IPAi Forum to help agencies navigate the fast-moving world of Generative AI

IPAi Forum cuts through the AI hype to provide grounded, real-world insight into where AI is adding genuine value, how agencies are deploying it today and what pitfalls to avoid. It also explores what comes next. Alongside this, the Forum supports agencies in building the skills and capabilities the industry needs, with practical guidance on training, legal and regulatory considerations, and answers to the questions people don’t always feel comfortable asking about AI.

The Forum builds on foundations laid in 2018, when then IPA President Sarah Golding urged the industry to embrace “the magic and the machines”, well before GenAI entered the mainstream. That call for curiosity, experimentation and confidence in working with emerging technologies remains central to its ethos.

As AI evolves at breakneck speed - reshaping how agencies work, create and compete, the Forum is also designed to hold two truths at once: that technology is often over-estimated in the short term and under-estimated in the long term - Amara’s Law in action.

Commenting on the launch, Paul Bainsfair, Director General of the IPA, said:

“IPAi Forum is based on the maxim that all of us are smarter than any one of us. By sharing the many different ways our industry is already using AI, we hope to provide something valuable for everyone, whatever stage they are at on their AI journey.”

Karen Martin, IPA President, added:

“AI has injected fresh energy into our industry, accelerating experimentation, expanding creative ambition and unlocking new possibilities. At its most powerful, it acts as a partner to human creativity, amplifying our judgement, care and perspective. I truly believe that the strongest work comes when human imagination and technology move forward together.”

The Forum features interviews with some of the industry’s brightest practitioners working at the forefront of AI. Highlights from the first issue include:

AI trends

• On the Horizon: The Next Wave of AI Tech - industry experts look beyond large language models such as ChatGPT to explore what’s next for AI and advertising
• “That’s AI” - addressing negative public perceptions of AI and how agencies should respond to online backlash

The future of the industry

• AI is not a magical panacea… it’s a scalpel - Daniel Hulme, Chief AI Officer at WPP, on why AI works best when you know what you’re trying to cure

Applied AI: how agencies are deploying AI

• VCCP’s Alex Dalman and Iva Johan on how Faith, the agency’s AI unit, uses AI as a thinking partner rather than a productivity hack
• Gravity Road co-founder Mark Eaves on the real creative impact of the agency’s AI platform, Pencil
• BBH Chief Strategy Officer Will Lion on using AI as a creative pacemaker
• Six key takeaways from a masked AI-versus-human ‘Turing test’ by Ogilvy and Lloyds Banking Group

Quick reads

• The GenAI Bubble Watch
• A practical glossary of AI terms
• An AI due diligence framework for advertising agencies