Global companies are increasingly moving advertising production work in-house as artificial intelligence reshapes marketing operations and speeds up content creation.
Companies including Kimberly-Clark, Catalyst Brands and Target India are using AI across multiple parts of the advertising process, according to executives who spoke to a news agency. Their India-based global capability centres are helping develop AI-driven tools for creating product visuals, writing ad copy, selecting influencers and localising campaigns for different markets.
The shift highlights how multinational companies are expanding the role of their global capability centres beyond back-end support and into creative marketing functions.
Kimberly-Clark said an AI platform developed in India reduced content production timelines from 24 days to just 2 hours. The company said the tool also supports influencer identification and campaign localisation across regions.
Catalyst Brands, the parent company of J.C. Penney, is testing computer-generated product images and videos for online listings. India Managing Director Nihar Nidhi said the company’s Bengaluru team is leading prototype development that could reduce the need for physical product shoots and global inventory movement.
Target is also integrating AI into advertising operations through Roundel, its advertising business. Andrea Zimmerman, president of Target India, said copywriters are using AI to create advertisements faster and respond quickly to changing consumer trends.
The report noted that AI is being widely adopted for production-heavy advertising tasks such as image generation, campaign testing, content variation and localization.
Industry data showed that 66% of major multinational brands already operate in-house agencies, while another 21% are considering building one.
At the same time, analysts said advertising agencies will continue to play an important role in strategy, creative direction and specialist services. Gartner analyst Jay Wilson said agencies can no longer depend only on scale and must now focus more on strategic and creative expertise.
A separate industry survey found that 70% of marketers experienced at least 1 AI-related issue, including hallucinated outputs, biased content and off-brand messaging.
Brian Wieser, CEO of advisory firm Madison and Wall, said companies may handle average production internally, but higher-value creative work still depends on specialist judgement and expertise.
The growing use of AI is now changing how brands manage advertising production, with more companies testing faster and lower-cost creative operations inside their own business ecosystems.
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