Ad-vantage AI: Humans remain the creative filter in evolving advertising

AI is transforming advertising in India-cutting costs and speeding execution-yet human creativity remains central to emotional storytelling and brand impact

In 2022, as small businesses grappled with pandemic-induced losses, confectionary maker Cadbury launched an advertisement featuring Shah Rukh Khan. The Bollywood superstar was seen not only convincing people to buy from local shops but also reeling out store names. However, those suggestions were not fixed. With artificial intelligence (AI), new names kept cropping up and hundreds of local shops featured in that campaign.  

There has been no going back for the technology since then. AI has entered advertising at multiple levels — from ideation to production and distribution — reducing costs, speeding up output, and causing some hiring fluctuations.  

“AI streamlines workflows and compresses timelines; marketers have more time to spend on strategy, storytelling, and emotion rather than repetitive execution,” said Hari Valiyath, chief business officer, Pixis, a Bengaluru-based AI-powered advertising solution firm. Apart from increasing speed and affordability, integrating crucial processes like ideation, videography, and graphic designing helps align creative goals.  

“Now, achieving a common creative goal has become easier, reducing both the time and cost by over 80 per cent,” said AI ad filmmaker Rajiv Mehta, who runs an ad-making course after working in the industry for over a decade. 

Back-end hero 

According to a forecast by global advertising firm WPP Media, the sector is set to grow 9.7 per cent in India this year, with revenue surpassing ₹2 trillion. Behind the growth will be AI-led consumer engagement, output analysis, and strategic planning. 

“Before we get down to actual work, we can now provide multiple demos to the clients, thus reducing wastage. The adoption is maximum at the floor level of production,” said Ashish Chakravarty, partner and chief creative officer at Mumbai-based Garage Worldwide. 

With technology leading the back-end tasks, the costs from bad decisions are reduced.  

“By learning from live data, campaigns fail, learn, and optimise faster. This shifts advertising from being a high-risk, high-waste function to a more predictable growth engine,” said Rajiv Dingra, founder and chief executive officer of Mumbai-based agentic AI-led platform ReBid.  

At Social Panga, a Gurugram-based digital marketing agency, AI is leading secondary research as well. “Based on the framework or instructions we provide, it can process information, organise insights, and accelerate the groundwork significantly,” said cofounder Himanshu Arora. The cost is reduced by eliminating inefficiencies across the entire marketing lifecycle. Back-and-forth movement is reduced by centralised collaboration with in-platform approvals, notifications, and feedback resolution.  

Apart from a decline in customer acquisition cost, spending is now lower on audience testing and fine-tuning. At Pixis clients spent 37 per cent less on these processes. “It is learning and reallocating spending based on performance signals, adjusting bids and budgets in real time to optimise campaigns,” said Valiyath, adding that it is also helping target the best audience segment.  

Arora, however, noted that in the short term, AI may increase costs due to experimentation, training, and infrastructure setup. “Once the learning curve is crossed, the benefits will be evident”. 

Ad creators are using different tools for each aspect of an advertisement. For sound, they use software like Lovo AI and ElevenLabs. Their features include developing chatbots, generating exclusive tracks for the brand, and a speech-to-text model with emotional depth and accuracy in over a hundred languages. For graphics, tools like Nano Banana by Google’s Gemini and Leonardo.AI create images and edit visuals. Firms are now also building in-house AI software. 

More in less 

AI has made advertising a continuous process. Chakravarty said brands are not launching 4-5 campaigns a year any longer — rather, it’s hundreds of social media posts on a regular basis, especially for the direct-to-customer brands.  

“A lot of AI is being deployed there. For editing, graphics, visuals, ideas, among other things. Those are short-format content. And sometimes the display is also for a limited time and then it goes off the feed.” 

This has also aided the growth of ‘moment-marketing’ — for example, customer fan images created by just uploading a selfie during a World Cup match.  

According to the WPP report, digital now accounts for as much as 68 per cent of total ad revenue.  

Experts note that there is a strategic shift, with brands opting for ‘always-on-growth systems’. “Planning, creative testing, media buying and measurement operate as one feedback loop,” said Dingra of ReBid.  

“Platforms that connect media, customer data, and business outcomes are making brand strategy more performance-linked and less siloed.”  

