In-depth: How companies are talking about AI and marketing on earnings calls
AI is quietly rewiring the marketing machine - and Wall Street is paying attention. From P&G to Verizon, brands are leaning on generative and agentic AI to cut costs, speed up production and rethink how they work with agencies.
Entry-level roles in advertising and PR are shrinking, with layoffs across big marketing orgs. In-housing is accelerating. Agencies are responding with partnerships and platform plays - WPP with Google, Omnicom with Adobe - to stay relevant as clients bring more work inside.
Consumer behavior is shifting fast
Black Friday was a preview. AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites jumped 805% year over year, per Adobe Analytics, which tracks more than a trillion visits. Shoppers used chatbots like Amazon's Rufus and Walmart's Sparky to compare prices, manage higher holiday costs and make decisions.
For marketers, that's a signal: AI-assisted shopping is here, and it's moving up the funnel.
Generative AI is changing creative work
One in three digital video ads is now built or enhanced with gen AI tools, up from 22% last year, according to the IAB. That share is projected to hit 39% by 2026. Consumer attitudes are mixed - a recent survey showed 46% aren't comfortable with AI-generated models in ads - but performance tells a different story. In one study, an AI-generated banner beat a pro stock image by more than 50% CTR in the same A/B test.
The barrier to in-house, high-quality creative is falling. T-Mobile shifted most creative duties inside after a short stint with Dentsu. WPP launched Open Pro, a self-serve platform giving marketers access to its AI solutions without hiring a dedicated agency.
Tech giants are also automating core ad tasks end-to-end. Self-serve, AI-first tools are making it possible for small teams to ship sophisticated campaigns - without an agency and without the billable-hours model.
What the platforms are saying
Meta
Meta's vision: give the platform your objective and a credit card, and the AI handles the rest - creative, personalization and targeting. Adoption is rising. The number of advertisers using at least one video-generation feature jumped 20% quarter-over-quarter. Nearly 2 million advertisers have used AI creative tools like auto-translation into 10 languages. Image Animation, Video Expansion and AI-generated music are expanding the Advantage+ suite. Business AIs that merchants can embed on their sites bring Meta closer to the full ad-to-purchase loop.
Google is "infusing" gen AI across the marketing workflow. Imagen 4 in Asset Studio and Product Studio helps brands produce more, better creative with less effort. WPP reports up to 70% efficiency gains on campaign production. Google even released an AI-generated spot (Quick Getaway) made with Veo 3 for Search's AI Mode.
Visa
Visa is weaving gen AI into marquee sponsorships (FIFA World Cup 2026, Milano Cortina Winter Olympics). The company launched an AI-led campaign with Saatchi & Saatchi for Intesa Sanpaolo and already has dozens of clients engaged across those events. Leadership set AI targets company-wide to drive efficiencies and reinvest in growth.
Colgate-Palmolive
Leadership called agentic AI the next big frontier and is piloting AI-developed content to improve visual storytelling and engagement. Early tests in key markets are "showing great success." Ad spend stays roughly flat as a percent of sales, funded by productivity programs instead of blunt cuts.
Adobe
Adobe is upgrading Firefly and GenStudio to scale content, automate workflows and optimize campaigns. Partnerships span Dentsu, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and Accenture. Dentsu rolled out Adobe Express to tens of thousands of employees to speed production while maintaining brand consistency.
AI is driving efficiency, personalization and performance
Omnicom
Omnicom is building OmniPlus, a next-generation operating system to unify data, automate workflows and accelerate creative/media execution, powered by assets such as Acxiom. Integrated agents are already supporting pitches, commerce, sports and health - from pricing models to drug-launch refinement. Efficiency gains contributed to a 3.7% year-over-year reduction in salary and related service costs.
Verizon
On its Q3 call, leadership emphasized becoming "simpler, leaner and scrappier," followed by large-scale layoffs. AI is central to delivering consistent, personalized marketing that simplifies offers, improves CX and reduces churn.
Procter & Gamble
Under "Supply Chain 3.0," P&G is linking workforce reduction, automation and digitalization to deliver $1.5B in cost-of-goods savings. Up to 7,000 jobs are being eliminated over two years to fund innovation and improve marketing productivity. Smaller, tech-enabled brand teams will move faster on consumer-centric work.
Netflix
Netflix is testing interactive, AI-enhanced ads and investing through 2027 in ML-based optimization, measurement and targeting. Ads will respond to viewer behavior and allow mix-and-match creative templates, with a global rollout targeted for Q2 2026.
Keurig Dr Pepper
AI-driven analytics are deepening insights, guiding innovation and sharpening creative. The brand is applying precision and personalized marketing around its Fansville series and expanding its partnership with Disney Advertising to pool data and deliver versioned ads by fandom.
Target
Target Trend Brain uses gen AI to scan social buzz and signals to surface current and emerging trends. Merchants and creatives get real-time reads on what's resonating and what's coming next, enabling smarter, faster buys. "Synthetic audiences" preview how segments might respond to campaigns before launch.
What this means for your team
- Build an AI production line: standard prompts, brand guardrails, approval flows, and a feedback loop tied to creative testing.
- Go platform-native first: use Meta Advantage+, Google's Asset/Product Studio and retailer tools before layering third-party stacks.
- Test agentic workflows: let agents handle variant generation, translations, and routine optimizations. Keep humans on strategy and taste.
- Invest in data foundations: clean customer data, consent, creative and conversion schemas. Your models are only as good as the inputs.
- Move to simulation before spend: use synthetic audiences and pretests to predict response, then scale winners.
- Reskill the team: creative technologists, AI-literate media leads and analysts who can brief, QA and interpret model output. Consider a focused certification for marketers to speed this shift - for example, this option.
Quick references
- IAB research on AI's role in creative and media: iab.com/insights
- Adobe Digital Economy Index and retail insights: business.adobe.com
This shift isn't theoretical. It's showing up in headcount, budgets and results. Treat AI as a core operating system for marketing - and build the skills, data and workflows to match.
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