Media Agencies Must Embrace AI to Stay Relevant

At the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN), Steve Babaeko, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer of X3M Ideas, urged media agencies to evolve beyond traditional media buying and placement. He warned that failure to adapt to artificial intelligence (AI) and automation could render them irrelevant.

Babaeko delivered a keynote address titled “Monetizing Tomorrow: Outpacing Disruption, Capturing Growth in the Next Era of Media,” where he discussed the pressures on the traditional media-buying model due to programmatic advertising and AI tools. He highlighted the competitive advantage of local agencies in understanding Nigerian and African consumers, noting that global platforms often overlook the realities of Nigeria’s informal economy.

Babaeko called for a “second independence” for Nigeria’s media industry, advocating for local audience intelligence and measurement systems. He also challenged agencies to rethink their pricing models, suggesting they should charge for strategic insight rather than just media transactions.

He advised using AI as an assistant for repetitive tasks while focusing on consumer context.