New research by WARC and LIONS Advisory, in partnership with TikTok, has explored how community intelligence is reshaping creative success in the age of AI, and why the future advantage belongs to brands that can learn, adapt, and create alongside culture as it unfolds.
AI-powered community
The brands creating the strongest creative outcomes are increasingly combining the power of AI with the power of community.
They’re using participation as intelligence, turning cultural signals into activation, and building creative systems that continuously learn from the audiences they serve.
This creates an “intelligence loop” that gives brands a compounding creative advantage.
Lexi Wolf, Head of Thought Leadership, LIONS Advisory, said: “WARC’s Marketer’s Toolkit 2026 found that belief in the effectiveness of demographic segmentation is waning.
“Yet this study with TikTok found that demographics were still the number one input marketers used to brief AI.
“Meanwhile, participatory media environments are giving us something far richer: real-time signals from people who search, comment, share, remix, create and buy.
“The opportunity isn’t to make the existing system faster. It’s to build a better one: one that helps brands learn from people more continuously, respond with greater speed and relevance, and turn efficiency into effectiveness over time.”
Andy Yang, Global Head of Creative & Brand Ads, TikTok, said: “The brands winning today are not the ones using AI to generate the most content.
“They are the ones learning the fastest from the people they serve. We call it cultural intelligence, and it is fast becoming advertisers’ most durable competitive advantage.
“Yet the research for this report shows that most brands are briefing powerful AI creative tools with weak inputs: static demographics and legacy assumptions, resulting in creative that scales efficiently but fails to connect.
“The future belongs to brands that close the loop by creating alongside culture, not behind it.”