AI in Advertising: Adoption, Risks & Governance

New Research: How Advertisers Are Using AI — And Where Governance Is Falling Short

Generative AI is transforming creative workflows, targeting, personalization, and campaign optimization. But adoption is outpacing oversight, and brands are feeling the consequences.

Aymara partnered with the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) to survey 125 senior advertising executives on AI adoption, brand safety incidents, and governance readiness. The results reveal soaring adoption, rising risks, and a critical lack of safeguards.

The State of AI in Advertising

Advertisers are in an AI arms race, embedding generative AI everywhere to gain an edge. But governance hasn’t caught up.

The result? Brands face unsafe outputs, hidden biases, misinformation, and reputational risks—often without realizing it until damage is done. As AI becomes a core part of advertising, responsible deployment isn’t optional. It’s the line between building trust and losing it overnight.

Key Findings at a Glance

• AI Adoption Is Exploding
  94% of surveyed brands are already using GenAI for creative, personalization, and ad optimization.

• Brand Safety Incidents Are Rising
  4 in 5 brands reported at least one AI-related brand safety or reputational incident in the past year.

• Governance Is Lagging
  Despite the risks, 72% of advertisers lack formal AI governance policies, creating a growing gap between innovation and oversight.

AI-related incidents experienced by advertising executives

As advertisers accelerate generative AI adoption, risks are already materializing. Nearly every category—from misinformation to brand misalignment and compliance violations—has seen significant incident rates. The data underscores a growing gap between AI adoption and the governance required to deploy it safely.

Enterprise Impacts: What Leaders Need to Know

Generative AI is rewriting the playbook for marketing and advertising. But without proper oversight, risks to brand integrity, customer trust, and regulatory readiness scale faster than opportunity. Enterprises in the advertising ecosystem must:

• Protect Brand Reputation – Use automated, auditable evaluations of AI-generated outputs.

• Choose Vendors Wisely – Ensure AI-driven tools align with brand safety and compliance frameworks.

• Prepare for Governance – Stay ahead of AIUC-1, ISO 42001, and the EU AI Act.

Aymara’s automated evaluation platform helps advertisers, agencies, and publishers measure and mitigate AI-driven risks, ensuring safer, compliant, and brand-aligned deployments.

Put The Data to Work

Dive into the full industry report to learn how advertisers are adopting AI, where risks are emerging, and how leaders are closing the governance gap. Book a demo to see how Aymara helps operationalize Responsible AI for creative workflows.