ATS Singapore 2026: Agency Leaders Say AI Gains Are Modest So Far

Advertising and media industry leaders gathered in Singapore for ATS Singapore 2026 delivered a sobering reality check on AI adoption, pushing back against the hype and warning that the technology is delivering only modest productivity gains. The event, which brought together senior executives from Omnicom, Dentsu, and other major agencies operating across Asia-Pacific, served as a barometer for how the region's marketing industry is actually deploying AI in practice.

Eileen Ooi, Omnicom-owned PHD's APAC president, estimated that AI is currently delivering about 10% to 20% productivity gains across the agency's automation of insights and reporting. When asked whether her organisation had reached a gold standard in AI adoption, she was candid: 'Hand to heart, no. We're at a pivoting stage.' Ooi also challenged what she called the biggest myth about AI agents — 'the notion that agentic AI will just sort it. It changes the way we work, but it doesn't solve everything.'

Dentsu's president of product and solution development, Ganga Chirravuri, argued that the industry's understanding of AI has become overly simplistic, saying 'the definition of AI itself is fairly bastardized right now.' He noted that agencies have long relied on predictive analytics and data science, with generative AI representing the latest evolution rather than a fundamentally new capability. Building genuinely agentic systems, he explained, requires fine-tuning and careful orchestration — 'do you want to make everything truly agentic? It requires a little bit more work.'

A theme that emerged strongly at the event was the rising cost of AI deployment. Ooi warned that the industry is not talking enough about how much AI costs at scale. 'Tech cost has always been absorbed by the agency. I think we now need to have a conversation more openly with our clients around the fact that tech does cost money.' As AI becomes embedded across agency services, she said the industry will need to rethink traditional labour-based pricing models and move toward blended cost conversations.

Why it matters for Singapore: Singapore has positioned itself as Asia-Pacific's advertising and media technology hub, with major agency networks basing their regional operations in the city-state. The pragmatism on display at ATS Singapore reflects a broader Singaporean approach to AI — enthusiastic about the potential but grounded in the reality of implementation challenges. The event also highlighted how Singapore's role as a regional headquarters city makes it the natural venue for these conversations about AI's practical impact on business operations across diverse Asian markets.