Marketers have always been fully aware of how their day-to-day lives would improve if they could reliably automate the more manual, repetitive elements of the job. But today, leading businesses are well beyond the stage of experimenting with generative AI tools and applying them to the lowest-hanging fruit. Now they’re looking at the big picture. The trends in AI investment, adoption, and innovation are focused on changing more than just the day-to-day routine. They’re about evolving roles within the business, encouraging cross-team collaboration, and giving professionals more independence and flexibility to solve the business’s most pressing problems.
We spoke with leaders across Mod Op’s teams about the most powerful new AI use cases they’re seeing. From search marketing strategy, to market research, to creating immersive brand experiences, here’s how marketers need to think about AI right now—while maintaining a tidy, manageable AI toolkit.
Matt Bretz, EVP, Creative Innovation: “Dentsu just acquired Evidenza in order to be able to transform robust data on real individual humans into a digital twin that statistically responds to surveys in the same way its sibling would. Assemble a large group of these digital twins, and you have a synthetic audience with which you can test indefinitely, almost instantly, inexpensively and securely.
“AIs of various sorts will be leveling the playing field in marketing and advertising. A small agency in Cleveland can much more feasibly offer savvy solutions globally, in direct competition to a cohort of holding company agencies. This could be a year of Davids felling Goliaths.”
Lauren Schmidt, Senior Director of Market Research and Strategy: “AI is having a huge impact on market research. AI-powered tools help researchers dig deeper into open-ended survey responses and automate the analysis, so researchers get to findings much faster and spot patterns that might have otherwise slipped by. By using AI to generate realistic datasets, researchers can run studies without actual respondents. This not only cuts costs and turnaround times, it also adds an interesting tool to the market research toolbox.”
Hannah Woodham, SVP, Paid Channel Marketing & Operations: “AI is showing its impact on businesses’ SERPs and paid search efforts. When marketers make AI solutions part of their search strategies, the business sees noticeable shifts in traffic sources and brand authority, due to changing user behavior around information discovery. This is particularly impactful within AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Perplexity. The rise of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is rapidly impacting search visibility, and brands are scrambling to adapt strategies to maintain authority and presence across both traditional SERPs and AI-driven experiences.”
Fabio Fiss, VP, Technology: Businesses are starting to consolidate their AI solutions, looking closely at solutions that accelerate workflow. Businesses have been shifting in 2025 from experimentation to deeper integration of AI across creative production, media, and performance reporting. There is growing interest in how AI fits into existing workflows and where it can help teams subtract complexity and gain efficiency. We’re hearing more specific, ROI-driven questions like ‘What is the value of this tool, this campaign, or this integration?’ The focus is less on innovation for innovation’s sake, and more on tangible performance and business impact. This trend is being driven by tighter budgets, increased CFO scrutiny, and a desire to rebalance rather than cut outright. Concurrently, as a growing number of businesses explore AI-driven coding tools, developers are discovering how they can use these tools to build niche or experimental tools, including for the specific needs of the marketing team.”
Philip Congello, EVP, Client Success: “Looking back, since December 2024, we’ve seen even greater urgency from brands to move beyond isolated touchpoints and instead invest in the full ecosystem of brand expression. It’s no longer just about visual consistency — it’s about emotional continuity. That’s the new expectation: a bigger, bolder, more connected Brand World. This interconnected, cohesive, and immersive brand experience includes packaging, advertising, digital environments, in-store displays, and AI-enhanced tech.
“The smartest brands are using this ‘brand world’ thinking to turn marketing into a connective tissue — building immersive narratives, synchronized product and channel launches, and even translating packaging into interactive gateways (via QR, AR, or loyalty tools). As we move through 2025, brand differentiation won’t be won through any single execution — it’ll be shaped by how seamlessly everything works together to reinforce a shared identity and experience.”
Marketers have been watching emerging AI tools closely over the last few years, and by this point, they have the vocabulary to ask for what they want and the visibility across the business org to recognize what they and their colleagues should want. We’ve been saying all along that AI will free professionals to be more strategic in their work. That time has clearly come.
