Why the Future of AI in Agencies Depends on Culture, not Code

AI promises efficiency, speed and precision, but 80% of AI projects fail to deliver real impact. Dan Hagen, Global Chief Data & Technology officer at Havas, explores the four ways marketers can turn hype into lasting value.

Clients expect AI fluency, not just experimentation, and agencies that dive headfirst into AI development without the proper strategic vision will fail, hard. But the good news is, AI isn’t just delivering new innovations – it’s changing the very way we innovate.

Here are the four ways agencies and brands can instill a shared culture of AI-augmented human ingenuity that will deliver strategic value for clients and employees alike.

1. Democratize AI access and development

Some of the most valuable AI innovations don’t come from dedicated labs or engineering teams: they emerge when everyday practitioners are given the tools to experiment. Planners, strategists, creatives, and buyers all encounter unique challenges in their day-to-day work, and when they have access to secure, user-friendly AI platforms, they can create solutions directly tied to real client needs.

At Havas, we rolled out secure large language model access across the company and enabled employees to build their own AI agents that address day-to-day challenges – without needing a data science background. This sort of democratization has unlocked innovation at scale. For example, what began as small, team-built experiments in conversational research tools in the US and UK was later scaled into Persona LIVE – an AI-powered system that lets teams interact with audience personas as if they were real people.

2. Use AI to fuel cross-functional collaboration

AI should break silos, not deepen them. Embedding tools across media, strategy, creative, commerce, and more requires a shared tech stack and data architecture that spans disciplines.

This was Havas’ vision with our cross-functional Converged.AI operating system, and we’re now seeing this strategy yield new, collaborative ways of working together and delivering value for clients. Our Converged Measure tool brings together strategists and data scientists to merge different measurement techniques and fill the gaps in attribution, while Converged Content allows creative and media teams to personalize content at scale accelerated through our Adobe partnership.

3. Align AI to client outcomes

Making real impact is as much about an organization’s tools and tech as it is about how they are deployed. This is especially true in an agency ecosystem, where clients are at different levels of data and tech maturity, with unique business challenges that demand custom solutions.

As capabilities are increasingly democratized, the true mark of differentiation for agencies will be how seamlessly they can blend technological expertise with deep client knowledge to deliver with flexibility and agility.

4. Champion the alchemy of human and machine creativity

Our industry is engaged in a race to gain a competitive edge through AI automation. But it’s vital to remember that AI augments human intuition – it doesn’t replace it. We’re aiming to move the average to the exceptional, not create a cheap volume of mediocrity. Mindful human interruption is key to delivering better work. For instance, at Havas, we’ve designed each application of AI within our Converged.AI operating system to have a “human in the loop” stage where there is required interaction to validate calculations, add strategic value, and decide next steps.

While AI is dominating conversations about the future of our industry, we are still in the early days of this transformation. In a recent survey from the IAB, two-thirds of media agencies reported to be in the exploratory, testing, or proof of concept stage in adopting AI into the media campaign lifecycle; only a third said they were at full scale adoption. To successfully bridge this implementation gap, organizations must invest in their employees alongside their tech, training and upskilling their workforce to ensure that their culture keeps pace with their technology and their people are invaluable in an AI augmented future.