AI is transforming how business gets done — and in 2025, those changes will only accelerate. While AI will drive efficiency in digital campaigns, our industry faces significant unknowns, from how new regulations affect AI tools to how we’ll manage AI across organizational boundaries.
We’ve pulled together nine key predictions about where AI is headed, from new regulations to practical applications affecting your day-to-day work. These insights come from our team at AdMonsters and leading industry experts who are in the trenches dealing with AI implementation.
#1: AI Regulations Will Mirror Data Privacy’s Path
In the US, AI regulation is following a path strikingly similar to data privacy legislation – with individual states taking the lead in the absence of federal action. We’re already seeing a handful of state legislatures proposing and passing their own AI regulations while many more bills wind their way through various state legislative processes. The sheer volume of AI legislative trackers demonstrates this space’s activity.
Without a comprehensive national framework, companies will likely face the same challenges they encountered with privacy regulations: sifting through a complex patchwork of state-by-state requirements. This regulatory fragmentation makes compliance particularly challenging, especially for organizations operating across multiple states.
#2: Confusion with Reign in AI Regulations on a National Level
Despite the federal government identifying over 700 AI use cases among its agencies, a comprehensive AI regulation appears unlikely in 2025. Per National Law Review’s Editor-in-Chief Oliver Roberts, “While plaintiff publishers battle AI companies in court over alleged copyright infringement, I do not expect Congress to step into this copyright debate in 2025. Even though copyright law falls within Congress’s purview in the U.S. Constitution, I predict that Congress will let the cases play out in court before Congress steps in.”
And is it even a priority? Recent developments, beginning with President-Elect Trump’s announcement of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), put AI regulation into doubt. While Elon Musk has publicly called for AI regulation, a prominent advisor to Trump, he may influence AI policy in ways that align with Trump’s deregulation agenda.
Moreover, the proposed nomination of Sriram Krishnan as Senior White House Policy Advisor on AI “signals a renewed focus on maintaining US leadership in AI innovation, alongside a push to reshape how AI interacts with industries and digital infrastructure,” writes CEO Magazine. If history is any guide, regulations tend to fall by the wayside when innovation is a top priority.
#3: The Brussels Effect Will Apply to AI
Just as GDPR set global standards for data privacy, AI regulation is likely to experience what’s known as the “Brussels Effect” – where companies adopt the EU’s stringent standards as their default approach, regardless of their location. This happens because it’s often easier and more cost-effective for companies to follow the strictest regulations across all their operations rather than maintaining different standards for different regions.
The EU’s AI framework emphasizes responsible development through risk-based assessments, and we’re already seeing major AI companies in the U.S. implementing similar approaches. These assessments help companies evaluate and mitigate potential risks before deploying AI systems. This proactive adoption by industry leaders suggests that the EU model will become the global de facto standard for AI governance.
#4: Seeing Both Benefits & Risks, Companies will Put AI Guardrails in Place.
Over the past two years, every company in America has experimented with AI, whether their business leaders knew it or not. Employees have independently brought these tools into the workplace, which has led to streamlined workflows and higher-quality outputs — as well as devastating data leaks. Despite the proliferation of these tools, fewer than half of all companies have developed policies regarding AI use among employees. That will change in 2025, as business leaders recognize the need to put guardrails in place to secure data, ensure accuracy, and protect their brand reputation.
Furthermore, companies will feel compelled to develop a framework for more sophisticated AI applications, such as customer service AI bots, requiring cross-departmental coordination and oversight.
#5: The AI Job Market with “Snowball in 2025,” including AI compliance Roles
The AI job market will be kind to people with AI skills in 2025. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, AI-related positions will grow by 21% through 2031, with many new roles emerging. AI Personality Designers, for instance, are part of the dozen new positions created specifically for the generative AI era (though this list grows almost daily).
Notably, over 1000 Ethics jobs are posted on LinkedIn, opening doors for professionals without machine learning PhDs to become AI leaders. While traditional roles like AI engineers, machine learning engineers, AI research scientists, and data scientists remain in high demand, the field is expanding to welcome diverse backgrounds and expertise.
#6: Generative AI Still WON’T Replace You on 2025
After the hype and the hype cycle, business leaders are beginning to realize what AdMonsters documented in its AdOps AI Playbook last year: AI augments employees but doesn’t replace them.
Generative AI won’t replace the campaign trafficker, it won’t replace lawyers, and it won’t replace content creators. Tools such as ChatGPT or Perplexity can’t reason or think, so they can never do what humans do best: think.
#7: AI Will Play a Huge Role in the Creative Process
“AI will continue playing a huge role in the creative process as its use cases expand across the sector,” said Alex Distadio, Head of Publisher Acquisition, Americas for MGID. “It’s not just about cranking out ads faster—AI will transform every step of the process, from the first spark of an idea to deciding where and when an ad should run. Predictive analytics tools will become crucial for advertisers and marketers, giving them a window into the future. This shift from reacting to problems to preventing them will help advertisers save time and address potential challenges to optimize efficiency and maximize the impact of every ad before even launching a campaign.”
#8: AI Will Drive Ad Targeting
“Machine learning and artificial intelligence have never been just ‘buzzwords’ in advertising – they were always crucial pillars of the industry. It isn’t the technology that is novel to adland but rather the momentum it has gained in recent times, driven to new heights by the need for ultra-powerful optimization algorithms and increasingly capable computing systems to deal with ever-growing amounts of data,” explains Wilfried Schobeiri, CTO, Ogury. “Targeting using machine learning requires large amounts of precise data and models that work at scale to train the system accurately. I anticipate a shift in focus in 2025 from AI testing and experimentation to scaling through investment in data quality.”
#9: Quality Data Will Enable AI to Thrive in Advertising
“AI is transforming the creative process, with consumers split on its impact—some embracing it, others spotting flaws. As we head into 2025, marketers will face pressure to adopt and experiment with AI, but its success depends on a solid data foundation. The stronger the data, the more intuitive, connected, and precise marketing experiences,” writes Julie Clark, SVP, Media & Entertainment, TransUnion.
Looking Ahead
AI will reshape business in 2025, though plenty of challenges lie ahead — from thorny regulations to figuring out how to use AI effectively. One thing is clear: success won’t come from AI alone but from smart implementation, solid data, and people working together across teams and industries. The technology is impressive, but how we put it to work matters most.