Assessing the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Advertising

Introduction

The advertising and marketing environment has undergone many changes in the last decades due to developments in the business world, both in internal structures, levels of competition in the sector, and actors in the marketplace. While factors such as media tools and globalization were mentioned in the previous years, the critical concept mentioned in the last decade has been the digital world and the changes that come with it. Especially in recent years, following the use of artificial intelligence and related technologies by broader masses, significant changes in advertising are expected in todays and future years. Technological advances, which have been in the business world with the role of decision support systems until the last decade, have reached quite comprehensive dimensions, especially in recent years, with the ability to generate new ideas in a specific field, make faster decisions, learn by themselves and predict results. In the past, businesses used decision support systems to detect patterns in particular data, relations between data, correlation, and causality. Today, however, businesses can use artificial intelligence-supported systems with differences, such as producing certain types of content, creating systems that respond to questions, and systems with faster decision-making power.

Artificial intelligence-supported systems have become popular in the business world in recent years. According to Fishbowl (2023), marketing and advertising industry has the highest adoption percentage (37%) at generative AI usage for assisting work tasks. According to Bain & Company AI Survey (Katzin et., 2023) which surveyed nearly 600 companies in 11 industries, top domains of generative AI exploration are; generative AI embedded in products/software (49%), customer engagement and service application (47%), code completion, generation, copiloting (46%), knowledge assistants (for sales support and internal operations) (42%), Automation of IT administration (help desk, etc.) (42%), marketing content generation and localization (39%), and product design and simulations (35%). Artificial intelligence-supported systems have a broad scope in terms of content. Artificial intelligence can benefit businesses in various topics, such as producing new content, supporting decision-making and consumers with question-answer systems, and making business decisions more effectively. In this respect, it will be beneficial to evaluate the subject in terms of today and the future i) to understand the subject better, ii) to be prepared for possible opportunities and threats.

Another critical issue related to artificial intelligence and advertising is the possible benefits of considering the subject in an academic context outside of the sectoral context. Examining the competitive advantage that will occur with the increase in the use of artificial intelligence-supported systems or the competition risks that will arise in the opposite direction, in the light of the theories in the academic literature to date, may be helpful for business decision-making. While businesses and decision-making part express one side of the issue, consumers affected by the practices of businesses and the sector express the other side. Subjects such as how artificial intelligence-supported advertising applications will be perceived by consumers and the way and speed of adoption of innovations should be examined in the light of theoretical structures in academic literature.

The study aims to investigate the digital advertising concept with the artificial intelligence lens through different aspects. As the artificial intelligence concept continues to affect the business world in many ways, it is crucial to understand the possible advances in the future. The study considers the intersection of digital advertising and artificial intelligence from the perspective of business decision-making and manager. In this respect, this approach was followed throughout the study. The study starts with advertising and artificial concepts with a theoretical perspective and presents the intersection of the concepts in different topics. The last sections of the study include solutions and recommendations, future research directions and conclusion.