In June 2025, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta intends to fully automate advertising by 2026 using AI. The plan? Brands will simply provide a product image and a budget, and AI will handle the rest—the strategy, the copy, the visuals and the media placement—all in real time, and all at scale.
Reactions are mixed: For some marketers, it’s an evolution that’s been a long time in the making. For others, it feels like a creative crisis waiting to happen. Even AI experts stress the potential complications and trade-offs.
We asked members of the Senior Executive CMO Think Tank—a group of marketing leaders, brand strategists and agency founders—to share the possible implications of this shift. While most agree that AI offers exciting opportunities for scale, speed and experimentation, they’re also watching closely for the downsides: creative dilution, brand sameness and a possible erosion of the human connection that makes marketing matter.
Machines Offer Speed—But Not Creativity
For Evan White, CMO at ERIN, Meta’s plans to hand over the reins to AI is definitely a big deal—but he’s not entirely buying the buzz.
“Meta plans for AI to handle everything from ad strategy to creative execution. Translation: The prompt bros are about to have their moment,” he says. “A moment of cranking out ‘killer’ campaigns with the same 10 ChatGPT commands and a Canva template.”
White does see clear advantages for marketing teams in using AI—including scale, speed and high-volume creative testing—but warns that without originality, the whole marketing system risks becoming bland.
“If everyone’s pulling from the same AI playbook, creative gets … beige. Fast,” he says. “Automation without originality is just noise at scale.”
His advice: Use AI to amplify what makes your brand weird, witty or wonderfully distinct. “The winners will be brands that teach AI to sound like them, not like the guy who just bought a ‘10x Your Ads with This Prompt’ course. Because in a world where the machines can make everything, what stands out is what only you would say.”
Only Humans Understand Real Relevance, Emotion and Creativity
Amber Brown, SVP of Product and Marketing at Clario, sees Meta’s AI-forward advertising vision as potentially earth-shattering. “The biggest implication? The creative floor rises, and the ceiling risks collapsing,” she says. “Full AI automation will flood the market with ‘good enough’ ads—fast, optimized, hyper-targeted—but stripped of originality.”
While consumers’ attitudes about AI-generated ads may not be wholly negative, Brown says it’s essential to proceed with caution.
“For brands competing on differentiation, the real risk is algorithmic sameness—everyone optimized into oblivion,” she says. “If your brand is your moat, you can’t outsource resonance.”
Brown notes that, while AI can play a powerful role in streamlining workflows, it’s essential for brands to establish clear strategies and parameters for its use—because culture, emotion and creativity require human instinct.
“CMOs need to be clear on their endgame,” she asserts. “Our approach? Let AI handle the noise. Our teams own the moments that actually move people.”
AI Can Empower Marketers to Innovate Faster
Aaron Edgell, CMO at Alliant International University, sees opportunity in the automation wave—not just to do more, but to think differently.
“Meta’s automation push isn’t the end of creativity—it’s the beginning of high-leverage experimentation,” he says. “When copy, visuals and placement are handled in seconds, the real edge shifts to the quality of your ideas and the structure of your tests.”
For Edgell, the CMOs who win won’t be the ones producing the most output—they’ll be the ones asking better questions, testing more innovative hypotheses and learning faster than the competition.
“AI lowers the cost of execution,” he says. “It’s still on us to bring the insight, the boldness and the strategy that make it matter.”
“The future belongs to teams who can blend machine-scale execution with human-level insight and storytelling.”
Automation for Its Own Sake Isn’t an Effective Strategy
Magda Paslaru, Founder and CEO of RainbowIdea, sees Meta’s reported plan as a clear signal that marketing roles are evolving.
“If generative AI can handle the tactical execution—from copy to creative to media placement—then human marketers must move up the value chain,” she says.
That shift, Paslaru says, opens up the chance for marketers to focus on higher-level questions, like consumer psychology, brand strategy and experience design. But she cautions that just because something can be automated doesn’t mean it should be; automated content can easily become generic and culturally or emotionally flat.
“CMOs should be watching two things closely: brand differentiation and quality control,” she says. “The future belongs to teams who can blend machine-scale execution with human-level insight and storytelling.”
Smartly Leveraging Freed-Up Time Is Key
Paul L. Gunn Jr., Founder of KUOG Corporation, offers a founder’s perspective. He believes AI’s biggest gift to marketers and the brands they represent is time—time to build stronger connections with customers.
“Automation could free up space to better leverage cognitive empathy—allowing customers to align what they see with what they’ve felt in previous interactions with a company,” he says. “Focusing on the human element and ensuring that what’s created and placed prompts meaningful connection may open up new opportunities.”
Gunn adds that while change is inevitable, an agency that starts planning now on how to leverage AI to empower new marketing strategies while protecting clients’ brand equity can gain a significant edge.
“From a founder’s vantage point, I’d look for agencies that acknowledge and communicate change and offer a thoughtful approach that doesn’t dilute our positioning.”
Human Talent Will Take On a Larger, Elevated Role
Ron McMurtrie, CMO of Honeywell, says Meta may be making early headlines, but AI-driven automation will transform marketing at every level.
“Plans to automate ad creation and management are not unique to Meta, and AI will not just affect ad management,” he says.
Indeed, as automation takes over repetitive tasks, McMurtrie sees it creating space for deeper strategic thinking, more sophisticated analytics and elevated brand stewardship—and even more jobs. “AI will transform much of marketing and will further the need for brilliant, thoughtful and creative marketing talent.
“AI will not harm creativity—it will foster it,” he concludes.
Agencies Will Face New Competition
Jayashree Rajan, CMO at Nexla, takes a pragmatic view of AI’s growing involvement in marketing, outlining both benefits and drawbacks for agencies.
On the plus side, she says, marketers can shift from execution to focusing on defining campaign strategies and success measurement, with AI empowering faster launches. The downside? AI could potentially hit agencies’ bottom lines.
“Agencies may now have to compete with smaller marketing teams who can use AI to launch faster—which may lead to many agencies losing clients,” Rajan says. “Furthermore, the danger is that every company that uses AI will eventually have copy and creatives that look and sound similar.”
She notes that AI’s encroachment is “definitely an area to watch, and we must be willing to pivot quickly.” She recommends looking at reallocating budget from production to strategic media planning.
What CMOs Should Be Doing Right Now
- Double down on brand voice—the brands that win will teach AI to sound like them, not everyone else.
- Get clear on your AI endgame to determine what should be automated and what demands human creativity.
- Use AI for velocity, but stay grounded in insight—data without direction still misses the mark.
- Prepare your team for higher-level work, because a human in the loop will always be essential.
- Use freed-up time to build stronger connections with customers, and be ready to share your game plan with stakeholders.
- Don’t assume downsizing—AI’s impact will actually expand the need for top talent.
- Rethink agency roles and value propositions in a world where small teams can now scale like giants.
The Future Is Automated—But Still Needs You
AI won’t replace skilled marketers—unless those marketers stubbornly resist change. The key is viewing AI as a tool, not a full-fledged creative partner. One thing is clear: The rules, and roles, are changing.
The next generation of CMOs won’t just manage campaigns. They’ll orchestrate systems, inspire creativity and translate data into meaning. Generative AI can help take care of the noise; what’s left is the signal that only humans can hear and deliver: empathy, originality and strategic vision.
