AI was supposed to make creative minds obsolete and turn ad production into a commodity. But instead—as our survey of 380+ DTC marketers and 15 expert interviews revealed—there is a growing divide right now in creative strategy.

In this special Thumbstop Quarterly Pulse report, we uncovered a small group of super performers who are using AI to get real leverage and advance their careers, while everyone else dabbles and waits for clearer instructions.


All illustrations by Pete Ryan