The news: A year ago, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was the lone pure-play AI platform advertised on Super Bowl Sunday with its “The Intelligence Age,” ad. In 2026, seven AI platforms bought in—outnumbering the six beer and auto brands combined.

AI Services emerged as one of the game’s most competitive ad categories, per EDO’s Engagement Index—which measures a brand’s ad-driven consumer engagement relative to others in its category.

• Ai.com’s “Introducing ai.com” led all Super Bowl LX ads in engagement, generating roughly 9.1 times the impact of the median Super Bowl spot this year.
• That performance crowned ai.com as the most engaging advertiser across any category this year, outpacing traditional entertainment and CPG campaigns alike.

Digging into the data: The AI Services category led EDO’s share of engagement with 22%, followed by Theatrical Movie (20%), CPG Snacks and Candy (12%), Pharma (9%), Auto (8%), and All Others (29%).

Here are all of the AI-focused ads that finished above median engagement levels, per EDO:

• Anthropic’s “Claude – Can I Get a Six Pack Quickly?” and “How Can I Better Communicate With My Mom?”, charted at 12 and 13, respectively.
• Salesforce’s Slackbot AI “Vault,” landed at 14, Genspark’s “Take the Monday After Super Bowl Off” took 16, and Meta Oakley’s “Athletic Intelligence Is Here” was 20.
• OpenAI Codex’s “You Can Just Build Things” charted at 24, while Base44’s “It’s App to You,” came in at 29.

Implications for advertisers: AI is now competing head-to-head with autos, beer, pharma, and movie studios for audience attention.

Its growth into a crowded and competitive field also reflects how AI companies choose to frame the benefit narrative. Claude centered on relationships, Codex and Base 44 targeted builders, and Gemini framed everyday utility, while Genspark pitched freedom from rote tasks.

As AI consolidates into defined roles, advertisers should align messaging to AI benefits and related media to specific use cases before consumer habits and platform defaults lock in.

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