Channel News tore into AI-generated imagery a couple of weeks ago after receiving some product shots that featured six-fingered humans, wine glasses floating unsupported in mid-air, and a man resting his hands on a smoking BBQ grill.

But we’ve got to admit the AI-generated Amaysim TV commercial isn’t too bad.

The Optus-owned telco recently dropped its first AI-generated TV commercial, ‘The Escape Story’.

It was produced in-house by a two-person creative team.

The ad was generated frame by frame using Adobe Firefly for image creation and Runway for motion design. Remarkably, the entire process, from the initial brainstorming to the final edit, took under two weeks.

Cost-of-living pressures are still front of mind for many Australians, especially the budget-conscious, younger ones that Amaysim targets.

YouGov research shows 30% of Aussies struggle to pay their mobile bills, 78% believe big telcos are expensive, 53% believe smaller telcos offer better value, and 41% are considering switching in the next 12 months.

It seems Amaysim has rushed in where many other Australian telcos have feared to tread because it’s on brand.

Amaysim has long marketed itself as an agile, value-focused disruptor and what’s more agile and disruptive than making a TV commercial with no actors or film crew?

They may look real, but they’re not

The campaign was developed in-house by Studio Amayzing, using iterative prompts and refinement. The aesthetic was “warm, nostalgic, and minimalist,” aiming to reflect whimsy and emotional resonance while cutting through the blandness of telco branding.

While there were no complaints about six-fingered hands resting on white-hot grills, industry response to the ad has been mixed.

Some ad industry pundits have hailed it as a creative benchmark in telco marketing, praising its speed, ingenuity, and emotional storytelling.

Others have conceded the ad is slick but have also accused it of being soulless.

Amaysim’s pioneering approach points toward the future of advertising – lean teams, prompt-driven production, and emotional storytelling at scale.

Given the speed and cost reductions AI-generated ads deliver, we can expect brands and their agencies, in-house or otherwise, to increasingly use the AI tools now on offer to crank out campaigns.

For telcos, AI-driven ads are unlikely to be novelties for long. In the not-too-distant future, it may be the ‘artisanal’ ads featuring real humans that stand out from the pack.