In five years, digital advertising in Peru went from representing 15% of the share to exceeding 50%, and today it accounts for more than half of all advertising investment in the country. That leap was not just about media. It was a change in mindset that forced clients and agencies to transform processes, talent, and tools almost simultaneously.
At next+, we spoke with Eduardo Velasco, Managing Partner of Latin Group by Dentsu in Peru, about how this digital acceleration is now combined with the arrival of artificial intelligence to reconfigure the competitive landscape of agencies in the region. With over 30 years of experience in media and creative agencies of global groups, Eduardo Velasco leads a holding that integrates brands such as Carat, Dentsu X, Latinbrands, and Humans, with global clients like General Motors, Netflix, and Heineken, alongside local references like Grupo Centenario, Senati, and Banbif.
What follows is a comprehensive overview of the topics that will define the next decade of the business: the evolution of digital channels, the true source of competitive advantage in the era of AI, the risks of overpromising, how an organization should prepare its teams, and finally, a projection of what an agency will look like in ten years.
A digitization that did not stop after the pandemic
The starting point of the conversation is a fact that is already a recent history of the Peruvian market. As Eduardo Velasco explains, the pandemic served as an accelerator of a digitalization process that was already underway, but which did not reverse or stabilize after 2021. It continued growing alongside the digital consumption of Peruvians, pushing clients and agencies to simultaneously transform their internal processes, talent, and tools.
The most relevant aspect of that process, according to Eduardo Velasco, did not only occur in new channels. It also happened in traditional media, which instead of resisting change absorbed it. Open television and radio stopped being thought of as isolated platforms and integrated into a multiplatform content offering designed to reach consumers at different times of the day.
"The reaction of traditional media has been to transform beyond platforms like open TV or radio, to integrate their offering as generators of multiplatform content."
CTV and retail media advance, but not at the same pace
While markets like Mexico or Brazil already consolidate Connected TV and retail media as relevant investment categories, Eduardo Velasco describes a Peru that advances with nuances and at different times for each channel. CTV is growing organically: more and more users are consuming video on platforms like YouTube from their television sets, and some clients are already allocating budget exclusively to that channel because they know that the attention captured by a TV screen is greater than that of a mobile device.
Retail media had a different trajectory. Its greatest boost occurred between 2022 and 2024, in parallel with the growth of regional e-commerce. However, since 2025, according to Eduardo Velasco, growth has slowed down, partly because retailers redirected their attention towards strengthening the physical channel. Even so, his reading is that this is a tactical pause, not a structural ceiling: he anticipates that the channel will regain strength in the coming years.
This nuance is important for any brand designing its media strategy in emerging markets. The adoption of channels does not follow a uniform curve between countries, even within categories that seem consolidated at the global level.
AI is already accessible to everyone. The advantage is somewhere else
One of the clearest points throughout the conversation with Eduardo Velasco is his perspective on where the competitive advantage lies today in a landscape of democratized artificial intelligence. Access to the tools has ceased to be a barrier. Any agency, local or global, can use them. The difference is no longer in access, but in strategy.
Eduardo Velasco makes a key distinction between having the technology and developing a sustainable strategy on how that technology enhances the agency's service in every phase of the process. The agencies that win are not the ones that adopt AI first, but those that build a system where AI consistently improves efficiency, agility, and effectiveness.
"The competitive advantage does not stem from who has AI or who knows it better, but from who develops a sustainable strategy on how AI enhances the agency's service.”
Business and creativity, asserts Eduardo Velasco, will remain the main criteria for choosing an agency. But the medium-term competitive sustainability will belong to those who integrate AI as a structural enhancer, and not as a superficial layer over processes that fundamentally have not changed.
The risk of promising more than AI can deliver
The pressure from clients for efficiency and savings in compensation has raised expectations about what artificial intelligence can solve, especially in creativity and content. Eduardo Velasco identifies a concrete risk in that scenario: the overstating of AI's capabilities as a direct replacement for specialists, an expectation that in practice does not always hold.
The variable that determines whether that expectation is managed well or poorly, according to Eduardo Velasco, is not technological but communicational. A fluid and proactive relationship between agency and client is what allows for correctly calibrating what AI can and cannot deliver in each project. Without that constant conversation, the gap between expectation and delivery becomes friction.
This friction also becomes visible in execution. Eduardo Velasco mentions a recurring problem in his recent experience: AI-generated content, such as a video or an image, that the client perceives as different and does not always generate the expected acceptance. Transparency about what was generated with AI and how it is no longer just a technical detail but rather a real condition to maintain the client's trust.
"Sometimes a video or image can be built with AI, but the client notices the differences and does not like it. Transparency in communication is crucial to align expectations."
Preparing teams for a change that has already begun
For Eduardo Velasco, the impact of artificial intelligence on talent is generally positive, but with a clear condition: that there is a defined strategy for how it is applied within the already established methodological processes. Without that clarity, he warns, AI can generate the opposite effect of what is sought. A concrete example he offers is the exploration and strategic research stage, where AI structures and simplifies work, but only if it is properly aligned with the existing methodology. Otherwise, the result is a lack of focus instead of clarity.
Eduardo Velasco draws a historical parallel that illuminates the current moment. Just as the arrival of spreadsheets in the 1990s transformed, and in many cases eliminated, entire operational roles within organizations, artificial intelligence today is producing an equivalent process. Roles that disappear or are reduced, to transform into other distinct ones.
At Latin Group, that transition was not left to chance. As Eduardo Velasco describes, the organization defined a formal strategy for AI adoption in which COOs act as champions of the process, and each area director actively participates in its implementation. It is a model of adoption that descends from executive leadership, not one that emerges spontaneously from the teams.
"At Latin Group, we have defined a strategy for the adoption and integration of AI throughout the processes and the entire organization. The COOs are the champions, and each area director actively participates. "
Global consolidation, local opportunity
The wave of consolidation among large global media and creative groups is not, for Eduardo Velasco, an isolated phenomenon of the big networks. It is the direct consequence of a business that has been steadily reducing its margin, pressured by the concentration of advertising investment in a handful of dominant digital platforms and by increasingly aggressive competition. That pressure does not distinguish between global holdings and local agencies: it affects both equally.
But in that same reconfiguration, Eduardo Velasco identifies a concrete opportunity for local agencies: the combination of deep market knowledge and real agility to adopt AI into their work structure. The nuance is important because it dismantles a comfortable narrative that for years served as a commercial argument. Local expertise, by itself, is no longer sufficient to justify a premium cost to a client. Efficiency and agility have become just as crucial as local knowledge.
In essence, it is a redefining of the competitive rules in emerging markets. It is no longer enough to know the market better than a global player. One must demonstrate that this knowledge translates into faster and more efficient execution.
Conclusion
Eduardo Velasco's projection for the next ten years summarizes the paradigm shift that the entire industry is undergoing. For years, an agency's growth was measured by headcount. Winning an account meant hiring 200 people. That model, Eduardo Velasco argues, is coming to an end. The future success of an agency will not lie in the number of people it deploys, but in its ability to deliver effective service with many fewer.
This transition has implications that go beyond the cost structure. It redefines how billing is done, how talent is competed for, and how value propositions are built in front of a client who is no longer willing to pay for hours worked but for tangible results delivered with agility. For industry leaders in markets like Peru, Eduardo Velasco's message is direct: the question is how much value can be generated with the right structure.
The future of agencies in Latin America will not be decided by who has access to the best technology. It will be decided by who builds, with that technology, a business model different from the one we knew.