Only 45% of marketers say AI improves creative quality — new WARC study
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A WARC and TikTok study of 400 marketers finds 88% are producing more creative with generative AI but just 45% see a real lift in quality — an ‘intelligence gap’ driven by weak audience data, not weak technology.
Generative AI has flooded marketing teams with output. Whether it has made the work better is a different question — and a new study suggests the honest answer, for now, is ‘not really’.
In ‘The New Creative Advantage’, published on 14 July 2026, WARC and TikTok surveyed 400 marketers across the UK, US, Australia and Brazil who make creative-production decisions. The standout finding: 88% say AI has increased the volume of creative they can produce, but only 45% report a meaningful improvement in quality.
An intelligence gap, not a technology gap
The researchers frame the problem bluntly. This is not a limitation of the tools but of what marketers feed them. Some 67% brief AI primarily on demographic data, while just 17% consistently bring in richer community or behavioural insight. When the input is generic, the output is generic — and 40% of respondents named over-reliance on generic styles as AI’s biggest creative weakness.
Put simply, teams have industrialised production without upgrading their understanding of the audience. AI amplifies whatever you give it, including a thin brief.
Why this matters for UK advertisers
The timing is pointed. From 2 August 2026, transparency obligations under Article 50 of the EU AI Act begin to bite, requiring AI-generated content to be marked and, in cases of public-interest text, disclosed unless it has had genuine human editorial control. For UK brands running campaigns into the EU, ‘more AI content, briefed on less insight’ is exactly the combination regulators and audiences will scrutinise.
There is also a competitive angle. If 88% of the market is producing more and only 45% is producing better, quality becomes the scarce asset — and the differentiator for brands willing to invest in real audience understanding.
Marketing Minute’s read and what to do
Our view is that AI has quietly reset the baseline: volume is now free, so it is worth nothing on its own. The advantage moves to the brief. Before your next AI-assisted campaign, audit your inputs — are you handing the model age-and-gender demographics, or genuine insight into what your customers care about, joke about and buy? Pair AI’s speed with a human strategist’s judgement on what is actually worth saying, and measure creative on outcomes and distinctiveness, not on how many variants you shipped.
Quick FAQ
What did the WARC and TikTok study find?
Across 400 marketers in four markets, 88% said generative AI increased their creative volume, but only 45% said it improved quality. WARC calls the shortfall an ‘intelligence gap’ caused by weak input data rather than weak tools.
Why isn’t AI improving creative quality?
Because most teams brief AI on thin data. Two-thirds rely mainly on demographics and only 17% use deeper behavioural or community insight, so the output defaults to generic styles.
How can marketers get better results from AI creative?
Upgrade the brief. Feed models real audience insight, keep human strategic judgement in the loop, and judge creative on outcomes and distinctiveness rather than sheer output volume.
AI has made creative volume essentially free, which means volume is now worth very little. The brands that pull ahead will be the ones that pour their energy into the brief — real human insight about real people — and use AI to execute it faster, not to think for them.
— Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing
Generative AI has made ‘more’ effortless and therefore worthless; in 2026 the competitive edge belongs to brands that feed it sharper insight and keep human judgement firmly in the loop.
Is your team measuring AI creative on volume shipped, or on the results and distinctiveness it actually delivers?
If you would like to know more about this topic, please contact us on danieln@merxmarketing.co.uk
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Written by Daniel Nikolla, Founder of Merx Marketing Ltd and Marketing Minute
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