Creative Churn: AI is rewriting the brief for Indian advertising
The market has flipped. Clients are building in-house teams, and AI tools let them ship content faster and cheaper than most agency workflows.
Two of the Big 5 holding companies-Omnicom and Interpublic Group-have agreed to merge globally. That move has sparked job cuts, and Indian agencies are bracing for tighter budgets, shorter retainers, and higher output expectations.
What this shift means for creatives
- Less outsourced volume. More tactical asks. You'll be judged on speed, iteration, and performance lift.
- Ideas still matter, but the value is in systems: repeatable content engines, measurable outcomes, and channels working together.
- Titles matter less than stacked skills: concepting, prompt craft, motion, and analytics in one seat.
- Pressure on fees. Clients will compare your cost-per-asset against in-house + AI baselines.
Where the work is moving
In-house teams are building "always-on" content factories: modular assets, channel-specific variations, and daily reporting loops. AI handles drafting, resizing, and versioning; humans handle taste, strategy, and creative direction.
Agencies can still win with big platforms, cross-channel orchestration, and brand systems that scale. But you'll need to prove throughput and results, not just decks.
Action plan for the next 90 days
- Become AI-native: Pick 2-3 tools for writing, design, and video. Build reusable prompts, style guides, and asset templates. Track time saved.
- Specialize by outcome: Choose a lane-UGC ads, performance creative, B2B explainer videos, or CRO-focused design-and tie it to clear metrics.
- Ship faster: Set a 24-hour ideation-to-draft loop. Use versioning and A/B structures for every key asset.
- Productize collaboration with in-house teams: Offer training, tool setup, and asset pipelines so clients see you as force multipliers, not vendors.
- Automate grunt work: Batch resize, variant generation, compliance/brand checks, and basic QA with AI + scripts.
- Upgrade your brief for AI: Define tone, constraints, negative prompts, references, and brand rules. Build a library you can re-use across clients.
- Make outcomes visible: Publish case studies with baseline vs. uplift (CTR, CAC, retention, watch time). Keep it short, visual, undeniable.
If you lead a creative team
- Map a skill matrix: concept, prompt craft, motion, sound, analytics, automation. Fill gaps with training sprints.
- Rebuild pods around throughput: strategy + creative direction + AI operator + channel specialist.
- Price for output and results: hybrid retainers with performance bonuses, not just hours.
- Co-own the pipeline with clients' in-house teams: shared asset libraries, tags, and QA standards.
Careers that are opening up
- Creative Ops (AI) Manager
- Prompt and Style Systems Lead
- Content Automation Producer
- Brand Systems Designer (modular kits across channels)
Context you can use
Generative AI is already reshaping marketing workflows and performance benchmarks. For a broad view of where the efficiency and quality gains are showing up, this overview is useful: McKinsey on GenAI in marketing and sales.
Upskill without the fluff
- Browse AI courses by job, focus, and tool stacks: Courses by job.
- Find practical tools for copy, images, and video production: Popular AI tools.
The work isn't vanishing-it's moving. Creatives who pair sharp ideas with AI-driven systems will keep their seat at the table and earn more control over the brief.
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