Stagwell CEO Mark Penn said most digital advertising has little effect on consumers, despite people encountering hundreds of ads each day. Penn, formerly chief strategy officer at Microsoft, said AI could improve advertising by enabling more creative and engaging campaigns targeted to the right person at the right time. He said Stagwell has developed products called "the machine" and is seeing record demand for premium creative and digital transformation services. Penn described AI as a friend to the advertising industry, arguing that the technology is expanding what advertisers can produce rather than simply making existing tasks cheaper.