It’s not hyperbole to say that generative AI (gen AI) is radically transforming the advertising, media and entertainment industry. There has been widespread excitement about the potential of gen AI to open brand-new creative opportunities and unlock unprecedented efficiencies. At the same time, there has been understandable concern about issues such as inherent bias, deep fakes and the impact of gen AI on jobs. What’s not up for debate is that gen AI is here to stay, and the more prepared companies are for it, the better they’ll be able to leverage the benefits and mitigate the risks.

To learn more about the impact AI and other developments are expected to have on advertising, media and entertainment this year, read the new report, Advertising, Media and Entertainment Data + AI Predictions 2024, for full insights from Snowflake industry and technology experts. 

Here’s a quick look at their top four industry predictions for 2024:

Gen AI presents remarkable new creative possibilities. “Generative AI tools and other capabilities are advancing the ability to create video, images and text using models and prompts from libraries of data,” says Bill Stratton, Snowflake’s Global GTM Lead for Advertising, Media and Entertainment. “They let filmmakers create scenes without having to bring in actors and a production crew, because the models can generate content from trained images." Meanwhile, in advertising, AI is helping target and personalize messaging to consumers based on their known preferences, behaviors and demographics. 

These advancements naturally bring up issues involving intellectual property, privacy and the replacement of workers. Still, Stratton says he’s confident that in the long run, gen AI will grow rather than shrink the advertising, media and entertainment ecosystems. “In the world of media, new technologies — and change in general — tend to be additive,” he says. “When new platforms emerge, time spent with a given channel may shrink, but total interest in media continues to grow. In terms of efficiencies and hyper-targeting in the ad space, there will always be a range; it’s not an AI takeover.”

The brands that come out ahead in the new era of gen AI trend will be those who most successfully and quickly supercharge their data strategy. Data is the core of AI, and when every AI application is built on one of a handful of foundational LLMs, the data you bring to the models will be crucial. 

A unified data structure is essential to properly train any LLM. Data silos will make outputs incomplete or inaccurate or require a lot of extra work to overcome. Combining integration, storage, governance and management of data into a single platform establishes a single source of truth that gets you further faster in a quickly evolving competitive environment. It improves data quality, cuts costs, improves efficiency and leads to better and more nimble business decision-making. Ultimately, it will distinguish leaders from laggards during a time of unprecedented industry disruption and opportunity. 

Translating the enormous amounts of subscriber data available into competitive advantage, while honoring privacy and content licensing imperatives, will require the swift evolution of data strategy. As such, advertisers and marketers have adopted powerful, efficient technologies to help them leverage that data for insights. 

Privacy protection is paramount in this process. How brand advertisers and media and entertainment companies use consumer data — and to what degree an individual consumer is identifiable with that data — has led to a global network of regulatory requirements that require strict data governance, expertise and resources. 

To address privacy concerns, the industry is turning to solutions like data clean rooms. “Advertisers, agencies and marketers are using data clean rooms and other technology to create that unified, actionable consumer profile without compromising privacy,” says Stratton. “And fundamentally, the way to both bring together all your data while meeting privacy and data governance obligations is to move from a collection of disparate, siloed tools to a comprehensive data platform.”

Streaming will continue to have a major effect on the viability of cable networks and evolve content distribution models. The impact of streaming on the market is nothing new, but with the introduction of gen AI solutions companies can use these tools to optimize content distribution, licensing and ad revenue, giving the frontrunners even more of an edge and the new players a welcome advantage. 

In addition, subscribers will move from exclusivity to cross-licensing of original content. The default for streaming services’ original content has been to lock them up exclusively. But Stratton expects to see original content move from platform to platform after an initial debut run. This will mitigate one of the downsides of streaming, which is that there’s always something consumers want to see on a service they don’t want to subscribe to. However, this is not great news for cable providers. 

Finally, major media brands will redefine content consumption with “lifestyle bundles.” Amazon started this trend of combining content with related products and services by bundling video into its Prime shipping service. Based on that success, don’t be surprised when other brands do the same. 

Ready for a deeper dive? Get the full report, Advertising, Media and Entertainment Data + AI Predictions 2024.