What if you could ideate, produce, and finish an ad, all in a single day?
Some of Artlist’s AI creative directors took that challenge head-on to explore how to make ads using AI and test the limits of AI ad generators. Using only AI tools, a clear vision, and a lot of curiosity, they set out to see how far creative AI has really come, and what it means for video creators everywhere.
The challenge: Create fully AI-generated spec ads, across industries from automotive to fashion to education. This was all in less than 24 hours. The goal wasn’t perfection but exploration and experimentation.
Each ad was a test in creativity, speed, and storytelling. Armed with curiosity, creative instincts, and a few of today’s leading AI tools, they set out to see how artificial intelligence could help bring a professional-level idea to life, fast.
AI meets the open road
Itamar Leopold started off creating AI ads for the automotive industry using an AI ad generator to produce cinematic car commercials in a day. He created everything from scratch using text prompts, AI voiceover, and the Kling 2.5 Turbo model, available on Artlist’s video generator.
His first clip follows an electric 4×4 driving through rough terrain and on open road, blending “the roars of nature with the sounds of the road.” Itamar wanted to push realism to its max. The voiceover mirrors that contrast, positioning the car as both wild and refined.
The team estimated that they spent one day’s work and only $500 total to create this ad.
The second car ad was more expensive at a whopping $600 for one day’s work! The ad opens on a polished car lit against a black background, each curve defined by light and shadow. It’s quiet and intentional. Then the scene opens up and the car drives along an open road with rolling green hills, glimmers of water, and a wide blue sky in the background. The voiceover builds: “Technology that anticipates the road.” A close-up of the driver’s eyes opens to the light, followed by the voiceover, “Minimalist presence. Absolute confidence. Power, redefined.” Finally, the car returns to its origin, creating a sense of stillness, and the logo fades in, Apollo QX.
Both ads prove how AI can speed up production without compromising creativity. When every frame can be generated, refined, and rebuilt instantly, the creative director’s role shifts from logistics to direction and taste.
The power of real-time creativity
The next challenge was one of the most surprising results. This AI-generated running shoe ad by Sharon Thales Refael (Thales) has a Halloween-inspired spin, turning a typical sports campaign into something seasonal, clever, and fun. It’s playful, fast-moving, and built around cultural timing.
The ad opens on a lonely stretch of cracked road, wet from the night’s rain. The moon cuts through drifting clouds. A man in athletic gear is running along the road, his worn-out sneakers slapping against the tarmac.
A clown is then seen in bright orange running shoes, keeping perfect pace. It’s eerie and ridiculous all at once..
The voiceover breaks the tension with a sly grin: “You’re probably wondering why this guy is running in these god-awful shoes. Well, he’s not running — he’s running away.
But if he had the shoes this fine gentleman is wearing, he would have succeeded.
This Halloween, 50% off all running shoes at Runners. Go get yours.”
The pacing shifts from thriller to tongue-in-cheek comedy as the final shot lingers on a pair of orange shoes, a thin trail of smoke curling up from the soles. Beneath them, green slime oozes across the cracked road, a carved pumpkin flickering in the background. It is spooky, funny, and perfectly timed.
With AI tools, that shift becomes possible for small teams and solo creators, too. “You can ideate and execute in real time,” Thales explains. “If there’s a trend, a cultural moment, or even a holiday, you can make something fresh before the day’s over.”
The running shoe ad shows how AI doesn’t just change how we create, but when. It invites creators to respond instantly, and still produce something polished and on-brand.
This is where AI shines, giving creators the ability to react, remix, and publish faster than ever before.
Style meets storytelling
If the car ads were about energy and the running ad about agility, the fashion spot is about elegance through simplicity.
The fashion AI ad took on a completely different tone, one that was more elegant, minimal, and self-assured. It’s a 24-second film that begins with a woman’s legs crossed gracefully, white sneakers against the rich texture of a navy velvet chair.
The screen cuts to a close-up of her green eyes, which are calm and unreadable, as layered voices fade in, overlapping like inner thoughts and external judgments. A steady drumbeat pulses beneath the voices, subtle but tense.
“I’d be embarrassed to walk around with something like that.”
“It screams way too much.”
“You can’t ignore it.”
“This is completely over the top.”
“It steals all the focus.”
“Who goes out with a bag like that?”
“Like you don’t exist.”
“It’s the first thing you see when you walk in.”
“A red bag? Seriously?”
On screen, a red handbag sways lightly from a clothes rail, the most vibrant color in the scene. Then, the camera pulls back, revealing the full composition: the woman, the chair, the bag, arranged like a living still life.
