While Streaming TV audiences grow at a record pace, a report by One Touch Intelligence puts ad fill rates for streaming at a paltry 38%. The remaining ad opportunities are currently being allocated to PSAs or the dreaded 'We will be right back' promos that plague our industry.

There are many reasons for this fill rate problem, but one thing is clear: The industry needs to expand and democratize the market for TV advertising. Only 500 advertisers dominate TV spend, whereas 9 million advertise on search and social spending $300B+ per year. Millions of advertisers are just waiting for a viable way to buy TV. It’s critical we make ad buying simple to unlock this SMB spend on Streaming TV and GenAI is the solution.

But is GenAI Ready for the Big Screen?

Many articles are being written about GenAI’s shortcomings in advertising. Some say the GenAI creative isn’t, well, creative, while others are justifiably upset with what looks like AI automation blowing through hard-earned budgets without rhyme or reason.

It’s time to say the quiet part out loud.

The reason folks in the advertising industry are complaining is simple: We are scared and know deep down this is only the beginning. AI will continue to get better and disrupt the way we do things.

Heck, everyone is scared of how AI will impact their ability to put food on the table and derive a sense of value from their work. We are even building a GenAI streaming startup and one of the first things I do when I wake up every day is anxiously refresh Twitter (nay X) to see if OpenAI killed us with a new feature update. But then I remember we are leveraging OpenAI and our product only gets better as they roll out updates. Phew.

What keeps us going is remembering why we started our company in the first place. We also try to be realistic about where GenAI is actually adding value in advertising and where it still has a long way to go before we have to consider a universal basic income when AI can do all of our jobs.

Serving SMBs is the Sweet Spot for GenAI

GenAI Creative is the focal point for angst about AI and how it will be used in advertising. But this also shows how much value there is in focusing on where GenAI can contribute right now.

Are major brands going to cut out their own creative production? Not anytime soon.

But many small and local businesses could never have dreamed of seeing their product on the biggest screen in the household before.

GenAI makes this possible. Producing a TV commercial can cost $10,000 on the very low end. And setting up a campaign on many streaming platforms takes people with specialized skills.

GenAI can bring the cost of video ad creation down drastically for small and medium-sized businesses.

There’s a big difference between Walmart and a small local pharmacy or grocer, but there are tens of thousands of these small stores. Generating cost-effective creatives quickly enables millions of businesses to advertise on Streaming TV, which otherwise would be totally lost to the market.

These businesses are what set apart Google and Meta, which have tens of millions of advertisers powering their demand.

AI is also revolutionizing the campaign setup, targeting, and delivery process. It is now technically feasible, not just hypothetical, for an advertiser to produce a video ad via chatbot prompts, plan a campaign, and run targeting all from their smartphone.

Our industry is crazy to think that an actual business owner who is running their pizza shop or toy store knows or cares about what a DMA is. They just want to build brand awareness for their business and make more money than they spend. It’s as simple as that.

Conclusion

Instead of fearing the rise of AI in advertising, we should embrace it as a tool that can enhance creativity and streamline workflows.

AI is not the end of creativity. Those who leverage GenAI and become cyborgs will unlock a new level of productivity. It’s the beginning of a new chapter in which technology and human ingenuity work together to create something greater than the sum of our parts.

GenAI is not building TV ads that win Cannes Lions awards today, but it’s delivering real value to SMBs. It will bring ‘net new’ ad dollars to CTV and continue to accelerate the convergence of retail media and streaming.