Agentic Advertising: What Effect The Rise of AI/Voice Assistants Will Have On The Advertising Ecosystem
What & Why Changes Are Happening And How To Protect Your Career
The advertising industry is undergoing a fundamental shift as artificial intelligence (AI) assistants reshape how consumers interact with technology, information and brands. Traditional channels like search and display advertising, once dominant, are losing ground as users increasingly turn to AI-powered conversational agents for information, recommendations, and transactions.
Gartner predicts traditional search volumes dropping 25% by 2026 as trust in AI/Voice Assistants rises, they become the ‘goto’ information source. The launch of Alexa+ to its 600m install base in Feb 2025 is set to accelerate this.
As the web gets used less, and agents (devices and AI) more, the value of display advertising reduces and Voice/AI Assistants become imperative for landing campaigns, converting far better than microsites or landing pages, the current end point for digital advertising campaigns.
This transformation introduces a new era of “agentic advertising,” where brands must rethink their media strategies changing the goal being a ‘click’ to a conversation.
What does Agentic Advertising mean?
Agentic advertising is an approach where consumers engage in direct, AI-facilitated conversations with brands.
One way to initiate this engagement can be achieved today, simply by changing the CTA of an existing Audio or TV campaign to: “To find out more about [brand] ask your AI/Voice assistant about [brand] (example TV and audio creatives). These conversations tend to convert at 3-5x vs. landing page metrics.
Unlike traditional advertising, which is often passive and interruption-based, agentic advertising is active, permissive, initiated by the consumer and easier to complete than engaging with a website. The consumer chooses to engage, leading to a far more powerful moment in the lived experience and greater brand recall (white paper).
It capitalises on the ability of AI assistants to complete transactions and streamline user experiences.
For example, rather than displaying a banner ad encouraging users to book a test drive by entering their personal data into a form, a car brand can integrate with an AI assistant to allow users to schedule one instantly though a simple conversation..
This ability to seamlessly complete actions within conversations represents a major evolution in advertising.
A simple example of this kind of agentic campaign live today is for the UK Govt sponsored campaign ‘Fire Kills’. The consumer engages and the AI Assistant sets up a reminder to check the batteries in a fire alarm on a monthly basis. A simple ‘agentic action’ but a great way to chart the path forward and offering real time attribution across TV and audio.
The Decline of Traditional Digital Advertising
For years, search and display advertising have been the cornerstones of digital marketing.
Brands have relied on search engine results pages (SERPs) and targeted banner ads to capture consumer attention at key moments in the buying journey with the destination always being a website, microsite or landing page.. However, this model is now under threat.
As AI assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and ChatGPT become more sophisticated and widely adopted, they increasingly act as gatekeepers to information.
Instead of clicking on ads, users are asking AI assistants for product recommendations, service suggestions, and direct purchasing support. These assistants will increasingly replace tasks and journeys consumers currently complete using web pages. Why? Because humans are always looking for the path of least resistance and it is far easier for a Voice/AI Assistant to complete a task than a website.
Left unchecked, Assistants could cut out the narrative brands want to control with consumers. By this, it’s important to understand, devices will answer questions but your brand will only be part of that response if you have a brand presence within the device ecosystem. , The platforms are leaning into this paradigm, for example the announcement of AI native SDK’s for Alexa shows how Amazon wants to enable brands to hold control of how consumers engage via Alexa+.
This shift means that brands can no longer rely solely on being discoverable through traditional search algorithms and paid display. Instead, they must consider how to embed their presence through AI-driven conversations. The challenge is to ensure that an AI assistant not only recognises a brand’s offering but surfaces the narrative the brand wants to deliver, in a brand compliant tone of voice in a predictable and measurable way.
Brands leaning into this include OVO, Tesco, UK Gov and numerous other awards.
The greatest ‘job to be done’ for any advertising practitioner to learn today and to learn how to start that conversation.
