TL:DR
The use of AI in creative work to keep content moving while budgets tighten is no longer a foreign thought. That said, locally, less than ideal means of AI use has had audiences calling out such instances.
Globally, brands like Coca-Cola are seen to cut its holiday ad production from a year to about a month, and Klarna cut its marketing agency spend by a quarter. Luxury brands are going the other way. Of late, we are seeing the opposite of brands moving back to the drawing block of crafted work – Prada’s 2026 holiday campaign was drawn by hand by a former Disney animator, while Valentino was called “cheap” and “lazy” for an AI-generated handbag campaign.
This article is more of an open discussion rather than a verdict. We want to explore what brand owners actually care about, how consumers feel compared with what they do, and whether there is a right answer at all. For LOKi, our view is that AI is useful for getting to ideas faster, but human thought and human insight are what separate the work, and that brands should decide which trade-offs they are willing to make, because speed, craft, results and low cost rarely come together on the same campaign.
Sit in on almost any marketing meeting in Singapore this year and the conversation about AI will come up unwillingly as part of the agenda. As budgets get tighter and teams get leaner, the pressure to put out more content or deliver results across more platforms hasn’t eased. So it makes sense that so many brands now see AI as a way to keep things moving without the cost climbing with every new asset.
The more interesting take is that not everyone is heading in the same direction. While most of the market uses AI to save, some of the world’s most valuable brands are spending more money and time to show that a human made their work. Today, we’re not here to tell you we have a neat answer. But we are attempting to lay out the questions a brand owner should be asking before deciding how much AI belongs in their creative.
Most Brands Are Using AI to Save
The efficiency case is real, and the biggest brands are making it openly. Coca-Cola’s 2025 “Holidays Are Coming” campaign was made with generative AI for the second year running. Its chief marketing officer, Manolo Arroyo, told the Wall Street Journal that a traditional production would start around a year ahead, while the AI version took about a month and cost less than a typical shoot. Klarna has said AI helped it cut its marketing agency spend by 25% and its overall sales and marketing spend by 11%.
Video: Coca-Cola, Holidays Are Coming
For a Singapore brand with a fraction of those budgets, the appeal is obvious. If AI can turn out storyboards, product visuals, resized variations and first-draft copy in hours rather than weeks, a small team can test more ideas and stay present on more channels than it otherwise could.
Luxury Is Doing the Opposite
Then there are luxury brands, like Prada. Its 2026 holiday campaign, Drawing Prada: Animated by Hand, pairs Disney strong holds Glen Luchford’s photography with hand-drawn animation by John Pomeroy, a former Disney animator whose credits include Pocahontas and Fantasia 2000. Coupled with this, our favourite young stars Sadie Sink, Maya Hawke, Chen Haoyu, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Luther Ford share the frame with drawn mice and woodland creatures, and Prada also released a longer version of the film. The pencil work isn’t hidden away. It is the message.
Video: Prada Holiday 2026, Drawing Prada: Animated by Hand (official Prada YouTube channel)
Prada isn’t alone. Hermès has filled its Instagram with makers, from a woodworker building a miniature of its Faubourg store to an illustrator sketching outside a boutique, and Loewe marked an anniversary this year with painted illustrations. The reason makes sense once you think about what luxury sells. A luxury product justifies its price through effort, skill and time, so a campaign that looks effortless works against it.
Valentino found this out in late 2025. A video in its DeVain Digital Creative Project, made with AI and labelled as such, was called “cheap” and “lazy” in the comments. A study in the Journal of Advertising Research found the same pattern. When luxury brands featured and disclosed AI-generated imagery, consumers saw less effort in it and valued the brand less.
Video: The Valentino Garavani DeVain Digital Creative Project, Total Emotional Awareness (official Valentino YouTube channel)
Where AI gets called out – When it feels AI.
Most of the backlash in Singapore so far has come down to AI work that looks unfinished or careless, rather than the use of AI itself. In February 2026, Esquire Singapore ran an AI-generated cover interview with actor Mackenyu after his schedule ruled out a real one. Readers called it “lazy” and raised questions about consent, and online sentiment ran 83% negative according to CARMA. Around National Day 2026, AI-made content drew even more attention. A community banner at Kampong Chai Chee was taken down after residents spotted distorted figures, malformed hand gestures and flags that didn’t match the Singapore flag, and CARMA found that 92% of the negative AI conversations it tracked that period referenced the National Day Parade. Even the Ministry of Finance was called out in 2024 when AI-generated images in its social posts showed a woman with a sixth finger, with some comparing them to scam ads.
It doesn’t have to go that way. In March 2025, KFC Singapore turned AI’s trouble with hands into the joke itself, running AI-generated visuals of people with extra fingers as a twist on “finger lickin’ good” across MRT stations and 26 stores. The difference was intent. The flaws were part of the idea, not something nobody had checked.
Singapore consumers draw the same line. In DoubleVerify’s 2026 study, 47% of Singapore respondents said low-quality AI ads would hurt their view of a brand, yet 45% said polished AI-generated ads would improve it, with only 18% saying the opposite. A YouGov and Meltwater study cited in the same piece found 84% of Singaporeans want AI-generated content clearly labelled, and 49% said they would trust a brand less if it didn’t disclose its use of AI. The call-outs tend to land when the work feels rushed or hidden, not simply because AI was involved.
