AI Is Now in the Ad Department. Consumers Are Not Sure They Invited It

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The advertising business has found its new production engine. Consumers, so far, are not entirely sold on the ride.

According to Canva’s 2026 State of Marketing and AI report, 97% of marketing leaders now use AI in their daily creative work, and 99% plan to increase their AI spending this year. That is not experimentation. That is adoption at industrial speed.

Yet the same report found that 78% of consumers would rather see ads made by people, even if AI could produce better ones. And 87% believe the best advertising still requires a human touch.

For local media salespeople and ad agency professionals, this is not a technology footnote. It is a warning label. The marketing world has rushed into AI because it saves time, reduces cost and multiplies output. The consumer, meanwhile, is asking a simpler question: Who made this, and should I trust it?

That gap may become one of the most important issues in local advertising over the next several years.

For radio, television, cable, newspapers, magazines, outdoor and digital sellers, AI is already changing the sales conversation. Local advertisers will soon be able to generate ads, social posts, banners, email campaigns, video scripts and promotional materials with a few prompts. Canva’s expanded partnership with Anthropic, which brings Canva’s design engine into Claude for Small Business, points directly at that future. A local business owner will be able to create on-brand marketing assets using approved fonts, colors and visual identity without hiring a full creative department.

That sounds efficient. It may also be dangerous.

The danger is not that AI will make advertising. The danger is that AI will make a lot of average advertising very quickly.

The report notes that mentions of “AI slop” — the term used for low-effort, obviously machine-generated content — have risen ninefold. That phrase may be crude, but it captures something consumers recognize immediately. The ad looks polished but hollow. The copy is clean but forgettable. The image is attractive but strangely generic. The message says everything and nothing.

Local media sellers should pay close attention to that distinction. In the old advertising world, a bad ad was usually limited by time and budget. In the AI world, a bad idea can be multiplied instantly across every channel.

A weak furniture promotion can become 40 weak social posts.
A generic HVAC ad can become a month of generic display banners.
A lifeless bank message can become a polished but forgettable campaign.
A personal injury lawyer can look exactly like every other personal injury lawyer, only faster.

AI can create volume. It cannot automatically create meaning.

That is where local media and agencies have an opportunity to move up the value chain. The salesperson who merely sells spots, impressions, page views or billboards may find AI threatening. The salesperson who helps an advertiser clarify strategy, audience, message, timing and creative quality becomes more valuable.

The question is no longer, “Can we produce an ad?”

The better question is, “Should this ad exist, and will anyone care?”

For radio, AI can help write scripts, generate promotional ideas and personalize campaigns. But the human advantage remains knowing how a local listener actually hears the message in the car, at work or during a morning show. A radio ad that sounds like machine-written copy will disappear into the commercial break. A radio ad built around a sharp local truth, a memorable voice and a real offer can still move people.

For television, AI can accelerate storyboards, video concepts and production drafts. But TV’s power is emotional. A local hospital, auto dealer, college or nonprofit does not need a commercial that merely looks professional. It needs one that feels credible. Human judgment still matters in deciding whether a spot has warmth, urgency, believability and local texture.

Cable sellers can use AI to help advertisers tailor messages by zone, audience or neighborhood. But targeting without creative discipline is just efficient waste. The right cable strategy should pair household reach with messaging that reflects the advertiser’s real customer, not a generic profile produced by a prompt.

Print may have a surprisingly strong role in the AI era. Newspapers, city magazines, alternative weeklies and community publications are built on original local content, editorial judgment and reader trust. As consumers grow more wary of machine-made advertising, a well-designed ad in a trusted local publication may feel more intentional than another synthetic image in a social feed.

Outdoor, too, has a clear advantage. Billboards punish vague creative. A driver has only seconds to absorb the message. AI may help produce concepts, but the human test remains brutal: Is the idea simple, visual, memorable and local? If not, no amount of automation will save it.

