AI-powered in-house marketing teams gain ground as companies seek speed and cost efficiencies

With the advent of generative AI, the advertising and marketing industry is witnessing a structural shift as companies across sectors rapidly build in-house creative agencies to take greater control of brand strategy, content production, and campaign execution, thereby reducing their dependence on traditional advertising agencies.From new-age consumer businesses to Global Capability Centres (GCCs), companies are increasingly leveraging GenAI tools to handle creative development, social media, performance marketing, and customer engagement internally.Industry executives said that AI is enabling faster campaign execution, lowering costs, and allowing the marketing team to focus more on strategy than production. Companies such as Flipkart, Swiggy, and PhonePe are already deploying AI to improve customer engagement and marketing efficiency.Beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa has recently mentioned that it manages much of its creative, design, and advertising operations through robust in-house marketing and creative teams. FMCG major Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) has also been strengthening its in-house creative arm, Lightbox Creative Lab, which now handles global brand campaigns that were previously managed by external agencies. The company also reduced its advertising and promotional expenses by 4% to Rs 1,172 crore in FY26 compared to Rs 1,222.6 crore in FY25.Notably, global companies, including Apple, Dell Technologies, and Kraft Heinz, among others, have also expanded their in-house creative teams as they seek greater agility in delivering marketing messages, while improving customer engagement and reducing turnaround time.A Reuters report had mentioned that Huggies' parent company, Kimberly-Clark, is using AI tools across marketing functions - from generating product images and videos to selecting influencers and optimizing campaigns. The consumer goods company's cut content creation time has reduced from nearly a month to two ​hours using an India-built AI platform.Balaji Telefilms has also shifted a significant portion of its marketing functions in-house. Nitin Burman, Chief Revenue Officer at the company, told Stoeyboard18 that brand strategy, digital marketing, social media, content creation, communications, creative development, performance marketing and AI-led initiatives are now largely managed internally. "Bringing these functions together under one roof allows us to move with speed, maintain consistency across our brands, and make decisions backed by data instead of long feedback cycles," Burman said, adding that the external agencies are now engaged primarily for specialized expertise or when additional scale is required."By 2030, we will have more AI-enabled marketing teams where routine activities such as reporting, campaign optimization, content adaptation, and media analysis are increasingly automated," said Mihir Mehta, Managing Partner at 0101.Today.'AI compresses campaign timelines'Industry experts said that AI is dramatically reducing campaign turnaround times, with projects that once took weeks now being completed within days or even hours.Sanjil Zaveri, General Manager at Brandtech+, said AI can generate creative options and recommendations but cannot independently define brand positioning or emotional consumer connections."The most successful organizations will be those that use AI to remove operational friction while empowering people to focus on higher-value strategic and creative work," he said.Burman said Balaji Telefilms' dedicated AI team works closely with creative and production teams from the early stages of projects, ensuring technology complements the creative vision. The company has already deployed AI in projects such as Naagin, where AI is helping enhance visual elements that traditionally relied heavily on CGI and VFX workflows.Mehta said marketing teams are increasingly using tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Adobe Firefly, Runway, and Canva AI to generate copy, create visuals, edit videos, analyse audiences, and optimize campaigns.Digital-first brands such as Nykaa and Lenskart are using AI to rapidly create and test creative assets across multiple channels, allowing them to experiment more frequently while improving efficiency. "The biggest value of AI is that it gives creative teams more time to focus on ideas rather than production," Mehta said.'Agencies' role evolving'Despite the rapid adoption of in-house capabilities, experts pointed out that they do not expect traditional agencies to become obsolete.Instead, they foresee hybrid marketing ecosystems in which brands retain ownership of strategic assets, first-party data, technology platforms, and AI capabilities, while agencies increasingly focus on specialized consulting, innovation, and technology implementation."Over the next five years, brands will take greater ownership of their data, technology platforms, content operations, and AI ecosystems. Agencies will play a critical role in helping organisations design operating models, implement emerging technologies, develop future-ready talent and unlock new growth opportunities," Zaveri said.He added that future of marketing would be defined by partnerships in which brands own strategy, agencies provide specialist expertise, and AI acts as the connective layer enabling greater speed, scale and efficiency.