Last Updated on May 23, 2025 by admin
It may sound weird, but I can’t think of AI media planning without thinking of the 1999 Robin Williams movie Bicentennial Man. OK, fine, I can’t think of artificial intelligence (AI) in general without it coming to mind, but I can explain.It may sound weird, but I can’t think of AI media planning without thinking of the 1999 Robin Williams movie Bicentennial Man. OK, fine, I can’t think of artificial intelligence (AI) in general without it coming to mind, but I can explain. The movie follows the “life” of Andrew, a robot purchased to do household chores, only to realize he can do far more and wants to become human. Obviously, this is extreme. I don’t think ChatGPT will be going before Congress to ask for human rights like Andrew anytime soon. But with AI a topic of daily conversation, this imaginative marketer can’t help but wonder about all the possibilities it holds, professionally and personally. Last year, Pew Research found 55% of Americans use AI at least once a day. IBM found that 42% of enterprises also use AI once a day, and an additional 40% are exploring how to incorporate it into their workflows. AI media planning is undoubtedly an area ripe with opportunity. Why Use AI for Media Planning Well, why do we use AI for anything? A Forbes Advisor survey reports that 64% of businesses believe artificial intelligence can help increase their productivity — and AI media planning is no exception. Using AI in media planning has many benefits, all of which lead to better overall productivity. Benefits of AI Media Planning Increased Efficiency Have you ever asked a chatbot a question? How long did it take to respond? In most cases, I’m guessing less than a minute. AI can process requests, analyze data, and respond faster than any human. It’s no surprise that according to HubSpot research, 90% of marketers say AI and automation help them spend less time on manual tasks, more time on the parts of their job they enjoy most (80%), and more time on the creative aspects of their role (79%). For media planners, this can mean quicker market and campaign analysis — two things I’ve found to be notoriously time-consuming. Faster Optimization AI algorithms adapt based on the information they have. For example, if you input or grant access to your media campaign performance data, the AI tool should adjust its output to deliver optimal results with the click of a button. Lower Costs Thanks to its increased efficiency, faster strategic optimization, and proficiency with smaller tasks, AI can minimize unnecessary expenses in your media planning budgets. For example, if you’re paying a freelancer by the hour to copy-edit your ads, using an AI tool like Grammarly can help cut or eliminate the need for those hours. When working with a limited budget or lean team (like many of my old clients), these small savings can make a big difference. Increased ROI This likely goes without explanation, but when you spend less, you automatically increase your return on investment. What business doesn’t want that? Limitations of AI Media Planning Now, let’s look at the other end of things. As great as AI sounds for media planning, it still has drawbacks. Data Quality Data quality is the most significant concern with any use of AI. Artificial intelligence typically runs off information fed from its users and the internet — and, let’s be real, there’s a lot of bad content out there. Knowing this, you can’t always know if the results you get from AI are sound or based on reliable sources. This can be dangerous when using AI for market or platform research in media planning. Plagiarism Compiling information from many sources comes with the risk of plagiarism. AI-created content is inherently derivative — based on things that already exist. So, there’s always the possibility that your results may be similar to what’s already out there or even those delivered to another user. Imagine running a Facebook Ad with the same headline or image as your competitor … not the best look. Bias As my teammate and senior marketing manager at HubSpot, Flori Needle, explains, “AI is biased because society is biased.” “Since society is biased, much of the data AI is trained on contains society’s biases and prejudices…For example, an image generator asked to create an image of a CEO might produce images of white males because of the historical bias in employment in the data it learned from.” Unfortunately, this is something I uncovered first-hand. And bias is so prevalent that even Google had to halt human depictions in its AI Gemini. Stereotypes and bias are most definitely not things you want in your creative. So be wary. Privacy As we mentioned earlier, AI learns from anything typed into it. While AI can genuinely help expedite your work, you must often share detailed information to produce worthwhile results, and AI is currently unregulated. That means there is no guarantee your shared information won’t be passed on to others — maybe even your competitors. How to Use AI for Media Planning So, now that you know the pros and cons, what are some practical and powerful ways you can use AI for media planning? Best AI Media Planning Tactics & Methods 1. Fix spreadsheet formulas (e.g., Budgets). As a principal marketing manager on our Integrated Marketing Campaigns here at HubSpot, my teammate Basha Coleman is no stranger to media planning. One way she uses AI to improve her workflow is with spreadsheets. “I use AI to solve small problems like fixing spreadsheet formulas that aren’t working,” she shared. “Rather than spending 30 minutes to an hour looking up and understanding how a spreadsheet formula works, I can get the solution from Chat GPT, then go back and learn the fundamentals of why that solution worked when I have time.” Source This little hack can be a huge time saver for media planners working through budget spreadsheets or calculating performance stats.