She glances to the side. The focus shifts, and her face blurs, the red handbag snaps into clarity. The voices fall silent. Footsteps echo as she stands, lifts the bag, and walks off-screen.
What’s left is the stillness of the blue chair, the empty rack, and the Aurea logo on screen, paired with the final tagline “Simply bold.”
“It’s about confidence without apology,” Hadar Rosenthal was excited about the results.“The red bag isn’t just a product but also a statement. The AI helped us sculpt that world quickly, but the emotion came from knowing exactly what we wanted it to say.”
The ad blends modern restraint with a timeless message. Standing out doesn’t require noise if creators have clarity, composition, and the courage to take a stand. It’s proof that AI can generate beauty from restraint, giving creators a quick way to explore brand worlds without costly shoots.
Telling human stories with AI
The creatives decided to test themselves and the AI models even further, this time with a 45 second ad for the education industry, but with a cinematic, emotional approach.
This spec ad opens in 1936, in soft, black-and-white tones, with a group of students gathered around a freshman named Ruth, who’s just bought a broken radio from a pawn shop.
We see Ruth now in color, tinkering with the radio in what looks like the library. A female voiceover tells us that she never did fix that radio, but in trying, discovered a new way to string copper — one that powered a light for her roommates’ theater club, and eventually the technology made it to Broadway.
As the story unfolds, the camera pans to the present day. The same radio, still broken, is tinkered with by a variety of present-day students in the university archive, each one finding a spark of inspiration in Ruth’s old project. The voiceover continues: “But here’s the real lesson. Legacy isn’t about which family name you carry. It’s about the impact one generation leaves for the next.”
Related Posts
The visuals shift to a sunny day on campus. The film slows as the camera lingers on a female student smiling directly at the lens, sunlight glinting off her hair. “Join the legacy. Because it’s your turn.” The screen fades to white. The university logo appears with a simple call to action: “Sign up for a campus tour today.”
“It’s one of the most emotionally grounded, human stories we made,” Thales says. “AI handled the visual tone beautifully — the textures, the lighting, the transitions between black-and-white and color. But the soul of it still comes from storytelling.”
The ad shows how AI can truly elevate human emotion. It bridges decades, characters, and generations through subtle visuals, sound design, and pacing.
The team used this prompt to create and connect with the audience:
A cinematic day-in-the-life montage at Ridgeway University — students walking through a sun-lit quad, grabbing iced coffee, sketching in notebooks, laughing between classes, playing guitar on the grass. Voice over (warm, relatable, early-20s tone): ‘You don’t have to have it all figured out. You just have to start. And this… is where you start.’ Final shot: drone rises over the modern campus as the sunset glows, Ridgeway University logo fades in with tagline “Your Future Starts Here.” Music: chill indie-pop beat that builds with emotion and ends on an uplifting drop. Style: realistic, cinematic handheld camera feel, soft warm colors, TikTok-reel pacing with natural light flares and authentic energy
What creators can take away from our learnings
Creating ads entirely with AI isn’t about replacing human creativity. It’s about amplifying it and creating without limits.
“It’s not just about speed,” says Itamar, “It’s about what happens when you let go of control a little and see where the machine takes you.”
Thales adds, “Sometimes AI gives you something imperfect — but it’s interesting. That’s where the spark lives.”
This experiment wasn’t about proving AI can do everything. It was about showing how much more creators can do with it. AI tools make it easier to move fast, test ideas, and explore styles that used to require weeks and thousands of dollars.
Itamar sums it up, “It’s like working with a dream team that never sleeps, but you still have to lead it. The best results happen when you let AI take the first step, then you bring the craft.”
For video creators, the real value of AI isn’t automation, but acceleration. AI lets you move from idea to execution in hours, not weeks. You can test concepts, create spec pieces, and pitch clients before the competition even finishes their storyboards.
These ads prove one thing: When you stay open to something new, even something imperfect, you might just find a new creative rhythm.
Start creating with AI today
AI isn’t replacing human creativity. It’s expanding the canvas. Every prompt, every generated frame, every surprising output is a step closer to discovering new ways of telling stories.
For Thales and Itamar, this project wasn’t just about making ads. It was about redefining what’s possible in a single creative day. And for every creator reading this: Your next breakthrough might be just one prompt away. What are you waiting for?! Challenge yourself to create AI ads using the Artlist AI ad generator and discover how to make ads using AI that stand out. Talk to our team about Artlist Business and get started today.
Did you find this article useful?
