Advertisers are looking for industry standards to replace the patchwork of laws, platform policies, and risk-avoidance that currently guide whether or not to disclose their use of AI in ad creative.
It was near impossible to ignore the presence of AI in this year’s Super Bowl commercials. According to an article from AdWeek, nearly a quarter of commercials either featured AI companies or were clearly created or enhanced using the technology. And many more likely utilized AI to enhance or build their ads as well, it just wasn’t as easy to tell.
We surveyed 300 US advertisers in January 2026 to get a better sense of who is using AI for ad creative and how they are using it. There has been a steep adoption curve, with 91% of advertisers are either already using it for creative (63%) or plan to use it (28%). Among the most common uses: enhancing creative assets via refining photos, audio, and filters or using AI to adjust creative assets for each platform/publisher’s specifications.
Although just 38% of advertisers are using it to generate the entire creative asset (Sveka Vodka clearly among them), it’s clear the remaining majority see the value in leveraging AI for ad creative to create efficiencies, cost savings or more beautiful advertisements.
To our industry, the benefits of using AI in ads are obvious, and in many ways feel like a continued evolution of the technology already available to enhance and modify creative assets.
But its use for advertising?
Not so obvious to consumers.
Even though advertisers think it should be.
Our January survey also found nearly three-quarters of advertisers felt there should be industry standards for disclosure of AI use in creative asset development. Advertisers were equally likely to say the platform policies and risks of misleading the audience were top reasons to disclose the use of AI.
Disclosure via captions/descriptions and platform-provided labels are most common, but even these aren’t the norm – at least not yet.
Only 17% of advertisers believe AI use in creative needs to be disclosed every time it used, and only 33% of advertisers say they themselves always disclose the use of AI in creative assets. If AI disclosure is not always required, advertisers are looking for standards in place to determine the appropriate use cases to disclose.
As AI becomes an even bigger part of the creative generation process, however, advertisers accept that their future contracts with consumers will require transparency about its use to maintain consumer trust and ensure proper brand stewardship. For media sellers offering AI tools for creative, enabling labels and disclosures will be key for meeting these needs.
The AI-generated Svedka Super Bowl ad is evidence that AI-generated ads are already taking center stage, and with a mixed response from viewers. Given the speed of adoption, the industry needs to provide guidelines on disclosure to not only simplify decision-making but also to build trust with consumers with a standard approach to disclosure. Until there are industry standards in place, media platforms should consider providing their own policies for the benefit of both their advertisers and consumers.
