How it works
The workflow mirrors what you do with a production team, except the team is an AI agent.1. Write the brief
You describe what you want in plain language, the same way you’d brief a creative team. “Create a holiday promotion for our outdoor gear line. Earth tones, active lifestyle imagery. Headline should emphasize the limited-time offer.” The brief can include a message (what to say), brand identity assets (logos, colors, fonts), and constraints (tone of voice, topics to avoid). The more specific you are, the better the output.2. Review concepts
The AI generates options. You see previews — rough concepts for direction, or polished versions for stakeholder review. Browse them the way you’d review comps from a production studio. You control the quality level:- Draft mode gives you fast, rough concepts for exploration. Think tissue session.
- Production mode gives you polished, client-ready output. Think final comps.
3. Iterate
Give feedback in the language you’d use with any creative team. “Make the headline more urgent.” “Try a warmer color palette.” “Keep the layout but swap in the lifestyle photo instead of the product shot.” The AI revises and returns updated previews.4. Approve and traffic
Lock in the final creative. It gets synced to your campaigns — assigned to media buys, matched to placements, ready to serve.5. Monitor what actually ran
After launch, review what the AI served. Every variant, every context. Full audit trail. If the AI personalized headlines per audience, you can see each version and how it performed.Quality control
AI creative has two separate quality dimensions. Understanding both prevents surprises. Concept quality is about the creative itself. Draft mode produces fast, rough ideas — useful when you’re exploring directions and don’t need pixel-perfect output. Production mode produces finished work suitable for client review and launch. You choose which mode based on where you are in the process. Preview quality is about how you view the output. Quick thumbnails let you scan many options fast. Full-fidelity renders show exactly how the ad will look at final size and resolution. These are independent of concept quality — you can get a high-fidelity render of a draft concept, or a quick thumbnail of a production-ready piece. Think of it as the difference between a tissue session (rough concepts, fast iteration) and a final presentation (polished work, high-res mockups).Brand safety
Four layers keep your brand protected throughout the process. The brief itself. Your creative direction sets the boundaries. Specify tone, topics to include, topics to avoid, and any do’s and don’ts. The AI works within these constraints. Brand identity. Logos, color palettes, typography, and brand guidelines are provided as structured assets. The AI references them during generation, not just as suggestions but as requirements. Pre-launch review. Before anything goes live, preview what the AI will generate. Review concepts, test edge cases, and approve the system before it serves a single impression. Post-launch audit. After launch, see every variant that was actually served. Not a summary — the actual creative outputs, with context about when and where each ran.What to expect
AI-generated ads work differently from traditional production in a few important ways. Previews are representative, not exact. Because the AI can generate per-impression (adapting to context, audience, or placement), a pre-launch preview shows you what the AI will generate, not the one fixed ad it will serve. The preview is accurate to the brief and brand identity, but the live campaign may produce variations. Conversational formats need guardrail testing. If your ad includes an interactive chatbot or conversational element, test the boundaries. What happens when someone asks about a competitor? What if they ask an off-topic question? Pre-launch review should include these scenarios. You approve the system, not every individual ad. With traditional creative, you approve each finished ad. With AI creative, you approve the combination of brief, brand identity, and guardrails that the AI uses to generate ads. This is what makes personalization at scale possible — and why getting the brief and guardrails right matters more than reviewing every output.Protocol terms in agency language
| What you call it | What AdCP calls it |
|---|---|
| Creative brief | message or assets.brief in build_creative |
| Comp / mockup | Preview from preview_creative |
| Ad unit spec sheet | Creative manifest |
| Production studio | Creative agent |
| Placement size | Format (e.g., display_300x250) |
| Trafficking | sync_creatives or inline attachment on create_media_buy |
| Campaign report (variant-level) | get_creative_delivery |
Next steps
When you’re ready to go deeper:- See it in action — The Creative protocol overview follows a strategist from brief to delivery across CTV, display, and social
- Technical workflow — Generative creative walks through the API step by step
- Library management — Creative libraries and concepts covers organizing and syncing assets
- CTV and video — CTV and connected TV covers SSAI/CSAI delivery, companion ads, and VAST tags
- Multi-agent orchestration — Multi-agent creative orchestration covers distributing creatives across sellers
- Brand safety details — Sales agent creative capabilities explains guardrails and inline creative management
- Learning — The certification program teaches AdCP through interactive modules with Addie