AIExplainer

Eight creators test if AI can match human ideas in a 10-minute ad challenge

At a Mumbai event, young ad professionals used AI tools to turn surprise briefs into films, raising questions about creativity.

By idly intel

3 Nov, 05:35 IST2 min read

AI-assisted

Written by idly intel with AI help from several outlets' reporting, and checked before it goes live. How idly works

Eight creators test if AI can match human ideas in a 10-minute ad challenge — Image: afaqs

Key facts

Story

The One Show and Google held an AI Creative Challenge in Mumbai on 30 October.
Aryaman Singh of Leo India won after making a film from a caption in under 10 minutes.
Singh said trained AI tools can help creatives avoid generic, Instagram-style output.

Young advertising professionals in Mumbai had minutes to turn a surprise caption into a finished film using artificial intelligence. The contest, held on 30 October, asked whether AI can come up with a strong advertising concept or only help a person realize one.

The contest was part of The One Show and Google's AI Creative Challenge, India Edition. Entrants came from advertising agencies and had to build their work with AI tools of their own choice. Judges from advertising, filmmaking and technology scored the entries, and the audience also voted. Aryaman Singh, a creative strategist at Leo India, won.

Singh said both the idea and the execution were hard, mainly because the brief was revealed only on the day. He argued that the difference between a strong creative and an average one lies in how well a person knows and directs the tools.

"If you do it without training, AI will give you the same look that you see on Instagram feeds," he said.

Singh said he has spent a lot of time teaching the tools his preferences. His films often use a 4:3 aspect ratio and a painterly look, and he builds these choices into the prompts and reference material he feeds the software. He uses Claude for writing and ChatGPT for images, and he also uses Higgsfield for video.

The event raised a broader question for the industry. As AI makes production faster and cheaper, the value of an agency may rest more on its ideas than on its ability to make a finished film. Speed alone, the discussion suggested, does not create a memorable campaign.

The number of entrants beyond the eight creators is not known, and how the audience vote was weighted against the judges' scores has not been stated. It is also not known whether any of the winning work will be used by a client.

The event points to where advertising jobs may be heading. Young creatives who can direct AI tools well may stand out, while those who rely on default outputs may struggle to differ from one another.