In the age of AI, how do we prepare ourselves?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is already reshaping how brands search, browse, and connect with target audiences. However, the next frontier of this technology lies in trustworthy AI and AI embodiment, according to Irwin King, vice-president at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). 

As the 2026 Tencent Advertising Algorithm Competition approaches its final stage, this question has become increasingly relevant to the advertising and marketing technology industry. Speaking at a recent industry webinar co-hosted by Tencent Marketing Solution and MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, King emphasised that the industry's focus must shift beyond raw technological capabilities toward structured oversight. 

"One thing we need to work on is not only newer models or techniques, but newer policies or self-supervised governance," King said. "This is an aspect not many people think about. Organisations heavily need to consider governance, trustworthiness, and responsible AI." 

While connected, agentic workflows are rapidly maturing and being integrated into corporate environments to streamline operations, King noted that developers are still exercising caution. Many organisations remain hesitant to fully unleash advanced agentic systems due to looming privacy and security concerns. 

Moving beyond productivity 

Karen Wong, North Asia editor at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, shared that the biggest change in AI marketing is not just efficiency gains, but a shift in decision making, logic and orchestration. 

"The first phase of adoption was largely productivity," Wong noted. "Brands used AI to generate content faster, automate reporting, and optimise campaigns. The more significant shift today is that leading advertisers are beginning to rethink how decisions are made and how AI capabilities are orchestrated across the organisation." 

King added that these cutting-edge, integrated technologies have long been the backbone of global tech giants, particularly in ad delivery and recommendation systems. 

"If companies introduce ads, how do you select them? It is based on search queries and individual preferences," King explained. "If someone is looking for flowers, you introduce local flower shops. Google is exceptionally good at that—they are the king of ads because of how they integrate search and product recommendations.” 

Similarly, video recommendation on platforms such as YouTube rely heavily on these systems, while social recommendation leverages a person's actual social network, he added. “You are far more inclined to buy a book if your friends are using or recommending that product." 

Tencent Marketing Solution’s AI upgrades 

Derek Zhou, technical lead for commercial recommendation at Tencent Marketing Solution, highlighted the commercial scale behind innovations. 

"Tencent is a technology company whose application ecosystem integrates deeply into every aspect of daily life in China," Zhou said. "Within Tencent Marketing Solution, we have consistently delivered strong double-digit growth for several quarters, with our Q1 2026 financial results showing a 20% year-on-year revenue surge in marketing services to RMB 38.2 billion. As a technology team, our core focus remains on continuously upgrading our AI-driven advertising recommendation models." 

According to Zhou, the most significant recent milestone is the introduction of "RankUp"—an architecture upgrade that fundamentally enhances the model's reasoning capabilities, allowing it to organise information, grasp context, and make high-value determinations much like a human would. 

Beyond internal product upgrades, Zhou said Tencent has also been turning real-world advertising recommendation challenges into open problems for the wider technology community through the Tencent Advertising Algorithm Competition. First launched in 2017, the competition has become a platform for global technical talent to work on frontier issues in large-scale recommendation systems. This year, in collaboration with KDD Cup, the competition attracted more than 13,000 participants from over 52 countries and regions.

“The focus of Tencent Marketing Solution is to keep upgrading AI-powered ad recommendation models. We uphold user experience as our non-negotiable baseline,” Zhou added.  

On the application front, powered by Tencent's intelligent ad-delivery suite, Tencent Marketing AIM+, advertisers have seen their spending efficiency and delivery volume increase by approximately 30%. This framework has already seen widespread, successful adoption across high-growth verticals like mini-games and short videos.

Nurturing the next generation of AI talent 

The webinar also touched on the broader tech ecosystem and talent development. As the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) concludes and students across China submit their university preferences, industry initiatives continue to play a pivotal role in bridging academia and corporate tech. 

A key example is Tencent’s ongoing global algorithm competition, an initiative in which King has also participated. King emphasised that such competitions bring a profoundly positive impact to the community by challenging top minds to solve real-world industry problems. 

"Knowledge is great, but knowledge is only one component of it," King advised. "My advice to young people is to love what you do and do what you love. Do not choose a path because of other external gains, but choose it purely based on the passion you have, alongside the right skills and attitude."

Wong added that combining soft skills and hard skills is essential for new talent looking to break into the industry. Meanwhile, Zhou noted that young people should always hold tight to their curiosity, approach every challenge from first principles, and focus on creating tangible, real-world value through technology. 

This article is done in collaboration with Tencent Marketing Solution.