This paper reviews insights from the AEJMC Advertising Division’s 2025 Teaching Pre-Conference, “Advertising Creativity in the Age of AI,” held August 6, 2025, in San Francisco. Advertising educators and professionals explored how artificial intelligence is transforming advertising creativity and discussed strategies for integrating AI into advertising curricula. Sessions covered creative applications in professional practice, hands-on AI content creation, research on AI, creativity, and virtual influencers, custom GPT development, and ethical implications. Across presentations, the emerging themes were the importance of maintaining human agency, the necessity of teaching foundational creative skills alongside AI literacy, the value of process documentation and transparency, and the critical role of domain expertise in an automated landscape. Speakers reported gains in ideation efficiency and accessibility while noting concerns about job displacement, creative homogenization, and skill atrophy. The review concludes that advertising educators must thoughtfully integrate AI tools while prioritizing strategic thinking, human creativity, and ethical considerations.
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