Lolu Akinwunmi, Group Chief Executive Officer of Prima Garnet Africa, has challenged Nigerian advertising agencies to continually justify their relevance and earn their place in the industry as artificial intelligence reshapes creative practice, client expectations and the business of advertising. Speaking at the 2026 Annual Brands and Marketing Conference of the Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN), held recently in Lagos, he urged agencies to embrace informed adaptation and strengthen the value they deliver rather than regard AI as either a threat or a replacement for human expertise.

Speaking at the 2026 Annual Brands and Marketing Conference of the Brand Journalists Association of Nigeria (BJAN), held recently in Lagos, Akinwunmi argued that the growing capabilities of AI should prompt agencies to rethink their operations rather than retreat into resistance or assume that technology would make human expertise obsolete.

At the conference, which examined the theme, “Advertising in Nigeria and AI: Who Needs Creative Agencies Anyways?”, the veteran advertising executive said the emergence of AI had intensified the need for agencies to prove their worth through sharper thinking, sound professional judgment and solutions that address clients’ business challenges.

Drawing on more than four decades of experience in the advertising profession, Akinwunmi maintained that agencies could not take their place in the marketing communications industry for granted. Instead, they must continually earn the confidence of clients, consumers and the wider marketplace through the quality of their work.

He stressed that AI had introduced another major test for the profession, but warned against treating the technology either as a threat to be feared or as an automatic answer to every creative and business challenge.

Rather, he explained that the usefulness of AI depended on how professionals deployed it, the quality of the information and instructions they supplied, the questions they asked and the judgment they brought to its outputs.

Consequently, he urged creative agencies to understand the technology, explore its capabilities, identify its limitations and incorporate it responsibly into their professional processes.

Beyond technological adoption, Akinwunmi called on agencies to return to the essential responsibilities that define their profession. He explained that the work of a creative agency extended far beyond producing advertisements, noting that its enduring contribution lay in understanding people, identifying problems, developing relevant ideas and providing solutions that help businesses build sustainable brands.

In his view, agencies that continue to deliver these core services with distinction will retain a meaningful role in the industry, even as AI changes how advertising ideas are developed, executed and delivered.

He also cautioned that the future would favour agencies willing to review established practices and respond intelligently to changing client expectations, rather than those that depend solely on traditional methods.

For Akinwunmi, therefore, the debate over whether businesses still need creative agencies should not revolve exclusively around the capabilities of artificial intelligence. Instead, it should compel agencies to examine the quality of the value they create and the reasons clients should continue to engage their expertise.

He concluded that AI would not, on its own, determine the fate of creative agencies. Their survival and relevance would depend on their capacity to innovate, adapt and consistently provide the strategic thinking, human understanding and creative solutions that technology cannot automatically guarantee.