As a Brand Owner, What Do You Actually Care About?
This is where it gets harder, because most brand owners care about two things that don’t always point the same way: how the work makes people feel, and whether it drives results.
On feeling, the signals seem to be slowly inching against AI-made ads. A 2026 study by IAB and Sonata Insights found that the share of Gen Z and Millennial consumers who felt negatively about generative AI ads rose from 18% in 2024 to 30% in 2026, with 39% of Gen Z respondents seeing them negatively. DoubleVerify found that 43% of North American consumers said low-quality or uncanny AI ads would hurt their opinion of a brand. These are mostly US figures, but Singapore audiences are just as online and just as quick to notice when something looks off.
On results, the picture is less clear-cut. Coca-Cola’s AI holiday ads have had their share of online critics, but the UK testing firm System1 found its 2024 holiday ads scored very highly with regular consumers, many of whom either didn’t notice or didn’t mind that AI was involved. It’s a reminder that well-made work can hold up whatever the tool, and that the loudest online reaction doesn’t always reflect how a wider audience responds.
As a Consumer, Will You Feel Good, and Will You Act?
Think about your own reaction as a consumer. A hand-drawn Prada film probably makes you feel something warm, and maybe a little impressed. Whether it makes you buy a pair of loafers is a different question, and only Prada’s sales figures will answer it. The reverse is also true. People may roll their eyes at an AI-generated festive ad and still pick that brand off the shelf because it’s familiar, convenient or on promotion.
Feelings and actions are connected, but not neatly. A brand that leans entirely on efficiency may see no immediate drop in sales and still slowly wear down the goodwill that makes people choose it over a cheaper alternative. A brand that spends heavily on craft may win admiration that never turns into revenue if the media, the offer or the timing are wrong.
Will We Ever Get to the Right Answer?
Probably not a single one. The tools are improving so fast that the “AI look” people object to today may be invisible in two years. When that happens, the debate will likely shift from whether AI was used to whether the work feels considered. At the same time, the more ordinary AI content becomes, the more visible human effort will stand out, in the same way handmade goods kept their value once machines could make most things more cheaply.
So the right answer will depend on the brand, the category and the moment. A festive campaign meant to carry emotion for a whole season is a different job from a set of product variations for a weekend sale.
Our Take: Pick Your Trade-offs, and Keep the Thinking Human
At LOKi, we’ve welcomed AI into how we work, mainly to help us explore more directions early and get to ideas more efficiently. None of the work in our portfolio is AI-generated, though, and that’s a deliberate choice rather than an oversight.
“AI has made us faster at getting to ideas, and we’re glad to have it in the room. But every piece of work we’ve put out has been made by people, because the insight that makes a campaign land still comes from someone who understands the brand, the audience and the moment. That’s the part we don’t think should be handed over fully.”
Michelle Teh,
General Manager, LOKi Singapore
Beyond the tools, the most useful thing a brand owner can do is accept that speed, craft, results and low cost rarely all come together on the same piece of work, and decide in advance which ones matter most this time. Expecting all four usually ends in a campaign that is fast and cheap but forgettable, or carefully crafted but late and over budget.
| If you prioritise | What you can reasonably expect | What you are likely trading away |
|---|---|---|
| Speed and low cost | Volume, variations and quick testing | Distinctiveness and emotional weight |
| Craft and emotion | Work that people remember and talk about | Time, budget and the ability to iterate quickly |
| Results within a budget | One clear idea built around one goal | Some polish on the assets that matter least |
| All four at once | Usually a compromise that does none of them well | Clarity on what the campaign was for |
Whatever balance a brand chooses, the idea and the insight behind it are still what separate one campaign from the next. AI can help get there faster, but it can’t tell you why your audience should care. Making that choice deliberately, and writing it into the brief, saves a lot of discovering halfway through production that the budget, the timeline and the ambition don’t match.
If you’re weighing up how much AI belongs in your next campaign, have a look at the work we’ve made for brands across Singapore, all of it made by people, or get in touch with the LOKi team to talk it through.
FAQs
Is it bad for a brand to use AI in its advertising?
Not in itself. It depends on what the brand sells and what the work is meant to do. AI can help with speed and volume, but it can undercut brands whose value rests on effort, skill or emotion, especially when the result looks generic or uncanny.er
Why are luxury brands avoiding AI in their campaigns?
Luxury relies on the idea that something took time and skill to make. Hand-drawn or crafted campaigns such as Prada’s reinforce that, while visibly AI-made work can make a brand look like it cut corners.
How can a brand use AI properly?
Most of the call-outs in Singapore came from work that looked unchecked, such as extra fingers, distorted faces or flags that weren’t quite right. Having people review every AI output before it goes public, being open about where AI was used, and keeping the idea itself human goes a long way. Singapore audiences expect that openness too, with 84% saying AI-generated content should be clearly labelled.
Does LOKi use AI in its creative work?
We use AI to help us explore ideas and work more efficiently in the early stages. The work itself is made by people, and all campaigns in our portfolio are crafted work by team LOKi.
Do consumers care whether an ad is made with AI?
More of them do than before. Negative sentiment towards generative AI ads has risen among Gen Z and Millennials, although testing also shows many people don’t notice or don’t mind when the work is well made.