Artificial intelligence may be transforming the advertising and creative industries, but creative agencies will not become irrelevant if they embrace technological innovation while preserving human creativity, cultural intelligence and originality, the Head of Corporate Communications at Sahara Group, Mr Bethel Obioma, has said.
Obioma argued that the real threat facing creative agencies was not artificial intelligence itself but their inability to adapt to a rapidly changing business environment where technology is redefining how ideas are developed, campaigns are produced and brands communicate with consumers.
He made the submission at the 2026 Annual Brands and Marketing Conference organised by the Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN) in Lagos.
The conference, themed “Advertising in Nigeria & AI: Who Needs Creative Agencies Anyways?”, brought the future of creative agencies into focus amid the growing adoption of artificial intelligence across the advertising and marketing industries.
According to Obioma, AI has fundamentally changed the creative landscape by allowing individuals and organisations to generate advertising campaigns, films, images, concepts and other creative materials at unprecedented speed.
However, he cautioned that the ability to generate content quickly should not be confused with the capacity to produce meaningful communication that connects with audiences and builds lasting brand identities.
For him, the question confronting creative agencies is no longer whether AI will replace them, but whether they can redefine their value and combine technological capabilities with uniquely human strengths.
Obioma urged advertising professionals, brands and students to constantly interrogate the purpose, methods, platforms and timing of their work as technology and consumer behaviour evolve.
He described AI as an opportunity for creative professionals to expand their capabilities rather than a technology to fear, noting that agencies could master the tools and use them to improve efficiency and productivity.
But he warned against excessive dependence on AI, arguing that such reliance could gradually erode the distinctive identity and creative voice of agencies and brands.
“If you rely on AI alone, you’re going to lose your voice,” he cautioned.
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He explained that while AI could generate hundreds of creative options, the ability to determine which ideas were strategically relevant, culturally appropriate and worth a client’s investment remained a human responsibility.
“AI will give you hundreds of ideas, but who tells which one deserves the client’s money? It has to be you,” he said.
Obioma identified cultural intelligence as one of the most important competitive advantages creative agencies must protect, particularly in Nigeria and other African markets where consumer behaviour, language, traditions and social experiences influence how advertising messages are received.
He maintained that AI could generate content but could not independently replicate the depth of human understanding required to interpret cultural nuances and connect brands meaningfully with their audiences.
He challenged agencies to examine the originality and recognisability of their creative output, asking: “If we took out your logo, would anyone still recognise your work?”
He also questioned whether the increasing speed of content production was translating into meaningful audience engagement, stressing that volume alone should not be mistaken for creative effectiveness.
According to him, agencies must strengthen their capabilities in strategic decision-making, cultural intelligence, creativity, trust, governance and the measurement of value.
“The creative agency is not disappearing. The old definition of agency is what’s disappearing,” he declared.
Illustrating how organisations could apply reinvention to brand communication, Obioma cited Sahara Group’s 30th anniversary campaign.
He explained that the company developed the concept “Beyond XXX” around the Roman numeral XXX, representing its 30 years of operations, while using the expression to communicate its ambition to move beyond its achievements, experience and existing legacy.
Rather, creative agencies must evolve from being traditional content-production outfits into strategic partners capable of combining AI-driven efficiency with human judgement, cultural understanding and distinctive storytelling.