{"id":4423328,"date":"2026-01-24T23:20:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T21:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/?post_type=article&p=4423328"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:35:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T13:35:59","slug":"practical-ways-brands-are-using-ai-to-drive-growth-and-profit","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.deptagency.com\/en-uki\/insight\/practical-ways-brands-are-using-ai-to-drive-growth-and-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical ways brands are using AI to drive growth and profit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/mask><\/g><\/svg>\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tInsights\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\tPractical ways brands are using AI to drive growth and profit<\/h1>
\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t
\n\t\tJack Williams\t\t
\n\t\tSVP of Growth, EMEA\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tDate\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 24, 2026\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n<\/div>\n\n\n\t\n\tBy now, most senior marketers have heard the same AI story repeated: content at scale, faster production, smarter personalisation. Those things matter, but they\u2019re no longer differentiators. Many brands are already there or working to get there.

What\u2019s more interesting is what\u2019s happening around<\/em> marketing: the quieter, less-discussed ways AI is being applied to remove friction, sharpen decision-making, and unlock profit in places humans simply can\u2019t operate at speed or scale.

Across our work with retailers, platforms, and global brands, AI\u2019s remit is broadening from a creative accelerator to a decision engine for growth.

Below are a few practical examples of how that\u2019s showing up today.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t1. Using AI agents to remove revenue bottlenecks, not just speed up workflows<\/h2>\n\tRetail media networks are a great example of where growth is often constrained by process, not demand. In theory, brands want to spend more. In practice, approvals, compliance, and governance slow everything down.

Working with Sainsbury\u2019s<\/a>, we helped apply AI agents to automate large parts of the retail media ad approval process. Instead of manual reviews that took days or even weeks, ads could be checked, approved, and deployed in 90 seconds at close to zero cost per audit. And with 95% accuracy.

Faster approvals have meant:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • More campaigns are going live<\/li>
  • More budget captured<\/li>
  • Less friction between brand, retailer, and platform<\/li><\/ul>\n\nIn other words, AI isn\u2019t producing more content. It is clearing the operational choke points that were holding revenue back. And unlocking real savings from your retail media network.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t2. Letting AI decide what<\/em> to invest behind, not just how<\/em> to optimise<\/h2>\n\tMost media optimisation still looks backwards: doubling down on what converted last week. That works until it doesn\u2019t.

    With Foot Locker, AI has been applied further upstream, helping decide which products deserve investment in the first place<\/em>. It’s also about scoring audiences for longer-term growth. Not just the fastest conversion, but also predicting which audiences will return products, which increases costs and reduces profit. Instead of relying solely on platform signals, product-level decisioning incorporates factors like margin, return rates, and sell-through alongside performance data.

    The result is a more balanced growth model:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Products that drive volume but erode profit get deprioritised<\/li>
  • Products that support long-term profitability get scaled<\/li>
  • Media decisions start to reflect business reality, not just channel metrics<\/li><\/ul>\n\nAnd most importantly, this has resulted 13% revenue uptake from product-scoring-based shopping campaigns.

    This kind of AI is giving marketers a clearer view of trade-offs that are impossible to model manually at scale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t3. Using AI to grow more selectively, not more aggressively<\/h2>\n\tOne of the most overlooked benefits of AI is its ability to say \u201cno\u201d faster.

    At Rituals, AI-powered audience prediction and personalisation are used alongside a consolidated global SEO and platform strategy. The goal is to reach the right people, in the right moments, without inflating costs.

    By unifying data, reducing duplication, and applying AI to audience and channel decisions, the brand has been able to:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Improve return on ad spend<\/li>
  • Reduce media waste<\/li>
  • Drive growth without increasing complexity
    <\/li><\/ul>\n\nHere, AI acts less like an accelerator and more like a governor, helping the business scale sustainably instead of chasing short-term gains.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t4. As CMOs are increasingly accountable for revenue and profit, AI is moving into commercial decision-making\u00a0<\/h2>\n\tFor many CMOs, the job has quietly changed. The remit now extends well beyond brand health and demand generation into areas that directly affect revenue, margin, and efficiency.

    That shift is forcing marketing leaders closer to commercial decisions that historically sat elsewhere in the organisation. And AI is often the bridge.

    For a global technology and consumer electronics leader, for example, AI decision engines are being used to determine whether second-hand devices should be resold, refurbished, or stripped for parts, based on which option will be most profitable at a given moment.

    While this may not look like \u201cmarketing\u201d on the surface, the implications are very real:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Pricing and promotional strategies can be informed by real-time margin logic<\/li>
  • Inventory decisions shape which products marketing should prioritise\u2014or avoid<\/li>
  • Demand generation becomes aligned with what the business can profitably sell, not just what it can promote<\/li><\/ul>\n\nFor CMOs under pressure to drive measurable business outcomes, this kind of AI-driven decisioning helps connect marketing activity directly to commercial reality, where growth is shaped as much by what shouldn\u2019t be pushed as by what should.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\t5. Using AI to surface value that humans didn\u2019t know how to look for<\/h2>\n\tFinally, there\u2019s a growing class of AI applications focused on insight rather than execution.

    In our exploratory work with a global sports organisation, AI has been used to:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Analyse audience and media patterns to inform smarter commercial partnerships<\/li>
  • Allow teams to query vast amounts of customer and research data using natural language, dramatically reducing time and cost<\/li><\/ul>\n\nThese applications are still a bit fresh, so the real results will come later in 2026. But they point to a future where AI helps organisations see opportunities they couldn\u2019t previously articulate<\/em>, let alone act on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\tWhat this means for marketers<\/h2>\n\tThe common thread across all of these examples is simple: AI is becoming less about doing more and more about deciding better.

    The brands getting the most value today aren\u2019t chasing novelty. They\u2019re applying AI to:<\/p>\n\n\t
  • Remove friction from revenue-generating processes<\/li>
  • Make investment decisions that reflect real business outcomes<\/li>
  • Scale growth without scaling waste<\/li>
  • Connect marketing activity more tightly to profit<\/li><\/ul>\n\nContent at scale will continue to matter. But the next wave of advantage is being built in places that don\u2019t always show up in campaign recaps or creative decks.

    That\u2019s where AI is quietly doing its most valuable work.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n
    \n\tON OUR MINd<\/span><\/h2>\n\tVIEW ALL INSIGHTS<\/a>\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t
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