Momentum Worldwide’s Anna Dalziel says media needs AI precision and human judgement

The future of media lies in combining predictive intelligence with human judgement, according to Anna Dalziel, Momentum Worldwide's SVP and global director of marketing communications.

Her work spans brand strategy, communications and global campaigns. Globally, she is responsible for the agency's awards strategy, media relations, and marketing communications both inside and outside the business. She judged the media category of an industry awards programme last year.

Predictive planning

“AI has made media planning more precise and adaptive,” she said. “Rather than looking at past performance alone, you can now leverage predictive intelligence to forecast outcomes based on specific audiences, channels and creative concepts.”

Technology cannot do the job alone, though. “This doesn’t mean you remove the human layer altogether,” she said. “Personalisation cues and real human context together with AI learning is where you find the sweet spot without impacting consumer trust.”

The growing number of channels has made decisions harder for brands. “The media ecosystem is becoming increasingly complex and fragmented with new channels and networks entering the space every day,” she said, which makes her wary of naming any single platform as the answer.

“Choosing one channel is a really loaded question because there is no one size fits all approach where what works for one brand will automatically work for another.”

The case for experiential

She does think brands should look seriously at experiences beyond digital. “Looking at consumer expectations, investing in non-traditional mediums like experiential marketing would be an area to consider,” she said. “As digital fatigue grows and AI continues to permeate our lives, consumers increasingly crave authentic human connections.”

“IRL experiences align with cultural values,” she added. “IRL interactions foster trust and create meaningful brand connections that digital channels frankly struggle to replicate.”

Measurement remains a problem for the industry. “A big challenge is that measurement has a lack of consistency in the ways you actually measure success,” she said.

She believes the next step forward in media effectiveness will combine the two. “Talent and tech that blends the speed and agility of AI with human context and guardrails will define the next evolution of media effectiveness.”