• by Colin Kirkland , February 24, 2025

Shortly after Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI debuted an update to Grok-3 and launched DeepSearch, the billionaire entrepreneur's social platform X announced two end-to-end Grok-powered ad-creation features.

The first element, “Prefill with Grok,” is designed to generate promotions for brands based on a URL.

Similar to automated ad tools launched by Google and Meta, X's Grok-powered launches allow advertisers to manually edit the automated copy or swap out the chosen image to best fit their vision.

X also announced “Analyze Campaign with Grok,” which it says provides an “AI-driven breakdown of how your ads are performing,” in order to help brands refine their targeting around X's user base, while adjusting their creative and maximizing their impact more efficiently.

These new automated advertising tools are also informed by X's recent integration with Shopify, which, among other things, aids brands in uploading their product catalogs onto the platform. The social media company is deeming this “a new era of efficiency and intelligence in advertising on X” aimed at small businesses looking to scale or major brands aiming to optimize their creative on the platform.

X's new ad features, which are rolling out to advertisers in phases across the coming months, come at a time when the company is taking extreme measures to boost its ad revenue.

Despite Musk once telling advertisers to “Go f***” themselves, the company is reportedly threatening brands with lawsuits -- as well as Musk's newfound power in the U.S. federal government under President Donald Trump -- if they do not resume spending on X.

With some major brands like Apple, Amazon, Unilever and Kraft returning to the platform after being driven away by pro-Nazi content appearing alongside their ads, the threats appear to be working in bringing brands back.

If Grok-powered ad features are as effective as X says they are, returning brands may have even more reason to boost ad spend on the platform