Consumers Are Warming Up to Digital Ads and AI, Report Finds

Consumers are warming on digital advertising – including artificial intelligence-generated content – according to a new report from the market research firm Kantar.

Kantar’s 2025 Media Reactions report found that nearly six in 10 consumers – 57 percent – feel positively toward digital advertising, continuing an upward trajectory that’s taken shape since 2020. 

At the same time, consumer sentiment toward generative AI is on the rise, with 68 percent of respondents saying they feel positively about the possibilities for the emerging technology. That’s up 6 percentage points from 2020, according to Kantar’s report.

The report suggests an increasingly friendly online ad landscape for brands and campaigns as they take an increasingly digital-first approach to advertising and look to AI to streamline key aspects of the creative process. Kantar’s report found that 70 percent of marketers are already using AI as part of their work. 

The digital ad market is also bracing for an influx of new AI-powered advertising tools, as tech companies like Meta prepare to roll out new AI tools to help marketers create and target campaigns. Meanwhile, OpenAI, the company behind the AI chatbot ChatGPT, is planning to build out its own in-house ad infrastructure, Adweek reported on Wednesday. 

Of course, there’s still some apprehension about the use of generative AI. Fifty-seven percent of consumers said that they’re worried about fake AI-generated ads, the report found. And while consumers are generally warming to the possibilities of generative AI, they’re still not as keen on the new tech as advertisers are; 75 percent of marketers said they’re positive about the possibilities of generative AI. 

“Trust is a key issue in all communications today, from ads to packaging, and a part of this concern stems from how AI is changing our world,” Kantar’s report says, adding that it’s up to marketers to reassure consumers about the use of AI. 

There’s also a rift between where consumers prefer to see digital ads and where marketers prefer to advertise. Consumers named Amazon, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch and Prime Video as their top platforms for advertising, while marketers preferred YouTube, Instagram, Google, Netflix and Spotify. 

“Snapchat’s ads are seen as fun and entertaining, and consumers say they are less intrusive than they were in 2024,” Kantar’s report reads. “Meanwhile consumers praise TikTok ads for being particularly attention-grabbing, fun and entertaining. Twitch is seen as having the most trustworthy ads among global brands.”