Word of 2025: the brand prompter.

Someone recently asked me, not from our industry, “When will AI take over your job?” I told him that I couldn’t give an exact date, but the creative field is definitely being turned upside down. However, I doubt that AI will take over the role of the brand strategist. But you never know.

The imagination of AI

At Fitzroy, we embrace AI. An idea that we used to have to piece together in Photoshop can now be quickly visualized with AI. Personally, I don’t think the quality is very high yet, and many visuals look alike, but we no longer need a sketch artist, and within two years, the quality will be so high that some clients might say, “Nothing more to be done, just put it online.” Maybe that’s a blessing, because then we as creative agencies can charge more for a good idea instead of giving it away in the hope of earning something during production.

Getting a great image from AI requires the right disciplines. People with amazing skills who know how to pull amazing images from AI with amazing prompts. But they also need to have amazing nerves of steel. It doesn’t happen automatically. We found this out when working on a new campaign for Heinz. A top team with the right photographer, producer, and prompter had to produce three amazing images in five days. You need to be stress-resistant. Not just the creative team, but definitely the client as well. And this is often overlooked.

AI as one big soup

What’s not overlooked is that many people don’t like commercials on TV. They don’t find them engaging or relevant. Most people don’t know that the majority of these commercials are made for less than 50,000 euros. There is little room for creativity, and the production value is often too low because the client wants to convey a lot, but it’s not possible within that budget. These commercials will certainly be made with AI in the future. And yes, these commercials will also look very much alike. It will become one big soup. Because those who will make them all have the same background, the same interests, and the same prompts. It won’t get any better in the commercial break or the pre-roll. And this will also affect the effectiveness of all commercials. The Dutch will like it even less.

Is AI intrinsically interested?

And then there’s brand thinking. Can AI do that? Can you develop a brand based on the client's inputs in such a way that it becomes unique? Because you want your brand to stand out in the market. A brand considers the external world but also what is possible internally. Outside-in and inside-out must come together to create a brand that can be relevant to your target audiences. It’s a puzzle that needs to be solved by a brand strategist. A strategist with a lot of interests. And then the question is whether AI has that much interest. Of course, it is fed information, but that’s reactive. AI has no interest in what the world of HAK or ING looks like. It will never proactively seek insights within the target groups. And that’s what brand thinking is about… showing more interest in the world around the brand. Going deeper than just a few brand values. Trying to formulate the brand in such a way that it is unique and thus can attract more followers.

But of course, you never know. The computer becomes smarter than humans. It can make a decision in a second based on the past. It can develop an image for which we used to have to take a crew to the Sahara. But a brand is lively, always in motion. A computer might eventually keep up with all this. It might even develop natural interest... but until then, I’ll just keep doing the brand thinking for our clients myself.