Are commercials being AI-generated?
Yes, and not just by small brands testing the waters. Coca-Cola reimagined its holiday campaign using AI to build wintry, atmospheric cityscapes. Volvo created fully AI-generated spots to localize campaigns quickly for regional markets like Saudi Arabia. Toys "R" Us used synthetic storytelling to produce an origin video about its founder and Geoffrey the Giraffe. And during this year's NBA Finals, the prediction market Kalshi aired a surreal, AI-made ad featuring cowboys and aliens that cost roughly $2,000 and took just three days to produce. AI video ads are no longer an experiment for major markets.
Some of these ads are polished enough to run as AI commercials on TV next to a traditionally shot spot. Others lean into the strangeness on purpose. Many ads generated with AI have developed their own genre of surreal, slightly-off humor that performs well on social platforms even though they might not have cleared a traditional creative review. Some of the best, funny AI-generated commercials (Kalshi's cowboys-and-aliens spot among them) get shared because they look a little off. Strangeness can be a hook.
Should you make commercials with AI?
That depends on the ad. A 30-second product demo for a paid social test doesn't carry the same risk as a national TV spot tied to brand identity, and that should factor into your decision.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Cuts production cost from a full crew and location shoot to a fraction of that price | Highly polished AI spots have drawn backlash for lacking emotional warmth |
| Produces dozens of variations for A/B testing in the time it takes to even book a traditional shoot | A surge of low-quality "AI slop" promoting dropshipped goods has made some audiences skeptical by default |
| Builds complex scenes (crowds, weather, locations) without actors or a location crew | Nailing a specific brand look still takes iteration and a trained eye |
| Compresses timelines from weeks to days for time-sensitive campaigns | Disclosure requirements for AI-generated content are new and still being finalized in several jurisdictions |
For most teams, the calculation comes down to stakes. High-volume performance ads and social tests are where AI-generated commercials save the most money for the least risk. A hero brand campaign still benefits from a human director making the final creative calls.
In-house production or an agency?
Marketing teams considering AI commercials usually land on one of two paths.
In-house makes sense when a team needs volume: dozens of localized or platform-specific variations, a fast testing cycle or a small budget that can't support agency retainers. The tradeoff is that someone internally needs to develop the skill of directing an AI tool, the same way an in-house team develops skills with any production software.
An agency is often the right call for campaigns where creative direction, brand consistency and legal review matter more than speed. Many production companies and ad agencies are now building AI into their own workflows rather than treating it as a threat, using it to generate more concepts per brief and reserving the crew for the shots AI can't handle.
Still, this is rarely a one-time decision. Even if a team starts by outsourcing every AI-generated commercial to an agency, they often end up bringing the highest-volume, lowest-risk work in-house once someone on staff has logged enough hours directing an AI tool to feel comfortable with the output. The reverse happens too: a team that starts fully in-house sometimes hands major campaigns off to an agency if they start feeling that there's too much at stake. Neither path is a permanent commitment, and it's worth asking yourself which commercials are worth which approach at the start of every campaign.
How to make a commercial with AI
A typical AI commercial workflow runs through four stages.
- Concept and script. Define the audience, the hook and a rough shot list before generating anything. A clear brief produces better output than an open-ended prompt.
- Generate footage. Runway's AI video generator turns a text or image prompt into scenes, product shots or full sequences without a camera crew. Check out our tips on getting realistic results; specificity about lighting, camera movement and framing matters more than a longer prompt.
- Add voice and sound. AI voiceover tools generate narration in multiple languages and emotional tones, and AI music tools build a custom score or jingle.
- Edit and assemble. A text-based or AI-assisted editor cuts the final spot, adds captions and resizes it for every platform you plan to run it on.
| Ad type | Tool worth trying |
|---|---|
| Product demo or e-commerce ad | Runway Agent turns a single image or video to a full campaign — commercials, video ads, product videos, social posts and image ads, each sized for its placement. |
| Localized regional spot | ElevenLabs for voiceover and dubbing, paired with a video generation model for the visuals |
| Social-first, high-volume testing | Quickads or Creatify, both AI commercial generators built for fast, high-volume variations |
| Cinematic brand spot | Runway's AI Video Generator and video editor together, for teams that want direct creative control over every shot |
Runway also has a guide to producing AI video faster without cutting corners on quality, useful for teams working against a launch deadline.
The future of AI-generated commercials
The next shift in AI-generated commercials will be personalization on a large scale, without dozens of separate shoots. Production budgets can't support the same campaign generated in dozens of versions tailored to region, platform or even individual viewer, but AI can. Brands that used to choose one hero spot and run it everywhere will be able to treat that first spot as a template instead of a finished product.
The other shift will be in areas where AI-generated work has to clear the same bar as other content. Broadcast and paid media have always required content to meet delivery and disclosure standards, and AI-generated commercials, similar to iPhone footage, are starting to hit that broadcast-ready bar and roll and meet compliance standards.
Frequently asked questions
How many commercials have been made with AI?
There's no single official count, since AI is now used somewhere in the production pipeline for a large share of digital ads, from full generation to smaller assists like voiceover or background replacement. Fully AI-generated commercials, meaning ones with no traditional shoot at all, are still a minority of ads run today, though that share is growing fast.
What commercials are made with AI?
Recent examples include Coca-Cola's AI-assisted holiday campaign, Volvo's regionally localized spots, Toys "R" Us's AI origin story video and Kalshi's surreal NBA Finals ad. Smaller brands and agencies use AI even more heavily for social ads, product demos and rapid A/B test variations that would be too expensive to shoot traditionally.
Is advertising with AI illegal?
No, but it's regulated. In the US, the FTC applies its existing deceptive-advertising and endorsement rules to AI-generated content, and in 2026 it clarified a "double disclosure" requirement: brands must disclose both a paid partnership and AI involvement when both apply. New York now requires disclosure of AI-generated synthetic performers in advertising, and other states are expected to follow. The EU AI Act adds its own disclosure requirements for AI-generated content starting in August 2026. Make sure your team carefully reviews disclosure requirements for your market and location, as they change frequently.
Ready to see what an AI-generated commercial can look like for your brand? Try Runway's AI Video Generator →
