DoubleVerify (“DV”) , the leading software platform to verify media quality, optimize ad performance, and prove campaign outcomes, released its 2025 Global Insights: AI, Automation and the Future of Digital Advertising report. The report draws on DV’s platform intelligence, campaign-level analytics and a global survey of 1,970 marketing and advertising decision-makers to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is redefining the digital advertising ecosystem.

Marketers as “Campaign Facilitators”

A central theme of the report is the growing operational burden placed on marketers, particularly in programmatic media buying. According to DV’s research, campaign managers are spending 26% of their time — over 10 hours per week — on manual optimizations, including tweaking bid modifiers, reallocating budgets, and adjusting performance thresholds.

For North American agencies, that time translates to $17,000+ annually per team member allocated to repetitive tasks — time that could otherwise be spent on strategic planning and innovation.

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“Campaign managers are often trapped in reactive workflows, acting more like hands-on campaign facilitators than strategists,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO of DoubleVerify. “DV’s solutions, powered by AI, present an opportunity to flip that dynamic, allowing teams to automate routine decisions and focus instead on higher-order thinking and performance optimization.”

AI Adoption Rising Across Workflows

Marketers are actively working to address the “campaign facilitator” dynamic above, as the report shows a clear uptick in planned AI usage across key campaign functions this year:

• Campaign activation saw a 32% year-over-year increase, the largest jump across all workflows.
• Bidding and mid-flight optimization grew by 12% YoY, reflecting the increased complexity of media performance levers that AI can manage more effectively than humans can.
• Summarizing media briefs rose by 11%, and dynamic creative optimization by 8%.

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Notably, 91% of marketers say they are using or plan to use third-party AI or automated bidding tools outside of their DSPs to support campaign performance and streamline operations.

“As the media landscape becomes more fragmented and fast-moving, marketers are embracing AI to reclaim control and drive more intelligent, outcome-based campaigns,” added Zagorski. “This shift isn’t just about automation, it’s about enabling smarter strategies that yield tangible returns on investment. Our recently launched AI-driven solution, DV Authentic AdVantage™, specifically designed to address the challenges of advertising in walled gardens, empowers advertisers to enhance media performance and drive cost efficiency.”