale: small pilots with clear success metrics and exit criteria.

Trend 5: Privacy regulation keeps fragmenting

75.8% rate a single global privacy and identity standard as highly unlikely by 2030. EU GDPR, China's localization rules, and a patchwork of US state laws show diverging paths. As Dan Salmon put it, a unified standard across regions is a "zero percent chance." Expect platform-driven workarounds and market-by-market variability.

• Build regional data playbooks: consent, storage, retention, and targeting methods per market.
• Shift to durable signals: first-party data, modeled audiences, clean rooms, and server-side measurement.
• Design creative and media to tolerate signal loss: broader segments, contextual cues, and creative that carries targeting weight.
• Automate compliance checks before activation, not after.

Emerging automation: bot-to-bot interactions

66.1% expect bot-to-bot exchanges between personal assistants and customer systems by 2030. McKinsey highlights agentic AI-systems that plan and execute tasks-as a major shift for marketing ops. Expect end-to-end workflow automation from brief to launch, with humans owning goals and approvals.

Reference: McKinsey: What is agentic AI?

• Map workflows that can be automated: asset production, QA, trafficking, bid/creative sync, reporting.
• Set guardrails: brand rules, escalation paths, and human approval gates for budget and public outputs.
• Evaluate vendor claims with pilots: measure time saved, error rates, and lift in media efficiency.

Timeline

• September 9, 2025: WPP Media releases updated Advertising in 2030 research
• September 10, 2025: Google demonstrates AI creative systems at Think Week 2025
• July 27, 2025: McKinsey highlights agentic AI for marketing
• July 23, 2025: Dailymotion launches AI-powered conversational ads
• June 17, 2025: Meta unveils generative AI advertising tools
• June 10, 2025: WPP revises global ad forecast reflecting these shifts
• April 1-30, 2025: WPP Media expert survey fielded
• 2020-2021: Original baseline established

Strategic implications

AI-led production cuts costs and scales personalization. Biometric standardization can lift conversion and security, but only with clean consent and regional nuance. Lower sustainability priority shifts messaging to price and utility. VR remains a test channel, not a core buy. Fragmented privacy forces local strategies and more reliance on first-party data and modeling.

The throughline: more automation, more personalization, and higher operational complexity. Teams that codify process, upgrade skills, and pressure-test compliance will win cycles and free creative energy for better concepts.

Action checklist for creatives and marketers

• Stand up an AI creative factory with weekly iteration cycles and clear quality gates.
• Install a consent-first data layer and regional privacy playbooks.
• Refocus messaging: value-first, proof-backed sustainability where it converts.
• Prioritize high-reach formats; keep VR as a learning track, not a core plan.
• Adopt durable measurement: clean rooms, MMM, and server-side tagging.
• Pilot agentic workflows across production, trafficking, and reporting-measure time saved.

Where to upskill next

If your roadmap includes AI-led creative, data ethics, and automation, build capability now. Explore: AI Certification for Marketing Specialists or browse the latest AI courses.