The new AI playbook: The rules brands are setting around customer-facing content

AI Strategies // August 20, 2026 The new AI playbook: The rules brands are setting around customer-facing content By Melissa Daniels When and how to use AI in advertising imagery is proving to be one of the biggest questions facing marketers this year.

For some brands, AI platforms and services are proving to be game-changing for their ability to speed along creative processes, and save money. Companies like personal care brand Goodwipes are using it not only to create content but also to optimize past photo shoots, while others like Hilton are using AI tools to fuel more ad campaigns without extra shoots.

Conglomerates like Unilever are using editing and visualization tools to quickly jump on viral trends, while companies like beverage brand Koia are using it as the basis for entire campaigns that aim to go beyond the bounds of reality.

Canva’s State of Marketing report found that 97% of marketing leaders use AI in their daily creative work, and 99% planned to increase AI investment this year. But many marketers say they’re careful not to let the tools replace the creative process, and for good reason. Gartner found in June that 49% of U. S.

consumers think AI has made content quality worse. That figure rises to 57% among Gen Z and millennials. Brands risk backlash from this cohort if they use AI too obviously, or incorrectly: REI this summer found itself under fire from commenters who roasted the brand for an AI-generated ad of a woman with a bicycle that had two sets of handlebars.

Even brands that didn’t use AI in their imagery can get called out for potentially relying on it, as Quip found after a surrealist campaign earlier this year. The potential pitfalls of using AI mean many brands using it in their customer-facing content are putting guardrails around when and how it shows up.

Mack Reynolds, a former creative strategy lead at Meta, joined the creative services firm Shuttle r ock this year as svp of global creative strategy to oversee a team of brand strategists and AI specialists. While AI can be incredibly helpful, he said all brands should consider whether it’s appropriate for the context.

There’s a difference, Reynolds said, between using AI to make templates for product photos that are going to propel a slew of new Meta ads, versus having AI-generated people talk to the camera about why a product is worthwhile.

“Having a brand point of view on your role in people’s lives, and your personality, and your voice, is still the most important thing. And the AI and the tooling you’re using shouldn’t be dictating that back to you,” he said.

Refine, don’t replace, human creativity One of the most commonly referenced use cases for AI-generated imagery is something that simply is not possible to film in real life. Think: dream sequences, floating products or animated products.

Diane DiLorenzo, vp of marketing at plant-based protein beverage brand Koia, said her team has used AI for content that was meant to be larger-than-life or come off as animated, computer-generated imagery. One recent case was its protein powder launch at Costco, which generated 48,000 organic views — about 6.

4 times the normal organic views the brand gets on Instagram Reels. “In those situations, everyone knows it’s AI, and I think that’s another reason why performance is good,” she said. “People are engaging with it and not feeling deceived.”

View this post on Instagram As a privately owned company that’s getting shelf space in places like Target and Costco as they seek out more protein beverage options, Koia, specifically its marketing team, is using AI to bring ideas to life it may not otherwise have the resources for.

In that sense, the tools help smaller brands compete with legacy players, she said. “AI, in general, isn’t replacing the creative process. It’s just changing it in a big way,” she said. “Early on, we recognized that unique concepts, especially ones on video that are really eye-catching and thumb-stopping for social, could be done through CGI or AI.”

Larger companies are also reaping the rewards of faster processes. Unilever shared last fall that its AI Studio is helping it develop creative assets 30% faster than going without. In one case study, the oral-care brand Closeup produced more than 100 assets across 10 different setups in three days.

Unilever also said AI-generated content can outperform its human-made counterparts; it has seen key metrics like video completion and click-through rates double. Coca-Cola has made similar investments, including drawing headlines last holiday season for using AI in global campaigns.

The company’s head of generative AI, Pratik Thakar, said that AI helped the company control every cinematic detail. “This is more than filmmaking — it’s a transformational leap into the