AI Ads Need More Humanity, Less Robot Energy: Omnicom Media’s Joanna O’Connell
AMENIA, N.Y. — Artificial intelligence may be writing code, summarizing meetings and generating suspiciously photogenic influencers but consumers still aren’t ready to hand over advertising to the robots.
That’s one of the key findings from research discussed by Joanna O’Connell, chief intelligence officer at Omnicom Media, during an interview with Beet.TV contributor Tameka Kee at the Beet Retreat Berkshires. The interview is part of a Beet.TV video series produced in collaboration with the New York Stock Exchange.
O’Connell said the research explored what consumers actually enjoy about advertising, what annoys them and where AI fits into the picture. One surprise was just how convinced people already are that AI is everywhere.
“It was something like 80% of people thought at least a quarter of the ads that they saw were AI generated,” she said.
Whether they’re right is another matter.
Consumers seem to identify AI-created ads for reasons that are almost delightfully contradictory. As O’Connell explained, they’ll say an ad is AI because “it’s not perfect enough” or “it’s too perfect” or simply “it’s generic.” The common thread is that “it just doesn’t feel right to them.”
Robots can place the ad, just don’t let them write it
The industry’s efficiency obsession may be racing ahead but consumers appear to be tapping the brakes.
According to O’Connell, “Only 16% of people agreed that they were good with an ad being entirely AI generated.”
Instead, consumers want people involved in the creative process. “People are much more interested in humans being in the loop and guiding the use of the AI,” she said, adding that many respondents now place a higher value on human-produced advertising.
That doesn’t mean consumers reject AI altogether. O’Connell said they’re generally comfortable with AI helping determine when and where ads appear or reducing the number of irrelevant ads they see.
“They’ll even say things like, ‘I think that AI could actually be helpful in advertising, for example, showing me fewer ads but more relevant ones,'” she said.
In other words, consumers are happy to let AI operate the traffic lights. They just aren’t ready to hand it the steering wheel.
Authenticity is becoming a brand strategy
As AI-generated content floods social platforms, O’Connell said transparency matters more than ever.
“They absolutely do. They want labeling,” she said when asked whether consumers want disclosure about AI-generated advertising.
She acknowledged that identifying AI-generated content isn’t always technically straightforward and that some AI use may be so subtle consumers never notice it. What matters more, she argued, is whether brands remain authentic.
“They just want to feel like the brand is expressing itself in a way that is honest and authentic and probably representative of who the brand is and what they stand for,” O’Connell said.
That means brands shouldn’t adopt a one-size-fits-all AI strategy. A company built around authenticity may decide never to use AI-generated images while another brand could reach a different conclusion based on its identity and audience.
Stop chasing people around the internet
If there’s one advertising habit consumers would happily leave behind, it’s the digital equivalent of an overly attached ex.
O’Connell said advertising needs to become “augmentative rather than interruptive” instead of “aggressively repetitive” or “feeling like it’s just chasing someone around the internet.”
Consumers reward advertising that fits naturally within its environment, she said. A TikTok ad shouldn’t resemble a connected TV commercial and neither should look like an Amazon product listing.
Her prescription is simple even if the execution isn’t.
“How do you deliver things that just feel right to the consumer? Relevant to them, in the right context, feels like it belongs in the platform, feels like it understands who they are without being creepy.”
That’s a tall order for an industry that has spent years perfecting the art of finding you across every device you own. But if O’Connell’s research is right, consumers are offering a straightforward bargain: keep the AI, lose the uncanny valley and maybe, just maybe, stop showing the same sneaker ad 47 times after they’ve already bought the sneakers.
You’re watching coverage from Beet Retreat Berkshires 2026. For more videos from this event, please visit this page.
AMENIA, N.Y. — Artificial intelligence may be writing code, summarizing meetings and generating suspiciously photogenic influencers but consumers still aren’t ready to hand over advertising to the robots.
That’s one of the key findings from research discussed by Joanna O’Connell, chief intelligence officer at Omnicom Media, during an interview with Beet.TV contributor Tameka Kee at the Beet Retreat Berkshires. The interview is part of a Beet.TV video series produced in collaboration with the New York Stock Exchange.
O’Connell said the research explored what consumers actually enjoy about advertising, what annoys them and where AI fits into the picture. One surprise was just how convinced people already are that AI is everywhere.
“It was something like 80% of people thought at least a quarter of the ads that they saw were AI generated,” she said.
Whether they’re right is another matter.
Consumers seem to identify AI-created ads for reasons that are almost delightfully contradictory. As O’Connell explained, they’ll say an ad is AI because “it’s not perfect enough” or “it’s too perfect” or simply “it’s generic.” The common thread is that “it just doesn’t feel right to them.”
Robots can place the ad, just don’t let them write it
The industry’s efficiency obsession may be racing ahead but consumers appear to be tapping the brakes.
According to O’Connell, “Only 16% of people agreed that they were good with an ad being entirely AI generated.”
Instead, consumers want people involved in the creative process. “People are much more interested in humans being in the loop and guiding the use of the AI,” she said, adding that many respondents now place a higher value on human-produced advertising.
That doesn’t mean consumers reject AI altogether. O’Connell said they’re generally comfortable with AI helping determine when and where ads appear or reducing the number of irrelevant ads they see.
“They’ll even say things like, ‘I think that AI could actually be helpful in advertising, for example, showing me fewer ads but more relevant ones,'” she said.
In other words, consumers are happy to let AI operate the traffic lights. They just aren’t ready to hand it the steering wheel.
Authenticity is becoming a brand strategy
As AI-generated content floods social platforms, O’Connell said transparency matters more than ever.
“They absolutely do. They want labeling,” she said when asked whether consumers want disclosure about AI-generated advertising.
She acknowledged that identifying AI-generated content isn’t always technically straightforward and that some AI use may be so subtle consumers never notice it. What matters more, she argued, is whether brands remain authentic.
“They just want to feel like the brand is expressing itself in a way that is honest and authentic and probably representative of who the brand is and what they stand for,” O’Connell said.
That means brands shouldn’t adopt a one-size-fits-all AI strategy. A company built around authenticity may decide never to use AI-generated images while another brand could reach a different conclusion based on its identity and audience.
Stop chasing people around the internet
If there’s one advertising habit consumers would happily leave behind, it’s the digital equivalent of an overly attached ex.
O’Connell said advertising needs to become “augmentative rather than interruptive” instead of “aggressively repetitive” or “feeling like it’s just chasing someone around the internet.”
Consumers reward advertising that fits naturally within its environment, she said. A TikTok ad shouldn’t resemble a connected TV commercial and neither should look like an Amazon product listing.
Her prescription is simple even if the execution isn’t.
“How do you deliver things that just feel right to the consumer? Relevant to them, in the right context, feels like it belongs in the platform, feels like it understands who they are without being creepy.”
That’s a tall order for an industry that has spent years perfecting the art of finding you across every device you own. But if O’Connell’s research is right, consumers are offering a straightforward bargain: keep the AI, lose the uncanny valley and maybe, just maybe, stop showing the same sneaker ad 47 times after they’ve already bought the sneakers.
You’re watching coverage from Beet Retreat Berkshires 2026. For more videos from this event, please visit this page.
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