Agencies struggle to govern AI agents as marketing budgets surge
Marketing departments are deploying AI agents into workflows at scale, but no one has agreed on who owns them or how to control them. Agency executives say the industry needs standards to prevent AI agents from making autonomous decisions, particularly in media buying. Internally, though, governance remains fragmented and ad hoc.
CMOs are allocating an average of 15.3% of marketing budgets to AI initiatives, according to Gartner research. Yet only 30% of CMOs report having the capabilities to lead in AI, despite 70% prioritizing it as a goal this year.
The guardrail problem
Agencies are policing agentic workflows case by case rather than following shared standards. Some teams are copying AI summaries directly into presentations and client reports. Others are uploading datasets into large language models and passing "surface-level" insights to leadership without deeper analysis.
One brand marketing executive called this behavior a warning sign. An agency exec admitted they were assigned to oversee an OpenAI ads pilot simply because they understood agentic ecosystems-not because they had relevant expertise in search, programmatic, or social media.
"What I'm seeing right now is agencies, advertisers and partners all creating their own agentic workflows, and there's no governing those different schools of thought," an agency executive said during a recent industry town hall.
Where the money is going
Agencies have deployed AI tools across teams with little coordination. Google Performance Max and AI Max for Search sit within search teams. Meta Advantage+ operates within paid social teams. Each group runs separate experiments without shared best practices.
The speed of technology outpaces the ability to evaluate it. Marketing teams risk wasting budget on fragmented pilots that don't build institutional knowledge.
Industry moves toward standards
The IAB Tech Lab formed the Programmatic Governance Council last month to address the gap. Members include WPP, Disney, Magnite, Yahoo, Amazon Ads, and The Trade Desk. The group plans to outline workflows, establish governance frameworks, and provide guidance on auction transparency.
Agency leadership acknowledges the burden falls on them. "It's really on our leadership teams to continue to drive and push that innovation," one executive said. "Because if we don't do it, they're not going to do it."
For marketing professionals navigating this uncertainty, understanding AI for Marketing and the strategic decisions around AI adoption is increasingly critical. CMOs in particular may benefit from structured guidance on building organizational capability-resources like an AI Learning Path for CMOs can help bridge the gap between budget allocation and actual implementation readiness.
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