A new report from marketing strategy agency Warc and TikTok, based on a survey of 400 marketers in the US, UK, Australia, and Brazil, upends a common assumption about generative AI. The brands that win are not the ones churning out the most content - they are the ones that learn fastest from their audiences. The finding directly challenges the volume-first workflows many creative teams have built since AI tools became ubiquitous.
Cultural intelligence, not content volume
The report introduces the concept of cultural intelligence (CI) - a brand's ability to spot what an audience values before it goes mainstream, and to meet emerging needs in a way that feels native to that group. Warc's summary argues that the most successful brands adapt in real time to shifting cultural trends and audience preferences. Simply producing more is no longer enough to hold attention or build loyalty.
Andy Yang, TikTok's Global Head of Creative and Brand Ads, put it bluntly: "The brands winning today are not the ones generating the most content, but rather learning the quickest from the people they serve." The report's data suggests that as generative tools become more accessible, competitive advantage has shifted toward brands that understand and respond to their customers faster.
Where AI still falls short
Marketers in the survey found generative AI least valuable for copywriting and scripting. The nuance and care that go into writing that speaks directly to an audience remain hard to replicate. This points to a clear role for human creativity, even as AI accelerates other parts of the production pipeline.
The report also flags concerns about originality and cultural sensitivity. AI tools can miss the distinctiveness and contextual specificity brands need. Many marketers feel that raw output from generative models requires a layer of human insight to become culturally relevant. The survey underscores a need for what the report calls an acute awareness of what audiences care about, to effectively complement AI-generated suggestions. For creatives working across multiple markets, that awareness grows more complex but also more essential.
TikTok as a real-time cultural signal
TikTok's platform surfaces cultural trends and audience preferences as they emerge. The report describes how brands can use that information to inform their creative direction rather than guessing at what might resonate. The core idea is that relevance comes from listening, not from broadcasting. The report stresses that combining AI's production speed with a sharp understanding of cultural context is what separates effective campaigns from noise.
For those exploring how to apply these concepts in practice, the AI for Marketing resource compiles methods that align with the report's emphasis on audience-driven creativity.
How this plays out in practice
The Warc report, available through Warc, outlines concrete steps for marketers. It recommends rethinking success metrics - moving away from volume-based evaluations toward measures that capture real-time audience response and the ability to recognize cultural signals. Human input remains critical: the report argues that AI can help identify emerging patterns, but human marketers must interpret them to get the most out of the technology.
The report explicitly states that the best approach to generative AI in marketing is not to automate everything, but to focus on cultural intelligence. Brands that combine AI-enabled production with a deep understanding of what contemporary audiences want to see stand to produce more resonant work. That means creatives who excel at writing, scripting, and cultural insight will remain indispensable, even as the tools evolve.
Why this matters for creatives
For creative professionals, the report's message is clear: speed and volume are not substitutes for relevance. The real opportunity lies in using AI to free up time for the work that still requires human judgment - writing, cultural interpretation, and adaptive storytelling. Instead of measuring output by the number of assets generated, teams should look at how quickly they learn from audience reactions and how well their content reflects the cultural moment. A collection of practical guidance on this shift is available in the AI for Creatives section, which covers how to integrate AI tools without losing the human voice that makes creative work effective.
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