It’s Not AI vs. Human Creativity in Advertising — It’s About Balance
While AI is doing a good job identifying patterns and making accurate predictions, AI in ad creation is gaining traction.
[Image source: Chetan Jha/MITSMR India]
While watching videos on YouTube, you might have encountered an advertisement for a generative AI course aimed at upskilling or reskilling. The advertisement features an eastern gorilla dressed in a three-piece suit discussing how AI could potentially render jobs obsolete, emphasizing that avoiding evolution leads to species extinction.
In the past decade, various sectors have leveraged technology, with AI making this adoption fly off the charts since 2022. “AI powers everything from automated media buying to generative advertising content,” says Vaishal Dalal, co-founder and director of Excellent Publicity, a media planning agency. In advertising, AI is being utilized to deliver more relevant, personalized, and effective advertising campaigns.
Of the three major entertainment and media categories analyzed (connectivity, advertising, consumer), advertising is expected to grow fastest—three times as fast (6.1% CAGR) as the consumer category (2%)—as AI is set to transform advertising models and drive hyper-personalisation, according to PwC reports.
AI as a Co-Creator
While AI in the backend, identifying patterns and making accurate predictions, is doing a good job, AI in ad creation is gaining traction. From CRED’s latest commercials featuring Bollywood stars to ITC Sunfeast Dark Fantasy’s Har Dil Ki Fantasy campaign, which lets fans click a selfie with Shah Rukh Khan using Generative AI (GenAI), AI is no longer just a tool for routine tasks—it’s driving creativity to the next level.
“AI doesn’t replace the ‘big idea’, it frees up creative teams from repetitive tasks so they can focus on storytelling, emotion, and culture,” says Reena Rose, creative director, Wunderkint, an advertising agency.
The primary ways AI is helping in advertising fall into two major categories: automation and efficiency, and intelligence & personalization.
“(We’ve) built film storyboards for HRD Antwerp using ChatGPT prompts and AI visuals – projects that once took weeks, now done in days,” says Imran Khan, co-founder and creative head, Human Global. In 2022, ketchup brand Heinz created an ad entirely using generated images on Dall-E 2, while in 2024, Toys“R” Us used OpenAI’s SORA to illustrate the brand’s original story.
“Creatives explore multiple ideas quickly before refining the final approach. The paradox is clear: the stronger AI becomes, the more valuable human discernment grows,” adds Khan.
A recent Adobe research revealed that 84% of Indian marketers say the demand for content will grow 5X or more by 2027. As content demand surges, the key to staying ahead lies in reimagining workflows and embracing technologies like Gen AI. It’s not just about scaling content—it’s about scaling impact,” said Anindita Veluri, director of marketing, Adobe India.
A Replacement for Manpower?
Job stability courtesy AI has people across sectors and industries in a looming concern, and advertising is not privy to it. In September, WPP-owned Ogilvy laid off around 30–40 employees in India, due to factors including the pressure to embrace AI-driven operations, Storyboard18 reported, with one executive stating that multiple agencies are doing the same “as client spends decrease directly impacting creative talents.”
According to a 2024 Yahoo and Publicis Media study, three out of four US advertisers cite cost efficiencies as the primary advantage of integrating AI. Meta announced it was aiming to let brands create end-to-end and target advertisements with its AI tools by 2026, while Amazon unveiled a set of AI-powered ad creation tools inside its Creative Studio to let advertisers produce and distribute multimedia ad campaigns.
“We’re going to get to a point where you’re a business, you come to us, you tell us what your objective is, you connect to your bank account, you don’t need any creative, you don’t need any targeting demographic, you don’t need any measurement, except to be able to read the results that we spit out. I think that’s going to be huge, I think it is a redefinition of the category of advertising,” said Mark Zuckerberg as per The Verge.
In an ASCI Academy’s report, Vednarayan Sirdeshpande, director-consumer digital, Mondelez India, said it is tough for an agency or a production house to efficiently deliver on ‘create a unique animated video within 15 minutes.’
Sushobhan Chowdhury, founder and creative director, AHA, says, “AI is shifting advertising from manual execution to higher-value roles.” Repetitive tasks like resizing, first-cut editing, churning social posts, generating endless versions, junior copywriters, media planners, and manual data analysts are most at risk. However, AI will see new roles emerge, such as AI creative consultants, generative design specialists, AI strategists, AI creative directors, data-driven brand planners, and specialists.
However, a specific role, “creative technologists,” is now becoming the need of the hour. “Agencies now need ‘creative technologists’, people who can think in both story and code, who know how to brief AI and judge when it misses the mark,” adds Chowdhury.
While economic factors play a part, are brands seeking AI-generated content? “It’s a mix. Some clients explicitly ask, ‘Can you use AI to scale this faster or cut costs?’ Others don’t mention it, but expect shorter timelines and higher volume pressures that inevitably push agencies toward AI. But I rarely hear clients say, ‘We want an AI campaign,’” says the AHA head.
Dalal notes that few explicitly ask about AI solutions after seeing high-profile campaigns succeed (e.g., Heinz, Nike’s AI-customized visuals).
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reports that, contrary to popular assumptions, job security is the least of the industry’s concerns, at just 37%. According to the findings, AI requires a strong foundation before it can take on human tasks and realize its potential.
“AI is coming very close, and it might change the way we have been practicing advertising, yet the best results still come when technology is guided by human insight,” said Suyash Lahoti, partner, Wit & Chai Group.
Empathy as a Moat
Industry players unanimously agree that AI will not completely replace humans. Why? Emotion and culture. “AI is transforming advertising, but not replacing its soul. Data can tell us the ‘what’ and the ‘when,’ but creativity still brings the ‘why.’ The real magic happens when AI insights and human imagination work hand in hand,” says Ishani Ghosh, business head – North & East, Brand Street Integrated, an integrated marketing agency.
Take Brooke Bond Red Label, for instance. Over time, its Swad Apnepan ka (Taste of Togetherness) campaign has highlighted issues like vegetarian/non-vegetarian tension, transgender stereotypes, the plight of single mothers, the stigma around COVID-19, and the lessons of empathy from the differently abled community, using tea as a catalyst for bridging social divides.
“AI can build outputs, but it can’t read emotion. It doesn’t sense the cultural pulse of Durga Puja in Bengal or the wit behind an Amul cartoon. That’s where human talent still outshines. The real magic happens in the margins in instinct, context, and subtext,” says Chowdhury.
Agency of the Future
By 2030, AI will be a standard for generating ad copy, visuals, and even personalized video content in seconds. “Campaigns won’t be planned in quarterly cycles; they’ll evolve in real time, fueled by continuous consumer data. Strategists will work alongside AI copilots that test and iterate messaging instantly, while creative directors orchestrate “dynamic storytelling” across formats,” Rose says.
“The winners will be agencies that seamlessly blend AI efficiency with human imagination, delivering personalized and emotionally resonant campaigns,” adds Dalal.
