Brace Yourself for the Rise of AI Advertising

I’ll admit it without hesitation: I have a soft spot for ads. Whether they’re artistic, hilarious, bizarre, or tug at the heartstrings, TV commercials were like the TikToks of my childhood long before we even coined the term “short-form video.” But, as with many creative outlets, AI is draining the fun out of it, and it’s only going to get worse this year.

Ads are like mini-movies, posters, and photoshoots all rolled into one, designed to embed a product into your memory as quickly as possible. Crafting these requires a ton of creativity and often a hefty production budget. While I appreciate the artistry behind them, it also makes ads a prime testing ground for generative AI technology, as brands scramble to speed up and cut costs in content creation. Last year saw significant visual advancements in many image and video generator models, leading more advertisers to incorporate them into their campaigns.

A recent study revealed that over half of 1,000 surveyed brand marketers utilized some form of AI in their creative efforts in 2025. Another report indicated that 90 percent of advertisers were either using or planning to use generative AI for video ads in 2025, with projections suggesting these tools would feature in 40 percent of all ads by 2026.

This surge in AI-generated ads is becoming increasingly visible on TV, in magazines, and across social media. Some brands are upfront about their use of generative AI, like Coca-Cola’s clumsy holiday ads, while others leave us questioning the authenticity of anything that feels slightly “off.” This can manifest in humans giving off uncanny valley vibes, as seen in ads from McDonald’s and DoorDash, where the actors appear overly polished and move in unnatural ways. Or it might be the CGI and visual effects that morph in ways that seem bizarre, like in an ad for Original Source shower gel, where a man’s face keeps changing—why does it keep trying to turn him into a Memoji?

While spotting AI in ads might seem straightforward, most people aren’t great at identifying it yet. Research from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) found that humans could only accurately recognize AI-generated images, videos, and audio about 50 percent of the time, which is one of the better success rates. Kantar, the market research firm that assisted with Coca-Cola’s AI holiday campaign in 2024, discovered that most ad testers couldn’t tell it was AI-generated, despite the obvious visuals and clear on-screen AI disclosures.

“The people that matter most – Coca-Cola’s target audience – still enjoy it, feel good when they see it, and love the brand for it,” said Kantar managing director Dom Boyd. “In fact, Kantar’s ad testing shows that the vast majority of people didn’t notice the ad was AI-generated, and the execution is one of the highest-performing this year for short-term sales potential.”

However, audience reactions to AI ads have been mixed. A Kantar study from November 2025 found that consumers were put off by ads with obvious AI signals, like “distracting or unnatural visuals,” but responded positively to ads that used AI seamlessly. Interestingly, the same study noted that people had stronger emotional reactions to AI-generated ads compared to traditional ones, but those reactions were often negative.

This negativity is evident in online forums and social media comments, with some even creating communities dedicated to calling out AI ads. Common complaints include ethical and environmental concerns surrounding generative AI, the perception that its cost-cutting benefits cheapen branding, and simply finding the visuals unappealing.

The driving force behind brands’ willingness to embrace generative AI, despite the backlash, is money. For instance, an ad for prediction market platform Kalshi was ridiculed by Reddit users, yet a particularly bizarre example aired during a primetime NBA finals slot cost only $2,000 to produce and was created in just two days by one person using Google’s Veo 3 AI model. It’s easy to see the allure of such efficiency, and even if an ad is hated, it can still be memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Memorable ads can define a brand’s legacy. Take Nike’s iconic “Just Do It” slogan from 1988, crafted for its first major TV campaign, or the legendary 1999 Guinness “Surfer” commercial, which took nine days to film in Hawaii and used groundbreaking visual effects to blend live-action surfing with CGI horses.

While production budgets for commercials aren’t often disclosed, traditional methods can be quite costly. For example, the media spend for Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” is estimated at $10 million, which was less than many major campaigns from 2010. The famous “1984” commercial introducing the Apple Macintosh reportedly had a then-unprecedented production budget of $900,000, equivalent to about $2.8 million today.

These memorable ads stand out for their quality. Coca-Cola claims its AI holiday commercials are successful, but they merely replicated its beloved red truck campaign, which has decades of positive nostalgia rooted in genuine human creativity.

While creating a successful campaign entirely through generative AI may be tough now, it will likely become easier as tools and models advance. The tech and media industries are banking on this, especially with major brands like Nestlé, Mondelez, and Coca-Cola leading the charge. Google and Microsoft have already produced ads using their generative AI models, and Amazon is equipping sellers with tools to fill its site with AI ads. Meta is expected to launch fully automated AI ads on its platforms this year, and Nvidia is developing tools for an endless variety of personalized video ads.

Even the creators behind beloved ads are getting on board. ABM BBDO has launched its own AI platform, and Wieden and Kennedy is incorporating AI into its production processes. “I think AI is an incredibly powerful tool, but it’s still a tool,” said Wieden and Kennedy CEO Neal Arthur. “It allows us to scale more efficiently, but I don’t worry about AI taking over for us as humans.”

Generative AI is expected to become so prevalent in advertising this year that early trends suggest a resistance movement may emerge, aimed at building loyalty among consumers who want to avoid synthetic content.

“2026 will be the year of ‘things AI can’t do,’ or more accurately, things AI can’t do (very well yet),” said Thom Glover, founder of creative agency American Haiku. “Expect messy, hand-drawn, roughly textured, or erratically collaged designs, ideas that play with the boundaries of what an ad is, and a return to the simple pleasures of 16mm film, analog recording, and ‘leaving in the mistakes.’”

Some brands are already joining this resistance. Aerie’s commitment to avoiding AI in its ads became the brand’s most popular Instagram post last year, while Polaroid poked fun at AI in its advertising for the Flip instant camera, with one poster reading, “AI can’t generate sand between your toes.”

“We are such an analog brand that basically gave us the permission: We can own that conversation,” said Polaroid’s creative director Patricia Varella. “That layer of imperfection that makes us human and beautifully imperfect is something we think is important to remind people.”

While some generative AI tools can effectively mimic analog and retro styles, making it harder to distinguish them from human-made content, many tools tend to produce overly polished results. This creates an echo chamber where everything starts to look the same, lacking the unique touch of human creativity. Advertisers are increasingly prioritizing cost efficiency, time savings, and scalability over creativity, as shown in a recent IAB study.

With that in mind, I urge brands and marketing agencies to remember that a great ad doesn’t have to be expensive or complex to produce. One of the best commercials ever was simply a bunch of guys yelling “WASSUUUUUP” at each other while enjoying a Budweiser. That’s a moment of delightful human weirdness that can’t be replicated by AI.