The marketing industry has a knob-and-dial-turning problem.
That’s according to a new study from media quality and performance company DoubleVerify, based on a global survey of 2,000 “marketing and advertising decision-makers.” The research looked at how AI is being adopted to improve marketing programmatic media-buying workflows and processes. The big problem, according to DV’s findings? Too many marketers are stuck acting as “campaign facilitators,” reactively tweaking settings manually—a time suck that pulls them away from higher-value strategic work.
(This sort of echoes the “data janitor” problem in marketing—where teams spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning data before it can even be used for AI or analytics.)
Why This Matters:
DV found that campaign managers spend more than one-quarter of their time—about 10 hours a week—tweaking bid modifiers and adjusting performance thresholds. That’s roughly $17,000 per team member per year spent on repetitive tasks. In an IRL context, an agency with 200 people, for example, would be losing over $3 million (!) per year to this problem.
Moreover, manual optimization also introduces bias: humans tend to focus on a subset of factors—content alignment, demographic data, location, and more—that they’re most comfortable optimizing for, at the expense of others.
On the bright side, AI adoption is growing. DV reported a 32% year-over-year increase in AI use for campaign activation and a 12% increase for optimization. While AI’s early marketing applications may have centered on creative, it’s clearly expanding into workflow and performance management.
Experts React:
DV also noted that 91% of marketers are using or plan to use third-party AI or automated bidding tools outside their DSPs to boost performance and streamline operations—a finding that doubles as a subtle plug for DoubleVerify’s own AI optimization product, DV Scibids AI. (We see you, DV.)
“As the media landscape becomes more fragmented and fast-moving, marketers are embracing AI to reclaim control and drive more intelligent, outcome-based campaigns,” said DV CEO Mark Zagorski. “This shift isn’t just about automation, it’s about enabling smarter strategies that yield tangible returns on investment.”
DoubleVerify has been evolving its business, recently acquiring RockerBox, and launching a new offering that brings together verification (OG DV), AI bidding optimization (Scibids), and outcomes measurement (RockerBox).
Our Take:
It’s still early days for AI adoption, but, clearly, more sophisticated use cases are emerging. The data on third-party AI vs. DSP use raises a question: will brands increasingly favor non-native tools they perceive as more objective than DSP-baked AI? If so, DSPs will need to ensure their own AI offerings are both effective and trusted—because “black box” optimization could be seen as less neutral, and therefore less valuable, compared to independent solutions.
AdTechRadar is owned by Chris Harihar, who leads PR at Mod Op. DoubleVerify is a Mod Op client.
