AI: Creative Colleague or Creative Killer?

In the dynamic landscape of the creative industry, AI emerges as a catalyst for change, reshaping traditional frameworks and pushing boundaries. Its mark is undeniable, breathing life into conventional forms of content creation, automating repetitive tasks, optimising workflows, and enabling users to generate creative content in seconds.

Yet, beneath the surface of innovation lies questions about ethical and societal considerations. As AI continues to evolve, questions arise about how it might affect the core of creativity and artistic expression.?

To gain a greater perspective, we've asked our department heads to weigh in on whether AI acts as a catalyst for collaboration, ushering in a new era as a creative colleague, or if it poses a threat by limiting the imagination as a creative killer.

Sharan Sunner, Managing Director

The communications industry is ever-evolving. We've seen and heard it all, from the stories of posting hard copies of press releases to media to the launch of social media and witnessing its growth through to the launch of AI. We are constantly told that if we do not keep up, our industry will become obsolete. In the case of AI, many people have been struggling to navigate best practices in the workplace. The main area I see potential is in research - you can save yourself hours of time researching different websites to gather information and data and use one site to pull it all together in one place. However, even this comes with its flaws and still needs double checking.

When it comes to the heart of our industry, two of the most important skills for success are interpersonal skills and creativity. These are human skills that AI, in its current form, cannot compete with. Your ability to form connections with other humans and understand human behaviour is the root of creating impactful campaign work, and your creativity stems from understanding the nuances of your target audiences and knowing what will make them tick.

Sara Raffaghello, Creative Managing Director

Embracing AI as a tool for design and creative strategy doesn't undermine human creativity; instead, it amplifies it by enabling us to focus on higher-level thinking and innovation. AI often presents novel solutions and perspectives, which is really helpful when you don't have time for a full team brainstorm.? We use it to generate imagery when stock options are insufficient and to help craft compelling narratives to sell ideas and bring our stories to life for clients. This can often be a challenge for right-brain thinkers. Let's embrace an age where being good at spelling and grammar doesn't mean you are brighter or better - AI levels the playing field, and how you use it is the clever part.

Nick Cooper, Head of Content

As with every new game-changing technology, it’s a double-edged sword with long-term implications that are not yet apparent, and, of course, it’s a complex subject that can’t really be fully explored in a short social media post.

However, there are key points that are worth mentioning. For example, the AI industry seems to be operating in ambiguous territory that is not fully covered by existing legal frameworks. When people use AI for “creative inspiration”, are they using other people’s intellectual property for their own commercial advantage? Because of the way generative AI large language models work – scraping the internet for pre-existing content and then reproducing and repackaging it – legal cases have been brought by media owners and authors against major AI software companies alleging copyright infringement of the content being used to train their models.

Apart from the legal and ethical considerations, from a professional perspective, the more you rely on AI-based “creativity”, the more you blunt your own skillset. As someone who appreciates the nuance and vagaries of the English language, I know that the copy produced by current AI models lacks that human element that makes really well-crafted copy stand out. I would suggest the industry needs to carefully examine all the potential benefits and challenges before fully embracing a technology with a lot of unknown consequences.

Amina Chowdhury, Production Managing Director

AI technology is exciting! It's reshaping the way films are edited and, in a broad sense, how stories are told. Traditional video editing is a labour-intensive process that needs hours of manual work. The new AI tools becoming available to us mean these mundane and repetitive tasks allow editors to focus more on the creative aspects of filming. AI empowers creatives, and I’m excited to see even more innovative changes. AI is unlocking new creative potentials and redefining the art of filmmaking.

With these insights, we see that as AI continues to evolve, it is important to navigate the challenges posed by AI while harnessing its potential to drive innovation and creativity in the creative sector.