What do a resurrected robot mascot, a chirpy Chris Hemsworth, and a public spat between AI CEOs have in common? They all showed up in this year’s Super Bowl ads — and AI wasn’t just a prop. It was the headline act.
The game’s commercial breaks felt more like a technology summit than a snack pitch. Big tech and nimble startups splurged on airtime, many using AI both to build their spots and to sell AI products. The price of entry remains eye-popping — network time for a 30-second Super Bowl ad still runs in the millions — but the optics were unmistakable: AI is now a storytelling device and a cost-saver, and advertisers are testing both limits.
When the creator becomes the character
Svedka leaned into spectacle, reviving its early-2000s Fembot and introducing a Brobot in a 30-second spot the brand called “primarily” AI-generated. The bot duo dances at a human party, their moves informed by months of machine training on facial and body-motion datasets. That kind of work sits at the thorny intersection of novelty and ethics: it can be cheaper and faster than traditional shoots, but it raises questions about who gets paid when an algorithm imitates a performer’s style.
Artlist went a step further — a regional spot the company says was created entirely with AI. Those ads function as marketing for tools as much as they do for brand messages: the creative is also the product demo.
Ads as product launches (and not-so-subtle jabs)
For many advertisers, the Super Bowl was the easiest place to introduce consumer-facing AI. Amazon used a comedic bit with Chris Hemsworth to highlight Alexa+, turning common fears about home AI into an escalating gag. Meta’s commercial spotlighted Oakley-branded AI glasses for adventure and sports — a sequel in spirit to last year’s wearable pushes and a sign that companies want AI stitched into hardware. (If you’re tracking the evolution of Meta’s eyewear, the recent Ray‑Ban Meta Glasses firmware update is part of the same product story.)
Google’s spot pushed its image model — the Nano Banana Pro — framing generative tools as a way to reimagine ordinary spaces. That ties into broader moves by the company to embed AI deeper into everyday apps; check out the recent writeup on Gemini’s Deep Research and Gmail/Drive integration for a sense of where those capabilities are headed.
Smaller startups also bought time: Ramp cast Brian Baumgartner to dramatize its AI-driven workflow hacks, while companies like Base44 and Genspark used the stage to declare that anyone can ship apps or boost productivity with their platforms.
The feud that aired in prime time
Not everything was charm and spectacle. Anthropic’s Claude ran a spot explicitly mocking the idea of ads inside ChatGPT — a cheeky line read: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.” The tease didn’t land quietly. It prompted a terse social-media response from OpenAI’s leadership, turning a creative jab into a public spat. The moment underscored how brand positioning in AI has become zero-sum: a punchline for one company is battlefield propaganda for another.
The skirmish also highlights a new marketing calculus: the ad itself can be a weapon in product competition, not just a sales tool.
Utility, spectacle and the economics of production
Beyond the headline-grabbing moments, there were more practical uses of AI in Super Bowl work: Ring demonstrated Search Party’s pet-recovery tech, Wix showed off a chat-driven site builder, and companies like Rippling and Ramp leaned on comedic spots to explain AI automation for HR and finance tasks. These are straightforward product messages — but the production side intrigued industry watchers. Some ads leaned on AI to lower costs or accelerate delivery, suggesting that the next generation of commercials could be cheaper to make even as they try to look more cinematic.
That said, the creative industry is nervous. Using AI to speed up work can be liberating, but many creatives worry about job displacement, attribution, and how training datasets are sourced. The Svedka spot, for example, required months of reconstruction and fine-tuning — not a fully hands-off process — yet still threw those conversations into sharp relief.
Regulation, reputation and what advertisers risk
There’s a reputational gamble in these choices. A spot that leans too hard on generated faces or voices can provoke backlash, especially when celebrity likenesses or cultural touchstones are repurposed. Brands also risk being accused of inauthenticity if a campaign that feels mass-produced replaces human nuance.
At the same time, the Super Bowl demonstrated that AI is now mainstream enough to be both the product and the storyteller. Companies are comfortable spending big to send the message: AI is useful, it’s here, and it will touch daily life.
If there’s a theme beneath the flash, it’s experimentation. Some advertisers used AI to shave production time and cost. Others used it to create surrealism or stoke controversy. A few did all three.
And while the dust settles over which ads were clever and which were tone-deaf, one thing is clear: AI’s role in advertising has graduated from novelty to strategy. Expect more fights, more demos, and more attempts to make the machines feel human — whether or not audiences want them that way.