AI-generated ads are catching up with human-made creatives. The industry is taking note — With AI becoming a common part of the creative process in advertising, brands and content makers assessing its effectiveness against non-AI content have a reason to cheer.
According to data from global advertising technology platform VDO.AI, on connected TV, AI-generated ads recorded a 92% video completion rate (VCR), slightly higher than the 90% seen for non-AI creatives. A similar trend appeared in online video, where AI-led ads achieved a 71% VCR compared to 70% for non-AI ads.
Industry executives say AI-guided creative assets can match the effectiveness of traditional human-made spots, provided the message is clear, the format fits and the audience targeting is on point.
Across regional markets, adoption is moving fastest where cultural and language diversity is highest. Historically, India's multi-language landscape created major production bottlenecks for national campaigns. Now, dynamic creative tools let agencies translate and adapt creative hooks, voiceovers and contextual details into regional languages at once.
“Advertising in India has evolved alongside changing consumer behaviour, and today that evolution is being shaped by data and AI. Across the advertising value chain, AI is helping advertisers derive audience insights, optimize media planning, personalize campaigns, and enhance measurement,” said Anil Goel, global chief technology officer at Nielsen.
As adoption grows, the focus is shifting from automation alone to improving relevance, transparency and decision-making, Goel added.
On the creative side, brands are using generative AI to produce multiple versions of ad copies, images and videos, significantly reducing production timelines and enabling rapid testing. In media, AI powers bidding strategies, audience segmentation, predictive targeting and budget allocation across platforms like Google, Meta and programmatic ecosystems.
Vishal Agrahari, vice-president, paid media at BC Web Wise, said AI is also helping brands localize campaigns into multiple Indian languages at scale, something that was previously time-consuming and expensive.
“A film shot once can ship across a dozen languages without a dozen recording sessions,” said Parminder Singh, co-founder at Redscope AI.
Language localization is one of AI’s biggest strengths in India, but adoption is uneven across industries.
According to Rajiv Dingra, founder and CEO, ReBid, digital-first businesses such as e-commerce, fintech, gaming and D2C brands have embraced AI much faster because they already operate on rapid experimentation cycles. More regulated sectors such as banking, insurance and healthcare are adopting AI more cautiously, with stronger human review processes.
Amita Madhvani, producer and co-owner of Equinox Films and Ram Madhvani Films, sees AI as an important part of advertising in India, but more as an enabler than a replacement for creativity.
“I believe AI is most valuable when it allows creators to spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time on storytelling,” Madhvani added.
One of the most interesting shifts is dynamic, context-aware advertising. Brands are tapping live data feeds to tweak ad visuals and text at the moment of delivery.
For instance, Hyundai paired live AQI data with custom messaging for the Creta EV on connected digital screens, making sure its sustainability pitch felt immediate and locally relevant, Preetesh Chouhan, co-founder and chief technology officer at Vibetheory.AI, pointed out.