To compete with AI, agencies must do what they’ve always done best, says Dan Chapman, global chief strategy officer at UM, part of IPG Mediabrands: focus on finding a brand’s true difference.

In the second law of thermodynamics, entropy describes an inevitable decline into disorder within a closed system. Applied to marketing, this principle translates to the gradual loss of differentiation and innovation as strategies converge and optimize toward the mean. In 2025, I predict we’ll start seeing AI’s entropy-inducing effects in media and marketing.

The efficiency of AI tools, while undeniably beneficial, often leads to an over-reliance on pattern replication. This compounds the issue of entropy, driving brands toward uniformity and reducing their ability to stand out in the marketplace. Without intervention, this trend could erode the creativity that fuels successful marketing.

Read more on The Drum.

UM US (Global Headquarters)
Privacy Overview

Our website uses cookies for various purposes, including to enhance the site’s functionality, and help us understand how you use and interact with the website. To learn more about the cookies used and your choices, please see the Online Privacy Notice. Please indicate below whether you agree to the use of cookies for the purposes described above:

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.