The advertising world is standing on the edge of its next major evolution — and it’s being driven by generative AI. At Microsoft Advertising Accelerate 2025, the theme was clear: the future of audience engagement is conversational, intelligent, and deeply personalised. As someone immersed in the world of digital advertising, the advancements unveiled by Microsoft aren’t just exciting — they’re directional signals for where we, as an industry, are headed.
From Clicks to Conversations
Traditional advertising has long relied on interruptive, one-way messaging. Generative AI flips that model on its head. With the integration of conversational interfaces, like Microsoft Copilot, we’re now entering a new era where engagement is driven by natural language and intelligent dialogue — not just display banners or search queries.
Imagine this: instead of clicking through dozens of pages to find the right running shoe, a user can simply ask an AI agent embedded on a brand’s website, “Which shoes are best for trail running in cold weather?” and receive curated recommendations in seconds. Microsoft is piloting exactly this functionality — smart, AI-powered brand agents that act as digital concierges, guiding users in real time through the decision-making journey.
The Rise of Brand Agents
What stood out most during Microsoft Accelerate was the concept of brand agents — custom AI assistants that can interact not only with consumers, but eventually with other AI agents as well. Think of them as the digital counterpart to an in-store advisor, trained on brand knowledge, product specifications, customer service best practices, and sales data.
For advertisers, this opens up a world of opportunity. These agents can become powerful tools for lead generation, customer support, and conversion optimisation. They offer the ability to keep users engaged through meaningful dialogue, answering questions, offering comparisons, and guiding purchase decisions — without ever needing to click away.
Ad Experiences Reinvented
This shift isn’t limited to backend support or AI-driven insights. Microsoft also revealed entirely new ad formats purpose-built for conversational experiences. One standout? Showroom Ads — immersive, chat-activated environments where users can explore products in a digital space that mimics the feel of a physical store. These environments, enhanced by brand agents, will bring storytelling and interactivity into the heart of the ad experience.
Dynamic filters and AI-generated creative also play a big role in streamlining decision-making. With tools that adapt ads based on conversation context, user preferences, location, and even seasonality, generative AI is taking relevance to an entirely new level. In tests, ad relevance in Copilot was 25% higher than traditional search — a huge leap forward.
Productivity Gains for Marketers
As a digital marketer, the promise of generative AI isn’t just about what consumers see — it’s about what we’re now able to build and manage behind the scenes. Microsoft’s Copilot within the Advertising Platform is already streamlining diagnostics, campaign setup, asset creation, and performance optimisation. It’s essentially a co-pilot (pun intended) for every stage of campaign development.
With the launch of tools like Ads Studio and Copilot API access, advertisers can now generate and deploy ad assets at scale, while maintaining brand quality and strategic alignment. These aren’t future visions — they’re live, testable, and already delivering results.
A Future Built on Personalisation, Scale, and AI Collaboration
This isn’t about replacing marketers — it’s about empowering us. Generative AI gives us the power to be more agile, more creative, and more connected to customer needs in real time. It allows us to move beyond generic personas and speak directly to the individual on the other side of the screen — with nuance, relevance, and empathy.
At ClickTech, we’re leaning into this transformation. With tools that span programmatic advertising, performance insights, and creative automation, we see the rise of generative AI as an opportunity to make advertising smarter, more human, and more impactful.
The future of advertising is no longer about finding audiences — it’s about conversing with them. And with generative AI, that future is here.
