Xaxis in association with IAB Europe Report: Artificial Intelligence: myth vs. reality in the digital advertising world

In association with IAB Europe, Xaxis conducted a pan-European survey to understand the current and future impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on digital advertising. The results of this survey are published in this report.

The survey sought the views of 1,000+ decision makers across the industry including advertisers, agencies, publishers, and intermediaries.

The report identified that decision makers from all parts of the industry recognise the significant value AI can bring to achieve results across the digital advertising ecosystem.

Many respondents agreed with the statement that ‘AI will be the next industrial revolution’, with the potential to deliver instrumental change in the digital advertising industry.

However, there is work to do in terms of reliability and trust; respondents highlighted the key concerns facing AI in digital advertising as relying less on human control, and the ability to gain trustworthy insights. It’s about maintaining a positive and productive balance between AI, a human workforce, and end customers, the study found.

The key findings of the survey are:

• 80% of those surveyed viewed AI as the next industrial revolution.
• Almost 80% of respondents have a good understanding of AI. Intermediaries were the most confident in understanding AI with 91% somewhat or very confident. 80% of agencies said they felt confident in their understanding.
• AI has been seen to have had a positive impact/influence on business objectives. Nearly 50% of those surveyed felt AI improved productivity and increased competitive advantage.
• AI was seen to facilitate effective targeting and was able to enhance digital advertising objectives – right person, right place, right time. Indeed, better targeting was cited by 61% of agencies; 43% of publishers and 53% of intermediaries. Further, identifying better qualified users/audience was cited by 30% of advertisers; 55% of agencies; 40% of publishers and 42% of intermediary stakeholders.
• Respondents highlighted the key concerns for the future of AI as relying less on human control (47%) and gaining trustworthy insights (55%).

Download the full report below: