AI in 2025: Shaping creativity and collaboration in Advertising, Media, Marketing

As we bid farewell to 2024, it is worth reflecting on the profound impact Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had across various sectors, particularly in fields like advertising, media, and marketing on a global scale. The transformative power of AI has captivated the world, and as we move forward, the pace of its evolution is only set to accelerate.

Looking ahead to 2025, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is expected to take a significant leap, profoundly reshaping conventional human-machine interactions. This progression will influence not only how industries operate, but also redefine the boundaries of creativity, efficiency, and strategic decision-making in unprecedented ways.

AI trends and technologies in 2025

So what emerging AI trends and technologies will dominate the landscape in 2025, and how will they impact the advertising, media, and marketing domains?

John Paite, Chief Creative Officer, Monks India, predicts that in 2025, real-time behavioural insights can play a pivotal role in advertising.

“At Monks, we are already leveraging our in-house persona.flow tool to gain actionable insights on audience cohorts. These insights can drive practical ad campaigns fuelled by real brand growth and results. Generative AI will also keep progressing, and the e-commerce and fashion industry will see AI utilised much more effectively in the near future,” he says.

According to Paite, AGI still needs to be fully realized. “While developments like Google’s quantum chip “Willow” mark significant milestones, AI systems today are designed for specific tasks. For AGI to mature, it will take many more years of progress. We are still the supreme being (for what it’s worth). However, one thing I learned is to never bet against the progress of AI today,” he adds. 

Keeping with the past couple of years, 2025 will continue to see the convergence of emerging AI trends and advancements in AGI, which significantly reshape advertising, media, and marketing industries worldwide, says Suchana Sarkar, CBO, Makani Creatives.

According to her, some key developments and their implications are: 

We could be seeing more explainable AI (XAI) which gives more transparency in AI’s actions and how they reach certain decisions for the user. By making AI systems transparent, XAI not only helps users interpret the decisions but also builds trust, accountability, and alignment with ethical guidelines. XAI is particularly important for industries that require high levels of transparency and reliability, such as healthcare, finance, legal, and marketing.

In 2025, the evolution of synthetic media – encompassing AI-generated images, audio, and video – will reach a point where it becomes nearly indistinguishable from human-created content. This progression will fuel the rise of AI-generated influencers and virtual brand ambassadors, whose sophistication will significantly enhance brand storytelling and engagement. Brands are also expected to increasingly leverage AI for licensing influencer likenesses through advanced editing tools, creating seamless campaigns that blend real and virtual personas. Additionally, AI will play a pivotal role in amplifying user-generated content (UGC), building on the rapid growth observed in the latter half of 2024. This trend will redefine the boundaries of content creation, personalization, and audience interaction, offering brands new avenues to connect with their audiences authentically and at scale.

AGI is still a work in progress and is expected to remain in its developmental phase in the coming year, with a strong focus on establishing ethical guidelines, safety protocols, and robust control mechanisms. As AGI evolves, transparency and trust will be paramount to ensure its responsible deployment across industries. A critical aspect of this progression lies in explainable AI – a suite of processes and methods designed to help humans comprehend and trust the decisions or predictions made by AI systems. Explainable AI seeks to address the challenges posed by the black-box nature of traditional AI models, where decisions are made without clear visibility into the underlying reasoning. By prioritizing interpretability and accountability, AGI development aims to balance innovation with the need for ethical and informed integration into society.

By 2025, AI will be at the heart of how brands connect with consumers, predicts Abhishek Razdan, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Avtr Meta Labs. He foresees Generative AI driving content creation, personalized campaigns, and immersive experiences powered by AR, VR, and virtual influencers like Naina Avtr. “AI-powered systems will seamlessly connect across different formats – text, images, videos, and even voice – to create engaging, consistent brand stories that adapt to users in real time. As for AGI, while it’s still evolving, its breakthroughs could change how we solve complex problems. But for industries like advertising and marketing, purpose-built AI will remain the game-changer – helping companies like ours at Avtr Meta Labs create deeper, more meaningful consumer relationships at scale,” says Razdan.

The balancing act

As we welcome a new year, AI becomes increasingly ubiquitous, making it imperative for organisations and governments to balance the benefits of AI adoption with concerns around bias, ethics, transparency, and accountability.

Ethical AI isn’t just a responsibility – it’s a necessity for long-term success, opines Abhishek Razdan. He suggests that companies must adopt transparent policies, conduct regular audits, and ensure diverse, unbiased datasets.

“At Avtr Meta Labs, we’ve built ethics into our AI-driven virtual influencer ecosystem because trust drives engagement. Governments also play a vital role in setting global standards while encouraging innovation. Industry collaboration with policymakers will help ensure fair AI regulation without stifling creativity. It’s about shared responsibility – between tech creators, businesses, and governments – to build an AI-powered future that’s inclusive, transparent, and accountable,” he adds.

Suchana Sarkar feels that organizations and governments should collaborate to develop and implement AI governance frameworks to ensure accountability and transparency.

Sarkar points out that the US and Europe have begun establishing boundaries in collaboration with major AI service providers to prioritize user safety, although many of these initiatives are yet to be formally enacted as policies. According to her, among the most concerning advancements is deepfake technology, which poses significant risks to society due to its potential for misuse. “Identifying and labeling deepfakes is becoming increasingly critical for safeguarding civil society. While these technologies can offer efficiencies in cost and time, their unchecked proliferation threatens to erode trust in media, amplify misinformation, and compromise personal and public safety. Developing robust systems to detect and mitigate the impact of deepfakes will be essential as regulatory frameworks continue to take shape,” she adds.

According to John Paite, in order to ensure AI is fair and ethical, we need to focus on the quality of its training data, ensuring it avoids biases and adheres to ethical standards. Accountability can be enforced by implementing transparent watermarks for AI-generated content, which is already used in some visual generative AI systems. Mandating such practices through regulations can help trace AI outputs back to their source and ensure responsible usage.

Human-AI collaboration

In 2015, AI agents and AI avatars are poised to disrupt many human-dominated domains. These advancements are poised to foster human-AI collaborations, playing a greater role in shaping the future of work, creativity, and innovation.

Human-AI collaboration is the future – and we’re already living it, quips Abhishek Razdan. “At Avtr Meta Labs, we combine AI-driven insights with human creativity to craft campaigns that resonate on an emotional level. AI enhances our ability to scale, personalize, and experiment – but it’s the human touch that makes the connection real. To thrive, we need a mindset shift – embracing AI as a partner, not a competitor. Skills like creativity, storytelling, emotional intelligence, and adaptability will be more valuable than ever. AI will handle the heavy lifting, while humans focus on what we do best: dreaming, designing, and connecting,” he concludes.

Concurring with Razdan on this, John Paite says that AI should be seen as a tool for humans, not a replacement. In the advertising industry, he adds, outputs from generative AI still require significant human refinement to align with brand standards, whether in copy, art, or strategy.

“What AI does great is eliminate the repeated errors that humans make. It gives us a strong foundation, saving valuable time and improving overall efficiency. Adapting to AI requires experimentation and an open mindset. Change won’t happen overnight, but individuals and organisations must take the initiative to try AI tools and integrate them into workflows. AI is not as intimidating as it seems, and delaying its adoption will make it harder to stay competitive. Even today, there are job opportunities in generative AI that don’t require any programming knowledge. It’s clear that non-tech industries will increasingly seek candidates who can effectively leverage AI in their roles,” he says.

The problem we face today is the fear-mongering and perceived threat that is associated with the rise of AI, says Suchana Sarkar.

“Anyone who has worked with AI services knows that prompts, reengineering, supervision, judgment, and adoption all require active human intelligence to ensure AI’s success. While AI continues to boost productivity, my hope is that this progress leads to improved work-life balance rather than simply increasing workloads or reducing jobs. It would be encouraging to see more companies investing in upskilling their workforce to effectively utilize AI. Additionally, organisations should adopt independent stances on the ethical and effective use of AI – not just for their benefit but with a broader perspective on its impact on their industry and society as a whole,” she concludes.

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