AI shifts from experiment to infrastructure

​With the first two months of 2026 behind us, it already feels like the right moment to take the industry’s temperature.

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We started the New Year with fresh resolve, and so far, 2026 has met that energy.

Across the UK, US and Europe, we see four forces shaping the creative and advertising landscape, together they offer a signal of where the industry is heading next.

At DMCG Global, we spend our time at the intersection of talent and the creative industry. We talk to hiring managers, creative leaders, strategists and the people who are building new businesses. What we’re seeing confirms trends we’ve been watching for some time, and this opens some genuinely exciting possibilities for the talent market in 2026.

In this blog series, we’ll look at what the data and market signals suggest, and what that means in practical terms for hiring managers and professionals navigating this landscape. Starting with one of the first big themes (in case you missed it!) the AI infrastructure pivot.

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AI shifts from experiment to infrastructure

For the past two or three years, most agency conversations about artificial intelligence followed a noticeable arc. Announcement, pilot programme, job title. Cautious optimism all round, followed by business as usual, but 2026 marks the point where that pattern broke.

What we've seen is not just experimentation. It’s infrastructure. Agencies stopped testing AI at the edges and started building it into their operational core. The difference matters enormously for anyone working in or hiring for this industry.

The signals came from several directions at once. For example, Havas introduced AVA, its new global LLM hub for teams across the network and has also partnered with Akkio to expand agentic AI capabilities for client work. These are not internal experiments, they are client-facing product decisions.

Meanwhile, London saw AI investment move from talk to reality as Tata Consultancy Services unveiled its new AI Experience Zone and Design Studio, tied into a broader UK commitment projected to create 5,000 roles.

In the creative world, Knucklehead introduced Airhead, an in-house AI studio headed by Chris Hewitt. Across the Atlantic, Arts & Sciences launched Arts & Intelligence, a hybrid client studio and R&D space dedicated to applied AI.

Agencies aren’t just experimenting with AI, they’re also restructuring around it. In New York, INVNT named James Nicholas Kinney as its first Chief AI Officer, while R/GA created a new Intelligent Systems function led by Vanessa Lai to hard-wire AI into its creative output.

London is moving just as fast. BBH London appointed Jamie Field as Head of Creative Innovation and AI, a role that sits firmly at the intersection of creative leadership and machine intelligence. Fold7 strengthened its operational muscle with Alex Leach as Chief Creative Delivery Officer, supporting the shift toward AI-enhanced production workflows, and on the tech side, Luma AI planted its EMEA base in London, with former Monks leader Jason Day at the helm.

AI is no longer treated as an add-on. It’s becoming a formalised leadership discipline, a creative capability and an operational advantage all at once.

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The data behind the shift

This activity is consistent with broader market data. Research from fellow recruitment firm Robert Half published in early 2026 found that about 65 per cent of marketing and creative leaders plan to expand permanent headcount in the first half of the year, and job postings are increasingly prioritising skills tied to digital channels, marketing automation and AI-enhanced capabilities, underscoring how critical AI fluency has become in hiring conversations.

LinkedIn's Jobs on the Rise 2026 report, based on an analysis of millions of job changes between 2023 and 2025, found a 70% year-on-year increase in US roles requiring AI literacy, while the global economy added 1.3 million new AI-related jobs in just two years. Significantly for this industry, advertising Sales Specialists, Media Directors and Heads of Sales all featured among the fastest-growing roles on the platform, suggesting that the AI shift is not erasing commercial and creative functions but reshaping them.

Adobe’s 2026 Creative Trends report adds important context, noting that content demands for brands are growing at five to twenty times their previous rate, and that organisations now have ‘the tools, technology and talent’ to meet those demands but only if they move decisively.

In the UK the IPA launched its IPAi Forum specifically to provide guidance on generative AI adoption across member agencies, reflecting the urgency that the industry body itself now places on the transition.

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What this means for hiring managers

The implications for anyone building a team right now are significant. Roles that were once defined by craft or channel expertise are increasingly being redefined around AI fluency. This does not mean the craft disappears, if anything, the ability to direct, edit and quality-control AI output places a premium on people with deep creative or strategic judgment. But the expectation of AI literacy as a baseline is moving fast.

New C-suite appointments (Chief AI Officers, Intelligent Systems leads, Chief Creative Delivery Officers) signal that AI governance is becoming a board-level concern. For hiring managers, this means AI-related roles are no longer sitting exclusively within technology or data functions. They are appearing in creative, production, strategy and client services. Defining what AI competency actually looks like within your specific team, and what it should look like in twelve months, is certainly a question facing hiring managers right now.

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What this means for talent

If you are a creative, strategist, producer or account leader who has been treating AI as something to be managed at arm’s length, now is a useful moment to recalibrate. The agencies investing in AI infrastructure are investing in people who can work within it productively. The question is not whether to engage with AI tools, but how to use them in a way that amplifies your specific judgment and expertise.

There is also a genuine career opportunity here. The talent pool for people who combine strong creative or strategic instincts with real AI fluency is still very narrow. The window for early-mover advantage in this space remains open, but it will not stay open indefinitely.

​The defining question of 2026, as one industry observer put it, is not about hiring people with AI in their job title but about shipping AI-enabled work. The agencies building infrastructure are placing a bet on that. The talent that can deliver it will be in high demand.