The 2026 Super Bowl showcased a bold new era in advertising, with brands leveraging AI not just in their products but in the very creation of their commercials. From vodka bots to AI-powered glasses and satirical takes on digital assistants, the ads blended humor, spectacle, and tech-forward messaging to capture attention during the most-watched television event of the year. Svedka vodka made headlines with what it claims is the first primarily AI-generated national Super Bowl ad, titled “Shake Your Bots Off.” The 30-second spot features the brand’s robotic mascot, Fembot, and her new companion, Brobot, dancing at a human party. Developed in collaboration with AI firm Silverside, the ad took about four months to produce, with AI trained to replicate facial expressions and movements. While the visuals were largely AI-driven, human creatives still shaped the storyline. The effort sparked debate over AI’s role in creative work, but undeniably generated buzz. Anthropic took a different approach, using its ad to critique OpenAI’s decision to introduce ads into ChatGPT. With the tagline “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude,” the commercial mocked the idea of an AI assistant promoting products like “Step Boost Maxx” insoles. The jab ignited a public exchange, with OpenAI’s Sam Altman calling the ad “clearly dishonest” on social media—turning the Big Game into a high-stakes AI rivalry. Meta highlighted its Oakley-branded AI glasses, designed for extreme sports and adventure. The ad featured thrill-seekers like skydivers and mountain bikers using the glasses to record high-octane moments, including slow-motion basketball dunks and hands-free Instagram posts. Stars such as IShowSpeed and filmmaker Spike Lee appeared, reinforcing the tech’s real-world applications. This follows Meta’s previous Super Bowl push for its Ray-Ban Meta glasses. Amazon leaned into dark comedy with a Chris Hemsworth-led spot titled “AI is out to get me.” The ad exaggerates fears of AI gone rogue, showing Hemsworth being thwarted by Alexa+—from a garage door closing on his head to a pool cover sealing mid-swim. Amid the absurdity, the ad introduced Alexa+, the upgraded AI assistant now available to all U.S. users, showcasing its advanced capabilities in managing homes and planning trips. Ring focused on emotional storytelling with its “Search Party” feature, an AI-powered tool that helps reunite lost pets with owners. The ad follows a young girl searching for her dog Milo, using the app to analyze photos and tap into nearby Ring cameras and user networks. The feature is now open to all, regardless of whether users own Ring devices, and has already helped reunite over one lost dog per day. Google unveiled its new image-generation model, the Nano Banana Pro, in a heartfelt ad about a mother and son designing their dream home. Using simple prompts and photos of empty rooms, they transformed their space with AI, highlighting the tool’s creative potential. Ramp featured Brian Baumgartner, best known as Kevin from “The Office,” in a humorous spot where he uses the company’s AI platform to “multiply” himself and conquer a mountain of work. The ad playfully references his iconic chili-spilling scene, blending nostalgia with modern automation. Rippling made its Super Bowl debut with comedian Tim Robinson in a surreal ad about onboarding an alien monster, poking fun at the chaos of HR processes and the promise of AI to streamline them. Hims & Hers addressed healthcare inequality with a sharp ad that referenced high-profile longevity efforts like Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight and Bryan Johnson’s anti-aging regimens. The brand promoted its AI-powered MedMatch tool, which delivers personalized mental health and wellness recommendations. Wix showcased its new AI platform, Wix Harmony, which lets users build websites through natural conversation and visual editing. Its competitor, Squarespace, also had a Super Bowl ad, starring Emma Stone and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, taking a more cinematic approach to its own AI tools. Together, these ads signal that AI is no longer just a product feature—it’s now a central character in the story of modern marketing.