Inside the AI Revolution: How GenAI is Quietly Transforming Digital Video Advertising Forever
Ever wondered if your next favorite ad was actually crafted by an AI rather than a human? Well, it might just be true sooner than you think. Generative AI is no longer a sci-fi novelty; it’s reshaping digital video advertising at a lightning pace. According to the latest IAB report, a whopping 86% of digital video buyers are already diving into or planning to embrace AI-driven creatives. That means your carefully curated brand story might soon come tailored by algorithms, tuned to different audiences, and polished with style tweaks that feel almost too good to be true. But hold on — isn’t there something a little unsettling about machines fine-tuning our messages while the sell side still needs to hold human hands 83% of the time? It’s a wild dance between automation and that irreplaceable human touch. If you’re curious about how this blend of tech and touch is stirring up the streaming ecosystem and driving fresh strategies, you’ll want to dig deeper. LEARN MORE.
Generative AI is transforming digital video ad creation, with 86% of digital video buyers either using or planning to use it in creatives, according to the IAB’s just-released 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy report.
Currently, 30% of digital video ads are built or adjusted with GenAI, and that’s expected to increase to nearly 40% by 2026. Small and mid-tier brands are some of the biggest users, hoping they can get quality videos without paying for large creative teams or extensive production.
The major use of GenAI in video enhancement is tailoring ads for different audiences (42%). Next is visual and style modifications (38%) and improving contextual relevance (36%). Buyers also want support from the sell-side to facilitate GenAI creative testing, with 46% expressing a desire for this assistance.
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Connected TV (CTV) is seeing increased programmatic activation and higher expectations for live content. The shift towards programmatic CTV is leading to a surge in biddable inventory, with buyers anticipating that nearly half (47%) of their CTV inventory will be biddable this year, up 13 percentage points from 2024. Currently, 85% of CTV purchases are made programmatically, up from 75% in the previous year.
Forty-one percent of CTV programmatic buyers cited improved return on investment (ROI) or return on ad spend (ROAS) as their top KPI. Furthermore, when investing in live content on streaming platforms, nearly six out of ten buyers expect more advanced capabilities and options than traditional linear TV offers. These include incremental audience reach (43%), real-time signals and contextual targeting (41%), and interactive elements or shoppable ads (36-38%).
Despite programmatic’s self-serve nature, 83% of buyers indicate that human involvement from the sell side is frequently necessary to activate or customize programmatic CTV deals. In line with this, 74% of buyers have already invested in or plan to allocate in-house resources to manage self-serve CTV activation platforms.
Methodology
The survey is based on 368 respondents who worked at agencies or directly for a brand marketer that spent at least $1 million on advertising in 2024. The full report can be found here.
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Constantine von Hoffman is senior editor of MarTech. A veteran journalist, Con has covered business, finance, marketing and tech for CBSNews.com, Brandweek, CMO, and Inc. He has been city editor of the Boston Herald, news producer at NPR, and has written for Harvard Business Review, Boston Magazine, Sierra, and many other publications. He has also been a professional stand-up comedian, given talks at anime and gaming conventions on everything from My Neighbor Totoro to the history of dice and boardgames, and is author of the magical realist novel John Henry the Revelator. He lives in Boston with his wife, Jennifer, and either too many or too few dogs.
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