By Kimeko McCoy  •  January 19, 2026  •

Ivy Liu

This year’s Prediction Pit will feature personalized sports and live game predictions as well as guacamole recipes, helmed by actor Rob Riggle as a realistic AI avatar. The Prediction Pit is built on a predictive AI system in which results can change throughout the week or day, depending on variables like player injuries or weather.

Navigating AI ethics

It’s a step up from last year’s stunt with football star Rob Gronkowski, which was static, based on a video with personalized, fixed words and a pre-planned script, said Alvaro Luque, president and CEO of Avocados From Mexico. This is the brand’s third year using AI-generated stunts instead of a linear TV Super Bowl ad. Back in 2024, Avocados From Mexico unveiled GuacAImole, its AI-powered guacamole recipe generator. The 2025 “Guacline” featured a digitized Gronkowski and served as the precursor to this year’s expanded AI activation.

This year’s stunt is just as much about winning on the so-called second screen during the Super Bowl as it is navigating today’s contentious AI landscape.

Even as AI becomes a mainstay in the creative process, creative challenges and legal risks still loom. Marketers cite things like hallucinations and uncanny valley vibes, especially when it comes to human-like creative. Avocados From Mexico isn’t shrinking from acknowledging that responsibility.

“We need to be very careful with that [AI safeguards], because we know it’s dynamic and we know it changes from one moment to the other,” Luque said, referring to this year’s Super Bowl related campaign and the need to establish guardrails, preventing the AI tool from generating content outside of pre-approved football stats as well as protecting the celebrity’s likeness.

Guardrails on AI

Leveraging AI for the real-time Super Bowl stunt meant the brand and Riggle needed to pre approve “every possibility of those predictions because it’s [Riggle’s] voice and his face,” Luque said.

For example, when prompted to predict if the Chicago Bears will win a game, Riggle’s avatar said, “Ah, yes, I can see the winner in the texture of this guac… Los Angeles wins by seven. And if you’re going for Chicago, that calls for Italian guacamole recipe.”

The avocado brand also set up guardrails to prevent users from generating anything brand damaging or out of character, Luque added, by offering a pre-selected list of options on the Guac Guru microsite. “It’s going to be only around football stats. So there’s no way for anyone to just go in and try to hack the system,” he said.

Generative AI’s current plight is less about usage and more about consumer trust. In the U.S., 38% of adults who are online have used generative AI, including 60% who use it weekly, according to Forrester. At the same time, only 24% of U.S. adults feel knowledgeable of AI toolsets, per the report.

Brands’ bet on AI

If brands are going to use AI, it better be well thought out and executed, said Spencer LaVallee, co-founder and creative director at Gus, a creative agency. “In some cases, it requires the idea to be that good, to almost overcome the walls [people] put up when you see something that was maybe with AI,” he said.

And that’s the bet Avocados From Mexico is making after proven success for the past three years, opting to leverage an AI-powered recipe generator and celebrity-led “digital twin” experience instead of a traditional TV broadcast investment.

The Super Bowl activations have led to increased time spent on the brand site and views, per Avocados From Mexico. From its 2024 activation to last year’s adaptation, time spent on the site increased by more than 30% year-over-ear, according to a brand spokesperson, who did not provide exact figures. Overall, web views rose 12% year over year.

“These AI tools are just letting us present those guacamole options in different ways to consumers to get a bump in volume,” said Luque. “That is primarily what we want.”