Advertising investment in Spain reached €13.08 billion in 2024. With AI lowering execution costs, judgment weighs more in agencies.
Advertising investment in Spain reached €13.08 billion in 2024, a 3.8% increase from 2023, according to InfoAdex. This is reported by ecosistemastartup.com in their coverage of an opinion column by Antonio Tejelo, general director of Zerodrama, on the impact of artificial intelligence on agencies.
Tejelo describes AI as the central engine of marketing in Spain and discusses agencies being pushed towards “AI-first” models. The report The State of Marketing & AI Report, by Canva and Morning Consult, indicates that three out of four marketing executives in Spain plan to increase their investment in AI.
For independent agencies, the impact has two sides. The automation of tasks, pressure on prices, and clients' direct access to AI tools pose a threat. In return, they open up efficiency, scalability, and the possibility to compete with much larger structures.
In a roundtable with leaders of Andalusian agencies, Elena Marín, CEO of Medios y Más, defended the importance of human experience:
“Artificial Intelligence cannot replace personal experience”
As an example, she cited a campaign that suddenly encounters a weather event, where only the ability to react can save it. Salvador Toscano, CEO of Frente a Texto, advocated for “the proximity agency,” the one that knows the business around the corner.
Aleida Alcaide, general director of Artificial Intelligence in Spain, noted that the use of AI in companies rose from 11% to 21% in one year and that in large companies it reaches 60%. A report from Stanford University ranks Spain as the seventh country in the world and the second in the European Union in competitiveness in the application of AI systems.
If AI standardizes execution, the differential shifts to three areas: judgment, strategy, and creativity connected with culture. The central risk, according to Tejelo, is creative homogenization. Beth Johnson, from RP3 Agency, summarises it in the collection from Forbes Agency Council:
“Without sharp strategy and human judgment, AI will only accelerate a tsunami of uniformity”
Regarding workload, Matt Jayson, from Multiply, estimates that the workload and quality control of campaigns within platforms can consume about 20 hours per week for a single high-growth client.
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