How AI will help to eliminate the ‘swivel chair processes’ in agencies
At Possible, marketers were buzzing about personalization, omnichannel storytelling and next-gen customer experiences. But behind the hype lies a harder truth: delivering all that at scale often still depends on messy back-end processes, overworked ops teams, and tech stacks held together by spreadsheets and swivel chairs.
Speaking with The Drum as part of our Tech Talks at Possible, Andy MacLeay, vice-president of channels and engagement at Fluency, made the case for intelligent automation as the real enabler of modern marketing – not just turning strategy into reality, but doing it without breaking your operations in the process.
Whether it’s a global brand aiming for local relevance or a franchise with thousands of campaigns to manage, the complexity is rising fast. And it’s only getting harder to scale without burning out internal teams.
“There’s this unsexy truth,” says MacLeay, “that the back office is still full of swivel chair processes – moving data from one system to another, updating spreadsheets, repeating manual steps. Fluency’s goal is simple: automate all of that.”
From campaign orchestration to brand-safe, AI-generated ad copy across millions of touchpoints, Fluency’s platform helps clients like Intuit SMB Media Labs transform how media gets delivered. Instead of spending hours pulling levers, they get time back to think bigger and deliver smarter.
The biggest shift, he says, is treating AI not as a gimmick but a practical workforce multiplier. “We’re really looking at it again in an operational sense,” says MacLeay. “So, folks using AI agents to help analyze data, create ad copy at scale… we’re bringing everyday efficiencies to our agencies and brand partners, to just help them get through their days and use AI in a really intelligent way.”
Looking ahead, Fluency sees an explosion in signal activation and AI agents built for brand-safe, scalable media execution. The pressure on performance, compliance and profitability is growing – and automation, used smartly, will be key to unlocking sustainable scale.
Watch the full Tech Talk over on The Drum TV to find out more about how to:
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Fluency provides a digital advertising operating system that helps large-scale digital advertisers achieve transformational business efficiencies. The only solution...