WARC and TikTok champion culture-led AI creativity

The research found that 90 percent of marketers consider AI an established part of the creative toolkit

WARC and LIONS Advisory, in partnership with TikTok, have published research examining how brands can improve creative effectiveness by combining generative AI with community insights.

The report argues that while AI has become a standard part of the creative process, long-term advantage depends on using audience participation and cultural signals to guide creative development.

The study, The new creative advantage: How community signals are reshaping creative success in the age of AI, is based on a survey of 400 marketers across the UK, the US, Australia and Brazil, interviews with senior marketing professionals and industry experts, and an analysis of WARC and TikTok data.

AI increases output but not always quality

The research found that 90 percent of marketers consider AI an established part of the creative toolkit, while 88 percent said generative AI has increased the volume of creative work. However, only 45 percent reported a significant improvement in creative quality.

Although 67 percent of respondents said demographic data remains the primary input when prompting AI tools, 59 percent also agreed that traditional demographic segmentation is becoming less effective. Only 17 percent said they consistently include community or audience insights in generative AI workflows.

Community signals become a competitive advantage

According to the report, brands that use AI alongside real-time audience behaviour and cultural participation are better positioned to create relevant marketing. The study found that 86 percent of marketers expect audience behaviour and community signals to have a greater influence on creative development over the next three years.

Lexi Wolf, Head of Thought Leadership, LIONS Advisory: "WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit 2026 found that belief in the effectiveness of demographic segmentation is waning. Yet this study with TikTok found that demographics were still the number one input marketers used to brief AI. Meanwhile, participatory media environments are giving us something far richer: real-time signals from people who search, comment, share, remix, create and buy.

"The opportunity isn't to make the existing system faster. It's to build a better one: one that helps brands learn from people more continuously, respond with greater speed and relevance, and turn efficiency into effectiveness over time."

Intelligence Loop links AI and audience participation

The report introduces the Intelligence Loop, a framework that describes how community participation and AI can reinforce each other through a continuous cycle of learning.

The model consists of four stages: community participation generates cultural and behavioural signals, those signals reveal emerging demand, the insights are used to inform AI creative briefs, and the resulting campaigns generate further audience engagement that feeds the next cycle. According to the report, this process allows brands to improve creative performance while strengthening product, brand and media decisions over time.

Andy Yang, Global Head of Creative & Brand Ads, TikTok: "The brands winning today are not the ones using AI to generate the most content. They are the ones learning the fastest from the people they serve. We call it cultural intelligence, and it is fast becoming advertisers’ most durable competitive advantage.

"Yet the research for this report shows that most brands are briefing powerful AI creative tools with weak inputs: static demographics and legacy assumptions, resulting in creative that scales efficiently but fails to connect. The future belongs to brands that close the loop by creating alongside culture, not behind it."

S.C.A.L.E. framework outlines practical steps

The report also introduces the S.C.A.L.E. framework, which provides guidance for organisations seeking to integrate AI into creative workflows. The framework recommends aligning media and audience objectives before briefing AI, using creators as sources of audience intelligence, incorporating distinctive brand assets into AI systems, establishing governance for responsible AI use, and treating every campaign as an opportunity for continuous learning and optimisation.

Marcos Angelides, Managing Director, L'Oréal Lab & Head of AI Operations, Publicis Media: "Where the advantage comes is the data that you use to train those models, because AI is only as good as the data it's trained on. You've got to have behavioral data. You've got to know what people actually do, not just what they say they do."

The full report can be accessed here