The news: Google is innovating its AI image generation capabilities for advertisers with the release of “Nano Banana Pro.” The tool enables advanced creative capabilities for ads, enhancing brands’ ability to generate and edit images using AI in Google Ads.

• Nano Banana Pro uses AI built on Gemini 3, after the latter was released Tuesday. The model is capable of creating complex and high-quality images in under 10 seconds.
• Google also introduced verification for AI generated images, which will now use Google’s SynthID digital watermark. Creators can upload pictures to Gemini to determine whether the image was AI generated—a feature Google plans on extending to audio and video.

The trend: Major platforms are going all in on ad automation using AI.

• Rival Meta is making aggressive strides toward CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s image of total AI campaign automation: The company has made its Advantage+ automated tools suite the default for advertisers, enabling advertisers to use AI for creative generation, audience targeting, performance measurement, and campaign iteration.
• Amazon is making similar strides with its agentic AI Creative Studio tool. Brands can now brainstorm, generate storyboards, and produce high-quality video and display ads in hours—all powered by AI. The company’s broad goal is to fully automate ad creation.

Marketer use cases: AI is now foundational in the ad industry, with marketers implementing the tool for ideation, production, personalization, optimization, and automation.

• 60% of marketers currently apply genAI tools for content creation, like creating scripts, voiceovers, and visual assets for video campaigns, per Teads.
• Advertisers are now turning to AI for help with dynamic creative (40%), campaign activation (41%), and creating media strategies (46%), according to DoubleVerify.

What it means for the industry: AI is set to deliver increasing value to advertisers as creative capabilities evolve and consumers generally grow more comfortable with its role in marketing. Google’s latest push is speeding up the AI shift as the tool fundamentally alters the industry by enabling large-scale, lower-cost campaign deployment.