The news: At this year’s Super Bowl, the real showdown played out in the ad breaks, where AI companies jockeyed for attention and brands leaned on AI to power their creative. Nearly one-quarter (23%) of Super Bowl ads featured AI, per iSpot data cited by Adweek.

How AI showed up at the Super Bowl: The game’s ad lineup was dominated by spots from major AI companies and commercials that were partially or fully created with AI.

• Claude AI owner Anthropic targeted OpenAI’s decision to introduce ads in ChatGPT with its own campaign spanning several ad slots, where the company committed to keeping Claude ad-free.
• OpenAI shied away from mentioning its plans to launch ads and instead focused on its coding assistant Codex.
• Google, meanwhile, promoted its AI chatbot Gemini by leaning on feel-good sentimentality with an ad featuring a mother and son using Gemini to imagine their new home.

But Sunday’s game wasn’t only defined by AI companies competing for ad attention. Svedka’s ad was touted as the first Super Bowl spot to be primarily created with AI. The ad featured dancing robots making a drink using the popular vodka brand’s products—but received mixed feedback from viewers and critics, with some describing the spot as uncanny.

Did it work? There’s no denying that AI is becoming a leading force in modern advertising. Brand marketers are using the tool for tasks like creating and editing graphics and videos (41%), per CreatorIQ; a separate survey from Integrate and Demand Metric found that 60% of US B2B marketers use AI to create content like text, videos, and images.

But AI platforms and brand marketers may be overestimating consumer enthusiasm for the tool.

• OpenAI’s campaign doesn’t eliminate skepticism over its introduction of ads in ChatGPT. Consumer trust remains a barrier to effectiveness for ChatGPT, as missteps could lead to perceptions of manipulation and privacy breaches.
• Over 30% of consumers across age groups are less likely to pick a brand that uses AI in an ad campaign, while only 12% overall are more likely. For advertisers, this indicates that jumping into AI-led creative too soon, especially without clear disclosures on AI usage, will fracture reach and loyalty until the tool gains more widespread acceptance.

Implications for marketers: While the 2026 Super Bowl highlighted AI’s growing role in advertising, brands that lean in too quickly risk alienating audiences that remain skeptical of AI-driven creative. Despite this, brands are facing a landscape where acceptance for AI in ads is gradually shifting in their favor, especially among younger demographics. Future Super Bowl AI spots could eventually become widely accepted.

For AI companies, the Super Bowl spotlight emphasized the mass potential of AI, but also reinforced that mass visibility invites scrutiny from competitors. And as platforms push into advertising and creative services, consumer concerns around data use, manipulation, and monetization will increasingly shape how effective—and acceptable—their marketing efforts can be.