Automation has become the default answer to shrinking budgets. Faced with rising sales targets and leaner media spends, many marketers have turned to AI-driven tools that promise efficiency at scale. Yet the very solutions built to simplify our work are quietly changing their nature, shifting control from human strategy to machine logic.
The Middle East’s marketing landscape is a clear reflection of this paradox. Technology adoption is moving faster than budgets, and efficiency has become the new currency of performance. But efficiency without context is fragile. Automation can amplify results or distort them depending on how it’s framed, managed and measured. In markets like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, this challenge feels even sharper. Budgets may be tightening, but ambitions are not. Regional advertisers are expected to scale internationally, attract diverse audiences and maintain global-level performance with far smaller teams.
Automation can be a powerful equaliser; it helps regional brands punch above their weight, yet only if paired with local intelligence. Understanding cultural nuance, consumer rhythm and platform maturity by market is what transforms automation from a tool into a competitive advantage.
The real challenge for today’s brands is not adopting AI but mastering it.
WHY MENA BRANDS NEED TO REDEFINE AUTOMATION AS A STRATEGIC ALLY, NOT A SHORTCUT
Platforms like Performance Max, Advantage+, or TikTok Smart Performance have become the go-to escape route for teams under pressure. Define a budget, pick an objective, and let the algorithm do the rest; the promise is seductive, especially when headcounts are tight and deadlines shorter than ever.
And yes, these systems can unlock genuine efficiency. For brands managing large e-commerce portfolios or fragmented regional markets, automation helps simplify execution. But there’s a hidden cost: when algorithms decide where money goes, marketers lose visibility over why it performs. Many advertisers have already noticed it; results that look perfect on paper but tell a narrower story once examined.
Take Performance Max, for instance. In many cases, a large share of spend flows automatically into branded search, inflating ROI while delivering little incremental growth. The algorithm isn’t chasing long-term value; it’s chasing the quickest conversion. And when each platform defines its own KPIs, marketers risk adopting a version of ‘success’ they didn’t design and can’t audit.
Add to that the growing opacity of measurement cookies disappearing, pixels being restricted and attribution models collapsing, and it’s easy to see why handing the keys entirely to platforms is risky. When you operate inside their ecosystem, you also adopt their definition of performance … without the ability to challenge it. Long term, this lack of transparency isn’t just a data issue; it’s a governance one. Automation cannot become a black box we accept by default; advertisers must keep the ability to question and interpret what the machines deliver.
When you can’t fully see how media dollars are distributed, it becomes difficult to know whether the machine is truly creating incremental performance or simply recycling demand.
Platforms are starting to respond to this growing demand for transparency, slowly opening the black box to let marketers see what’s inside. For once, Google is leading the way by offering greater visibility into Performance Max channel distribution across YouTube, Search, Gmail and Display, along with the long-awaited ability to exclude brand keywords through negative lists. Some teams are even experimenting with creative ‘hacks’, such as feed-only Performance Max campaigns to focus exclusively on Google Shopping placements.
Advertisers need the right to question and verify. If AI tools are to drive business decisions, they must be auditable. This doesn’t mean rejecting automation; it means demanding accountability. Access to impression paths, bidding logic and incrementality data. The ability to measure isn’t a technical privilege; it’s strategic hygiene.
Brands shouldn’t wait. Building proprietary reporting layers, whether through in-house dashboards or agency BI platforms, is essential to keep control over interpretation.
THE SHORT-TERM TRAP
As budgets tighten, it’s tempting to double down on what ‘proves’ ROI now. Automation naturally reinforces that bias, funnelling investment into bottom-of-funnel activity while awareness and consideration quietly erode.
Cutting brand investment may look efficient in the short term, but it
creates long-term fragility. Without sustained visibility and preference, even the best-performing campaigns eventually plateau. The truth is simple: the machine optimises for conversion, not for future demand.
This is where leadership becomes critical. The strongest marketers I see in the region don’t measure success by immediate cost per lead; they look at how media, data and creative work together to build future growth. As one client recently put it, “If you stop telling your story, the algorithm won’t tell it for you.”
Machines optimise the present; strategy protects the future.
REGAINING CONTROL: STRONGER FOUNDATIONS
The goal isn’t to reject automation, it’s to make it serve a broader plan. AI should accelerate what you already know works, not decide it for you. That means rebuilding a sense of control over how tools are used and measured:
Prioritising quality over volume. In programmatic, brand-safe and contextually relevant environments consistently outperform broad-reach buys when the objective is meaningful engagement. Value beats volume and quality context drives trust, which in turn fuels conversion.
Measure independently. Incrementality testing, server-to-server tracking, and multi-touch attribution require effort, but they bring back credibility to performance data. Perfection is impossible, but clarity is essential. The goal isn’t a flawless model – it’s a consistent one that lets you compare like-for-like.
A recent test with one of our retail brands illustrated it clearly: we ran two scenarios – one fully automated and one hybrid with human oversight. The algorithm hit its KPIs faster, but 70 per cent of conversions came from branded traffic that would have happened anyway. The hybrid setup delivered fewer total conversions but double the number of new customers. It cost less, grew the audience base, and taught the team more. Context still beats code.
THE HUMAN MULTIPLIER
Automation doesn’t make marketers obsolete; it redefines their value. The best digital teams today don’t just manage budgets; they design systems. They know how to brief algorithms, define guardrails, and translate business priorities into machine logic.
Planners aren’t just buyers; they have to be system architects. They translate brand ambition into algorithmic guardrails, define success metrics, and know when to intervene or pivot. That’s the new creative discipline: designing systems that learn the right things.
But technology alone can’t compensate for structural gaps. Many organisations in MENA still operate in silos, media, data, CRM and creative running on different timelines, often reporting to different KPIs. Automation can’t solve that; in fact, it amplifies the problem if not addressed. True automation maturity only happens when teams share a unified performance language, when governance, evolves alongside technology.
In my experience, the most effective regional setups are those that integrate data, media, and creative under one collaborative governance. Automation delivers far more value when the strategy behind it is coherent.
BEYOND EFFICIENCY: BUILDING SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE
AI is a lever, not a strategy. The real challenge is balance: automation with control, short-term efficiency with long-term value.
In times of economic pressure, it’s tempting to hand control to the machine and chase short-term wins. But true mastery lies in balance: automation with control, efficiency with vision, data with creativity.
The future of marketing won’t be human or algorithmic – it will be hybrid. Automation will scale efficiency; humans will bring judgment, empathy and creative vision. The brands that succeed will design systems where data science and human intelligence coexist, not compete.
The next evolution won’t be about new tools, but new talent and structures. As automation reshapes workflows, marketing teams need to evolve from channel operators into strategic orchestrators, people who can translate business outcomes into data signals, guide algorithms and still tell human stories. This shift also demands stronger collaboration between data, media and creative departments, often supported by central intelligence hubs. In the Middle East, where organisations are scaling fast, this integration is becoming a genuine competitive edge. Brands that invest early in analytical capability and measurement frameworks – from server-to-server setups to business impact dashboards – are already moving beyond platform reporting. They’re not just optimising campaigns; they’re steering performance as a business discipline.
Automation is here to stay, but strategy is what keeps it honest.
By David Do Rosario, SVP – Digital Media and Commerce, Havas Media Middle East