At Pixis, creative production was 87 per cent quicker with the help of AI.  Human touch 

Is AI doing most of the work in making an ad? Maybe. But does it lead the process? Not yet.  

Ad makers are of the view that human involvement remains a crucial factor that determines the ‘virality’ of content. In India, brands have made a mark with powerful storytelling. Decades-old campaigns like Surf Excel’s Daag Achhe Hain, Asian Paints’ Har Ghar Kuch Kehta Hai, and Fevicol’s The Unbreakable Bond continue to draw viewers on social media.  

“Technology has continuously evolved from Kodak cameras to digital to smartphones, but storytelling has always kept humans at its core,” said Arora.  

Vishnu Srivatsav, chief creative experience officer at Bengaluru-based 22feet Tribal, described his experience while making a campaign for gaming firm BGMI: “It was a tech-led advertisement, but the emotional punch was when the real emotions of the actors came through the camera.”  

Many emotions are conveyed through expressions and eye movements. “It is conveyed before dialogues. Technologies are developing but we are yet to crack the emotional aptness,” said Mehta adding that the priority is to not make it feel like AI, as consumers may lose the connection. 

While adoption in India is limited at the top creative stage, globally, the past 2-3 years have seen big brands making big leaps with AI — from Nike’s Never Done Evolving campaign featuring Serena Williams to BMW i Vision Dee. 

Some even argue that AI has the potential to drive emotional relevance. If used correctly, creative variations can be personalised. “Creative variations are personalised using inputs like mood, time of day, seasonality, demographics, weather, device, and market trends, which are the levers that help a message feel timely and emotionally relevant,” said Valiyath. 

The hiring spin 

Not surprisingly, AI is reshaping the demand for skillsets. “Agencies prioritise hybrid talent that combines core creative or marketing expertise with AI literacy,” said Anand V, chief information officer, Asia-Pacific, at leading recruitment agency Randstad. 

Like most other industries, advertising is witnessing a silent rejig in hiring. With the integration of departments, the demand is rising for tech geeks with a creative edge.  

“Advertising firms are integrating functions such as creative, performance, and analytics. This has reduced the demand for narrowly defined roles and increased the appetite for cross-functional professionals who can move fluidly between strategy, execution, and optimisation,” said Anand. For key roles such as graphic designers, art directors, illustrators and copywriters, employers now seek creatives who can use AI as a co-creation tool while retaining strong conceptual thinking.  

Pure execution-only profiles are becoming less common. Since AI is yet to be adopted at the final funnel in India, jobs are not impacted directly but require upskilling.  

“Globally, during planning meetings, we do hear conversations like, ‘Do we really need this job profile’. This is mainly concerned with starting-level jobs like junior writers, designers etc.,” said Chakravarty. 

Equally, with the use of AI now ubiquitous, some premium brands are betting on a ‘no-use at all’ policy.  

In December 2025, German automaker Porsche launched an animated ad, making it a point to describe it as a mix of hand-drawn and computer-generated imagery. Luxury fashion brand Gucci is being criticised on social media for putting out AI-generated images to promote its Milan Fashion Week, which kicked off on February 24.

  “The adoption of technology at the creative level is much faster globally. They have been in the ecosystem for longer. They are at a point where not using AI is also a brand statement,” said Chakravarty. 

 

Because it’s a technology that comes with its own risks, advertising firms are also prioritising ethical use. “It is important to keep every stakeholder in the marketing loop informed and aware of AI usage.  

Even things like AI bias must be factored into execution,” said Srivatsav of 22feet Tribal. 

On balance, experts believe, AI’s contribution is positive. While AI has not completely taken over ad campaigns, it now has a role to play at every level. But creativity remains the backbone of advertising — and that rein is held firmly by humans. For now. 

New kid on the block  Pros

• Cheap: The cost of producing a campaign has been reduced by almost 80%
• Quick: In most cases, week long jobs have now come down to hours
• Digital boost: D2C firms making multiple social media ads in a day — all with AI
• All-in-one: The person who is ideating can also produce graphics and elements

Cons

• Cold: Emotions play a major role in ads and AI is yet to get this driving force
• Jobs challenge: With agencies looking for people who can manage multiple skills like graphics, writing, etc, single-skill profiles and junior-level jobs are at risk
• Acceptability: For brands, fully AI-made ads bring the threat of losing personal contact with customers