Digital sellers face both the biggest risk and the biggest opportunity. AI will flood digital channels with more banners, videos, emails, landing pages and social posts. That could make the digital environment noisier and less trusted. But local digital teams that combine audience data, strong creative standards, local content adjacency and transparent campaign reporting can help advertisers separate useful automation from disposable content.

The Canva report suggests consumers are not rejecting technology outright. They are asking for boundaries. When asked what would make them more comfortable with AI in advertising, 53% cited data protection, 52% cited disclosure of AI use, 39% wanted assurances that AI is not replacing jobs, and 37% said they would like the ability to opt out of AI-generated ads entirely.

That is a trust agenda.

It also creates a practical opportunity for agencies and media companies. Local advertisers are going to need guidance on when to use AI, when to disclose it, when to avoid it and how to make sure the work still sounds like the business itself.

The issue of disclosure will get more important. Canva’s report found that 70% of consumers believe it will eventually be impossible to tell whether an ad was AI-generated without disclosure, and 56% expect that point to arrive within two to five years.

In other words, consumers see the fog coming. They are asking marketers to turn on the headlights.

For local advertisers, this is especially sensitive because trust is local. A national brand may survive a little synthetic blandness. A local business may not. The local bank president, orthopedic surgeon, roofer, dealer principal, restaurant owner or college admissions director cannot afford to sound fake. Their advantage is proximity. Their brand is tied to people, place and reputation.

That is why local media sellers should not treat AI as a back-office convenience only. They should turn it into a strategic conversation with clients.

Ask the advertiser:

Does this message sound like you?
Does it reflect what customers actually care about?
Is it different from your competitors?
Does it make a promise you can keep?
Would a real customer believe it?
Would you be comfortable saying this face-to-face?

Those questions matter more now, not less.

The report also found that 68% of marketing leaders say AI has led to an increase in marketing-influenced business decisions. That means AI is not just changing production. It is changing planning, budgeting, testing and measurement. Local media companies should assume that more advertisers and agencies will use AI to evaluate media choices, generate campaign ideas and compare options.

That raises the bar for every local seller. A weak proposal filled with generic claims will look even weaker in a world where AI can generate generic claims instantly. The media seller’s advantage will be local intelligence: knowledge of the market, the category, the advertiser’s customer, the competitive landscape and the buying cycle.

AI can summarize a category. It cannot know the local car dealer’s reputation.
AI can draft a bank ad. It cannot know which credit union is gaining mind share in the market.
AI can write a restaurant promotion. It cannot know which neighborhood is changing, which road construction is hurting traffic, or which local event can drive a weekend crowd.
AI can create an outdoor concept. It cannot know which intersection carries the most emotional value for a community.

That is the opening for local media.

The winning position is not anti-AI. That would be unrealistic and unwise. The winning position is human-led, AI-assisted advertising.

Use AI to speed the draft.
Use people to sharpen the idea.
Use AI to test variations.
Use people to protect the brand.
Use AI to scale production.
Use people to preserve trust.

This is especially important for agencies. Clients will ask why they need an agency if Canva, Claude and other tools can produce campaigns on demand. The answer cannot simply be “creative.” The answer must be judgment. Agencies know what to ask, what to reject, what to refine and what to keep out of the marketplace.

Media companies should make the same case. A radio station, TV station, newspaper, magazine, cable system, outdoor company or digital publisher that helps improve the advertiser’s message is no longer just a vendor. It becomes a marketing partner.

The “AI slop” problem may actually help serious local media sellers. As the market fills with more machine-generated sameness, advertisers will need help standing apart. They will need stories, proof points, local context, memorable offers and campaigns that feel like they were made by someone who understands the community.

Consumers may eventually become more comfortable with AI-generated advertising. Younger audiences may care less about how an ad was made and more about whether it is useful, entertaining or relevant. But Canva’s report suggests that, for now, the human touch remains a powerful signal.

That should encourage local media.

The future of advertising will not belong to the side that produces the most content. It will belong to the side that earns the most trust.

AI can help create the ad. But a human still has to know what is worth saying.