The Super Bowl isn’t only known for being the American Football game of the year, but also for its notorious halftime show. Today, for many, it’s the highly anticipated adverts that generate a lot of excitement and conversation. While our recent Spend Index showed ad spend drop considerably, we’re still seeing brands build high-investment Super Bowl campaigns that are hardly ever exclusively about products. Instead, they are statements of intent that are designed to shape perception at scale.
But what stood out from this year’s advertisements compared to previous years was perhaps a little unexpected. We saw many AI companies shift their campaign focus from bold performance claims and innovation-led messaging towards making a concerted effort to position themselves as more relatable, human brands. The focus was no longer on the technology, product or service itself, but on creating resonance with audiences.
The shift from capability to credibility
For years, B2B tech marketing, especially by AI companies, has focused heavily on showcasing technological features. And that’s no surprise. The sector has come on leaps and bounds in just the past few years alone, and the impressive innovations companies were launching were worth shouting about. Think performance, capability, and speed – it was a tried-and-tested approach.
But watching the comparable ads this year, it was clear that something had changed. Very few of them were about features at all. Instead, there was a consistent move toward values, context, and positioning. Rather than trying to impress viewers with new innovations, companies focused on putting themselves in specific, recognisable spaces. For example, Google’s Gemini advert focused on family and everyday life, while Amazon positioned Alexa as a practical, intuitive household assistant.
The focus of these ads moved away from technical capability, towards identity, intent, and credibility. It seems this focus was a result of brands realising something important. Super Bowl advertising doesn’t just offer an opportunity to showcase creativity, which can be done anywhere; it offers a unique opportunity to set a clear tone and message. And this year, the message from AI companies was clear. Features might get attention, but highlighting values is what builds trust.
Why emotional resonance now outweighs feature lists
AI is powerful, widely used, and becoming harder to spot. It’s appearing in work, creativity, communication, and decision-making at an unprecedented pace. It’s natural to feel uneasy about that, and we’re increasingly seeing the shift from excitement to unease about these technologies as the wider population becomes more familiar with their risks. So, it’s no surprise that AI companies chose not to tap into that unease with more facts or technical details. Instead, they focused on tone, familiarity and reassurance.
This reflects a familiar tension in B2B tech marketing. As CMOs, we’re constantly balancing two pressures: the need to remain credible and serious to organisations that are buying and often investing lots of capital in complex products, with the need to forge a genuine human connection with the individuals within these organisations.
The most effective campaigns recognise that buying decisions are not driven by features alone; they are shaped by how technology fits into real environments. Emotional context, not technical specification, is what makes new technology trustworthy and safe.
Trust as the new competitive battleground
Present in all these campaigns was a clear and consistent thread, trust, as AI companies seemed to be answering the same unspoken question: “Can you trust us with this?” This question strikes at the heart of AI’s expanding influence. From work and creativity to communication and decision-making, AI is becoming increasingly embedded in everyday life and often faster than public comfort can keep pace.
In this landscape, demonstrating technological capability alone is no longer enough to persuade. What truly matters is cultivating confidence in those behind the technology. One of the most powerful ways to build that confidence is exactly what companies like Google and Amazon have done by demonstrating how these tools integrate seamlessly into real-world contexts.
Kicking off a new direction
This year’s Super Bowl campaigns signalled that differentiation in AI is now defined by credibility, values, and reassurance, rather than just performance. AI companies are going beyond showcasing what their product can do to focusing on how it’s perceived and fostering user trust.
For marketing leaders, this implies the conversation is shifting away from capability and toward character. In a market where technical advantage can be temporary, trust is becoming the most durable and meaningful competitive advantage.
Isabelle Duarté
Isabelle Duarté is CMO at Soldo, leading the organisation’s brand, demand and communications strategy across Europe. With over two decades of experience in global software marketing, Isabelle has held senior roles at Okta, VMware and Symantec.
