Indonesia's creative leaders see AI and participation reshaping creativity in 2027

AI is set to increasingly influence Indonesia’s creative landscape in 2027, but creative leaders expect its growing role to make human insight, cultural relevance and emotion even more valuable. As content becomes easier to produce and scale, brands will face greater pressure to create work that genuinely resonates.

The shift will also see brands rethink how they engage audiences, moving beyond simply producing more content towards creating ideas and experiences people actively want to participate in, share and make their own. Creators, communities and real-world experiences are expected to play a bigger role in extending brands beyond their own channels.

Meanwhile, the lines between media, entertainment, discovery and commerce will continue to blur. AI assistants, creator-led commerce, streaming, connected TV and shoppable content could reshape how consumers discover and interact with brands, while physical experiences offer opportunities for more tangible connections.

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As technology becomes more embedded in the creative process, the challenge for brands will be to use it to amplify strong ideas rather than simply produce more. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE spoke with creative leaders across Indonesia to find out what they see as the key priorities for the year ahead.

Andrian Wiranata, founder and CEO of Bukacerita

AI will stop being a differentiator and become infrastructure. From what I saw across the region, the most memorable work wasn’t necessarily the most technologically advanced, but the work rooted in human insight, culture and purpose. As content becomes abundant, creating something genuinely organic and meaningful will matter more. Human in, human out.

For brands, move from creating content for audiences to creating things audiences want to participate in. Our Sumatera work for TikTok Shop showed how a commercial message can become more powerful when it naturally belongs to culture.

Investment will move toward platforms where culture, content and commerce meet. As AI makes production easier, the premium will shift toward strategy, ideas, cultural insight and impact.

AI, creators and commerce media will grow, but technology should remain an enabler, not the story. The question is: what can technology unlock that people genuinely care about?

Nikken Diahtantri, managing director of Flock, Future Creative Network

The biggest shift in 2027 will be the abundance of AI-generated content and the growing value of what AI cannot create: human meaning. AI will become our thinking and production partner, helping us find insights, challenge ideas, and produce and adapt content faster across platforms.

But when everyone can create more, creating more is no longer the advantage. Audiences are becoming smarter and more selective, they can feel when something lacks emotion, relevance and authenticity.

This will also reshape budgets. Creative and advertising budgets will shift from volume to value. AI will make production and distribution more scalable and cost-efficient, allowing brands to produce more with less. This creates room to invest in fewer, stronger creative ideas and more meaningful brand experiences, rather than simply increasing content volume.

AI should be the engine behind our thinking, not the personality of the brand. The strongest brands will use technology to scale creativity, while keeping the human touch at their core.

Partha Kabi, managing director of Adlink Sinemedia, Link Group

Brands must stop making disruptive ads and start creating destination content that consumers actively choose to watch.

Extreme levels of performance marketing on digital are leading to performance fatigue, and excessive digital clutter is driving declining ad recall.

Consumers do not remember ads. They remember stories, characters and emotions. In 2027, creative strategy must pivot from interruption to integration, fusing AI with authentic cultural storytelling. Brands will use AI to spin one campaign into thousands of variations, and co-create with local creators rather than forcing rigid corporate scripts.

TV is not dead. It has simply evolved across multiple screens. Advertising budgets will not shrink. They will redistribute to support the cross-screen journey of long-format storytelling: connected TV, premium DOOH and high-quality long-form production will grow, while static banners, generic pre-rolls and siloed channel planning will plummet. Cross-screen sequencing and shoppable video will turn passive viewing into active engagement.

Yusdina Fibriyanti, managing director of Innocean Indonesia

The biggest shift in 2027 will be from a scarcity of high-quality production to a scarcity of meaningful content. The real creative advantage will no longer be the ability to produce more, but the ability to make people feel more.

AI should be used intelligently to accelerate research, identify patterns, spark ideas, personalise content and optimise delivery - but not to replace human judgment or creative authorship.

It takes people with a deep understanding of consumers’ cultures, emotions and lived experiences to determine why something matters and how a brand should respond.

Creatively, this means beginning with a genuine human or cultural insight and developing one distinctive idea that can be adapted naturally across AI-led discovery, social platforms, creators, commerce and real-world experiences. AI should scale the idea, not the noise.

In parallel, the future of media will be journey-led, not channel-led. In 2027, success will be less about where brands place advertisements and more about how seamlessly they enter people’s discovery, entertainment and purchasing journeys. The strongest traction is likely to come not from one new platform, but from formats that connect different stages of that journey.

AI assistants and agentic search will increasingly influence discovery and consideration, while creator-led shoppable video and commerce media will bring inspiration and purchase closer together. Streaming, connected television and short-form serialised content will provide new ways for brands to participate in entertainment.

At the same time, connected out-of-home media and physical experiences will become more valuable as brands seek to create tangible and memorable interactions in an increasingly synthetic digital environment. The more automated the digital world becomes, the more valuable genuine human experiences will be.

Yuwi Anjaya, managing director of Scarlet, Redcomm Group

In 2027, I expect social media will play an even more crucial role in digital advertising as the battle for audience attention and engagement intensifies. Brands will need a stronger content presence, with more opportunities to capture interest and spark participation. Brand-owned content and paid influencers alone may struggle to sustain that presence, making organic audience participation increasingly valuable.

This is where unique, memorable experiences will become a creative advantage. Brands need to create moments people actively seek out, enjoy and want to share. This experience can provide the inspiration and personal motivation for audiences to create their own content, extending a brand’s presence through diverse voices and perspectives.

The opportunity is to design physical experiences with digital participation in mind from the outset. A compelling on-ground interaction can generate stories that travel beyond the event, strengthening awareness, consideration and potentially purchase intent.

I expect greater investment in experiences that inspire user-generated content, while standalone activations and repetitive brand content with limited engagement will face closer scrutiny.

Alongside this, AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini could become more influential in brand discovery, particularly for complex purchase decisions. This makes generative engine optimisation an increasingly important consideration. Brands will need credible, accessible information and independent validation to improve their chances of appearing in relevant answers.

Ultimately, brands will need to give people reasons to share and make themselves discoverable when interest turns into consideration.

Discover what's next in Indonesia's fast-moving digital landscape at DMA Indonesia 2026 on 13 October in Jakarta, where marketing leaders will explore how AI, creator ecosystems, social commerce, and omnichannel strategies are reshaping customer engagement and business growth.

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