Generative AI is accelerating rapidly starting in late 2023. Across government agencies in India, we are currently drafting copy, scanning culture, building decks, analyzing sentiment, generating images, reshaping strategies, and compressing timelines. What started as an experiment has now become infrastructure.
Within creative, marketing and PR companies, AI is no longer a side tool. It's integrated into your daily workflow.
But as machine-generated content floods our systems, new questions are emerging that are less about productivity and more about individuality.
Why is the copy created by AI starting to look the same? And why are clients and readers starting to notice?
Rise of the “sea of sameness”
According to Maninder Singh, head of innovation and creative at Rediffusion Brand Solutions, the most visible failure of AI-generated work is not inaccuracy but indistinction.
read more: AI in Advertising: Transformative or Stifling Creativity?
“AI tends to value civility, explanation, and agreement,” he says. “These are the fatal qualities of powerful communication: it grapples with the very content, irony, and imperfection that makes ideas powerful.”
Clients are already feeling this emptiness, he added.
“There were clear examples of work that felt technically sound but spiritually empty. When an AI copy is treated as final rather than provisional, its biggest weakness is exposed: the AI cannot feel the consequences of what it says.”
VML India CEO Babita Baruah believes the industry is entering what many marketers quietly describe as an 'sea of sameness'.
“The content may be grammatically perfect, but emotionally it’s flat,” she said. “There’s a lack of jagged edges, wit, and a clear point of view. Brands are all powered by the same AI, so they end up sounding the same.”
At advertising agency talent, there is often a subtle sense of resistance. “The feedback is usually, 'This feels too generic,' or 'This isn't who we are,'” said talent strategist Varun Kiatani. “That’s the problem with AI in its most visible form.”
Kushager Tuli, President (Creative) at Tilt Brand Solutions, was more blunt. “AI-generated copies lack a soul for the most part. People can see through the coldness and lack of real thought.”
As generation tools flood the system with competent writing, what's missing is not content, but character.
meaningless speed
PR and strategic communications advisor Anup Sharma believes that the most dangerous impact of AI is not creative. It's a cultural thing.
“AI has lowered the barriers to publishing,” he says. “As content becomes richer, it becomes less meaningful.” “AI amplifies what's already there. If the story is shallow, it just magnifies the problem faster.”
Sharma cited over-automation, weak editorial oversight, uncorrected bias and ethical shortcuts as the most common failures.
“AI can help detect misinformation, but deciding how to respond requires moral judgment. Ethical communication is becoming more important, not less.”
He added that AI often generates sophisticated language without emotional or cultural depth.
“This work grapples with humor, regional nuances, and the subtle signals that shape public perception. The message of Dibrugarh cannot sound like the message of Muzaffarpur. The differences must remain human.”
This loss of emotional regulation is increasingly felt in both advertising and public relations, where credibility depends on intent rather than deliverable.
When technology becomes an idea
India is already experiencing both the potential and pitfalls of AI-driven creativity.
In 2021, Mondelēz International's 'Shah Rukh Khan My Ad' Diwali campaign used AI and machine learning to generate thousands of personalized ads for local retailers, allowing small businesses to star alongside actors in hyperlocalized films. The campaign was widely praised as a meaningful use of technology for human ideas.
However, in recent years there have been some warnings.
In 2024, Coca-Cola faced global backlash for an AI-generated film that referenced the company's iconic commercial, “The Holidays Are Coming,” and was criticized for feeling soulless and emotionally empty. We saw a similar response with our 2025 AI-driven holiday campaign. McDonald's in the Netherlands also drew criticism for its AI-produced Christmas movie, but it quickly became more of a reputational issue than a creative one.
At Talented, Chiatani said that most AI-driven campaigns fail for two reasons, one on the creator's side and one on the consumer's side.
“There is an overreliance on the part of creators. Brands are starting to mistakenly think of AI as an idea. AI is not an idea. It's a means to an end,” the spokesperson said. “When AI becomes the raison d’être of a campaign, the effort feels more like posturing than innovation.”
The issue on the consumer side is trust. “Poorly executed AI content still feels cheap. Viewers sense a lack of effort. The backlash right now isn't about AI; it's about weak creative decision-making disguised as technology.”
Shin agreed. “Many campaigns fail because they confuse novelty with relevance. Audiences can tell when technology is being used as a shortcut rather than a tool.”
In addition to this, there are also ethical undertones that are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Issues of authorship, authenticity, and cultural appropriation are increasingly shaping the way audiences judge brand communications.
impaired judgment
Carol Goyal, Director of Customer Service and Business Development at Rediffusion, believes that serious crises are about insight, not outcomes.
“AI has democratized generations, but it has not democratized judgment,” she says. “Creativity today is not about generating ideas, but about recognizing which ideas are important.”
AI will accelerate exploration, but it shouldn't define voice, she argued.
“Human creativity brings lived experience, moral awareness, and cultural memory. In a landscape saturated with content, meaning is the real differentiator, and meaning remains a human responsibility.”
Agency leaders increasingly describe this decline in judgment as the real risk: when speed replaces thinking and consistency replaces courage.
Why human creativity is becoming premium again
Ironically, as AI makes it cheaper to run, it increases the value of human creativity.
“You can now make almost anything for almost zero cost,” says Talented's Khiatani. “This means that execution alone is no longer memorable; the only real differentiator left is the quality of the idea.”
Sharma agreed with this. “AI analyzes patterns. AI does not live experience. Creativity in communication is determined by judgment, restraint, and emotional intelligence.”
Baruah added that the biggest drawback of AI-generated work is that it loses its emotional edge.
“The elements that create a unique brand voice – the discomfort, the humor, the risk – are being lost. Clients are becoming sensitive to that loss because it goes directly against authenticity.”
Tuli believes agencies that offer mediocre work in the name of “AI advanced” are making a strategic mistake. “It shows more laziness than innovation.”
As AI commoditizes production, agencies are reminding themselves that uniqueness, flair, and perspective cannot be automated.
From automation back to authorship
Most government leaders agree that the way forward is not less AI, but much more human control.
“Agencies need to move from automation to strategy,” Sharma says. “AI must support listening, analysis, testing, and optimization. Humans must lead in storytelling, ethics, and relationships.”
Shin put it more bluntly. “AI is a multiplier, not a mind. AI expands possibilities; it does not determine meaning.”
Mr. Goyal summarized, “Originality will survive if humans can control the adjustment of perspective and emotions. AI should expand its field. Humans must decide where to stand.”
First publication date
