Digital Out of Home (DOOH) is entering a new phase, where scale, creative quality, and contextual relevance are no longer sufficient on their own. The future of this medium will be shaped not just by what appears on a screen, but by how intelligently that content is delivered.
At Elevision, we have spent over a decade advancing DOOH. From hyper-relevant creative in high-traffic districts to real-time content integrations, we’ve learnt that the difference between effective performance and background noise comes down to one thing: intelligent execution. Yet even the best campaigns are often undermined by what we call “execution debt”, the operational friction that drags down speed, clarity, and strategic output.
What Is agentic AI and how will it redefine DOOH campaign intelligence?
Agentic AI represents a significant leap beyond traditional automation. Where automation is task-driven and rules-based, Agentic AI is goal-driven and self-directed. It doesn’t just follow instructions; it understands objectives, makes informed decisions, monitors results, and adapts its strategy in real-time. In the context of advertising, this means an AI agent can set campaign goals, interpret audience behaviour, plan media across various environments, shape creative direction, measure performance, and continuously optimise execution, all with minimal human oversight. It’s not about replacing creativity or strategy, but about removing the bottlenecks that prevent them from thriving.
The cost of complexity
This shift arrives at a moment when the advertising industry is buckling under the weight of operational complexity. Campaigns are more fragmented, timelines are tighter, and the volume of content is higher than ever. According to WARC, 65 per cent of global marketers say operational overload is one of their most significant barriers to creativity and agility. In DOOH, these pressures are compounded by real-world variables, location context, foot traffic, dwell time, audience profile, time-of-day relevance, and the need to balance precision with scale. The result is what we call “execution debt”: the loss of strategic momentum caused by the friction between intent and delivery.
Intelligent autonomy in action
Campaigns often start with bold ideas and clear objectives but quickly become buried beneath layers of research, approvals, asset versioning, media scheduling, reporting loops, and mid-flight adjustments. In this environment, media teams often spend more time on operations than on insights. DOOH in particular demands agility; audiences shift by the hour, screens exist in wildly different contexts, and performance hinges on moment-to-moment relevance. Delivering effective outcomes is possible, but it can be exhausting. And it doesn’t scale.
Agentic AI changes that equation. These systems don’t just streamline workflows; they reinterpret them. With access to real-time data, large language models, and performance feedback loops, an AI agent can plan and optimise a campaign from start to finish. It can determine which message to show, when, and where, shape creative briefings to fit specific audiences at specific times, and dynamically adjust based on how viewers respond. It can even report on results, compare them against benchmarks, and use those learnings to inform the next round, all without needing to start from scratch.
A turning point for the DOOH industry
The implications are massive, not just for DOOH but for the entire media ecosystem. As advertising becomes more experience-based and connected, the demand for intelligent coordination is only going to increase. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 70 per cent of enterprise CMOs will deploy Agentic AI to manage cross-channel campaigns. It’s a response to the sheer volume of decision-making required to maintain relevance in real time. And in DOOH, where immediacy, presence, and psychological precision are crucial, it offers a chance to transform what is often a reactive channel into a proactive one.
Ultimately, this shift is about reclaiming time and focus. Time for marketers to focus on strategy. Time for creatives to explore. Time for media teams to experiment, rather than firefighting. Agentic systems aren’t here to diminish creativity; they’re here to protect it. By transforming manual processes into intelligent actions, they enable teams to lead, not just manage.
In this sense, working with AI is not about reducing human creativity. It’s about removing the obstacles that prevent it from leading. Agents handle the time-consuming but necessary operational and groundwork, so marketers and creative teams can devote their energy to crafting campaigns that are precise, responsive, and contextually aligned with real-world environments, creating an advertising experience that is intelligent, agile, and outcome-driven. They turn process into intelligence and intent into action.
At Elevision, we believe the next era of DOOH will be defined not by more screens or louder visuals, but by the intelligence behind them. Agentic AI represents the infrastructure for that future, a way to deliver campaigns that are not just seen but strategically felt.
By Niall Sallam, CEO & Founder, Elevision.
