AMENIA, NY – While the advertising industry obsesses over artificial intelligence, one veteran executive suggests its primary function is not to invent the future, but to perfectly codify the past. In his view, AI is less the beginning of a new era and more the definitive end of the old one.
Rob Norman, an independent board member for companies including Piano, MIQ, Simpli.fi and Nova, said large language models are trained on the “aggregated digital history of the world,” which means their output is inherently backward-looking. This limits their ability to produce truly disruptive creative ideas, instead serving to “relentlessly optimize down a narrow pipe.”
“Authenticity has never been more important,” said Rob Norman in this video interview with Beet.TV. For Norman, true progress requires combining human imagination with the analytical scale that AI promises.
An existential problem for agencies
IAB projects AI will account for 40% of all video ads by 2026, while eMarketer projects U.S. spending on AI search advertising will climb to nearly $26 billion by 2029.
Beyond the creative challenges posed by AI, Norman believes media agencies face a “significant, if not existential, problem.” Their business models are caught between technological eras, still required by every client to service legacy media channels like linear TV and print that are largely resistant to automation.
“The infrastructure that’s required to buy a fifth of the volume that you used to buy is about 80% of the infrastructure that you needed for all of it,” Norman explained. This legacy cost structure, he argued, compromises agencies’ ability to invest in new technologies and “pivot to the future” at the speed the market demands.
This dynamic creates an opening for a more fragmented ecosystem of specialist firms, he suggested. As agencies grapple with their full-service commitments, nimble specialists in areas like programmatic data or AI-driven search can thrive.
A low tolerance of mediocrity
Despite these pressures, Norman does not foresee a world where agencies fully become tech companies or vice-versa. He views the current market shifts as a “process of rapid evolution rather than revolution,” noting the long history of agencies adopting third-party technology.
In this evolving landscape, he believes success lies in specialization rather than convergence. “Most people, if they’re smart, will find a deep well in which to stick to their knitting and say, ‘How can I be the best at this?’” Norman advised.
Ultimately, the combination of intense competition and artificial intelligence creates an environment with little room for error or average performance. “What a world of artificial intelligence and competition together do is have a very, very low tolerance of mediocrity,” he stated.