Why Ambient Media is Key
To access digitally provisioned products and services via Voice/AI Assistants is part of a collection of technologies termed ‘ambient computing’ – which is engaging with the internet without using a screen.
To succeed in an AI-first advertising world, brands must focus on ambient media channels like TV, audio, and out-of-home advertising that create opportunities for consumers to engage with AI assistants via voice.
If you look at the focus and rise of digital audio, CTV and DOOH this is part of the underpinning thesis behind the anticipated rise in value. These formats are uniquely positioned to prompt users to take action through AI-driven interactions and are likely to rapidly grow in value as consumer behaviours shift to an Assistant first digital experience.
For example, an audio ad or streaming service can include a call-to-action like: “Ask Alexa about the new BMW i5.” Similarly, a TV ad can encourage viewers to use voice commands to request more information or make a purchase. By embedding these interactions into ambient media, brands can initiate agentic conversations at scale.
Moreover these campaigns can be measured end to end, delivering full funnel attribution.
This strategy not only makes advertising more interactive but also simplifies the consumer journey. Instead of relying on users to manually search for products or visit a website, brands can leverage AI assistants to bridge the gap between awareness and conversion seamlessly.
The Impact on Media Budgets
As brands adapt to this new paradigm, media budgets will shift. Traditionally, a large portion of digital spend has gone to search and display ads, but as AI assistants become the primary way consumers seek information, advertisers must rethink their allocations towards high-converting ambient media.
Investing in AI-driven integrations and conversational experiences will become essential. Brands will need to optimise their presence within AI ecosystems, ensuring that their offerings are surfaced when consumers make inquiries. Additionally, ambient media channels—such as connected TV, digital audio, and interactive out-of-home—will take on a more significant role in initiating these interactions.
We’ve seen significant growth in each of these channels, competing with performance channels, yet they previously without Ai/Foice had no attribution model.
To measure success, advertisers must focus on new metrics. Rather than click-through rates and impressions, they should track engagement levels with AI assistants like a ‘Voice Through Rate’ (media impressions : Voice/AI Assistant engagements) and the completion of the desired campaign outcome.
The ability to move consumers seamlessly from awareness to action through AI conversations will be the new benchmark of advertising effectiveness and companies like Say It Now have been creating these benchmarks and best practices since their 2021 voice commerce ‘media first’.
Preparing for the Future
The rise of agentic advertising represents both a challenge and an opportunity for brands.
Those who adapt quickly will be able to engage consumers in more personalised and frictionless ways, leading to higher conversion rates and deeper customer relationships. Here are three key steps for advertisers to prepare for this shift:
- Integrate with AI Assistants – Brands should work on creating and controlling their presence within AI ecosystems, ensuring that their products and services sound and feel like a conversation with the brand, in line with brand guidelines.
- Leverage Voice-Activated Calls-to-Action – TV, audio, and out-of-home advertising should incorporate voice-based prompts to encourage Voice/AI Assistant-powered interactions. Actionable Advertising e.g Actionable Audio Ads
- Reallocate Media Spend – Shift budgets towards AI-driven Actionable Advertising engagement strategies and optimise for conversational experiences rather than traditional search and display ads.
- Continue spending in Audio, CTV, DOOH with the inclusion of Voice/AI Assistant CTA
Agentic advertising marks a fundamental change in how brands connect with consumers. As AI assistants become the primary interface for information, similar to the move to mobile from desktop/laptop behaviour, search and display advertising will no longer be sufficient.
Brands must leverage ambient media and actionable advertising, voice-activated calls-to-action to initiate AI-driven conversations. By embracing this new model, advertisers can create more seamless and effective consumer journeys, ensuring they remain relevant in an AI-powered world.
Author: Charles Cadbury is passionate about this subject, a global thought leader in the space and would welcome discussion around the vision laid out here, his DM’s are open and is always keen to find like minded thinkers to help push this vision forward