I’ll be the first to say it: AI agents are obscenely overhyped. From a technical standpoint, they don’t necessarily ensure efficiency; they just perform tasks differently.
But after seeing a recent report from eMarketer, I’ve had a change of heart. Not because the technology has suddenly leaped forward, but because our industry is so fundamentally backwards that “Agentic AI” might be the only way to save us from ourselves.
The Death of Manual Labor?
According to Tipsheet’s coverage of the eMarketer report, 2026 will be the “beginning of the end” for manual programmatic buying. They predict a shift where:
- Automated bidding becomes the default.
- Targeting moves from static segments to real-time.
- Creative becomes a continuous, living process.
- Measurement finally gets smarter.
To anyone outside of adtech, this sounds like common sense. To those of us inside, it sounds like a pipe dream.
The Red Tape Problem
I built a DSP used by the “Big 6” agencies. We had the tech to do all of this a decade ago. Every vendor in the space has wanted to switch clients to fully automated modes since 2014. bidding, targeting and creative automation tech absolutely exists. (Measurement will not get smarter because of agents in any way. )
So why didn’t it happen? Humans.
Planners, brand managers, and ad-ops teams have spent years blocking truly dynamic automation. They needed to justify their headcount. Every “compliance” hurdle or “manual check” was often just middle management creating a labyrinth of red tape to ensure their own relevance.
The waste is incredible, but it was protected by a simple human truth: We don’t trust other humans to automate us out of a job.
The “Agentic” Loophole
This is where the twist comes in. Humans are strange—we are often willing to surrender to a “system” or an “agent” what we would never concede to a colleague.
If agentic workflows actually break the deadlock of manual programmatic buying, it won’t be because they brought a technical revolution. It’ll be because they provided a socially acceptable excuse to finally cut the self-inflicted red tape.
Let’s Embrace the New Hell
Agents aren’t a product improvement; they are an organizational bypass.
If calling a script an “agent” is what it takes to finally move the industry away from manual spreadsheets and “justified” inefficiency, then I’m all for it. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Let’s go agentic as fast as possible—if only to see what brand-new circle of hell we manage to invent once the old one is finally automated away.
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