How do you see the role of AI evolving in the branding and creative industry? Are we heading towards augmentation or automation?
Both! Automation is an inevitable part of human progress. Throughout history, we’ve automated physical labor to make life easier and more productive (if it needs to be more productive or not, it is a different conversation 😉
The fact is that recently, we’re moving into automating cognitive tasks, which opens entirely new possibilities.
This shift doesn’t just replace human work, it augments our capabilities in ways we’ve never experienced before. In the creative industry, this impact is massive. It has never been so easy for people to tell stories, design visuals, or communicate ideas. AI tools democratize creativity while also raising important questions about quality, ethics, and authenticity.
For companies and creative agencies, this transition offers remarkable opportunities to speak to their customers on a highly personal level that was never possible before. It means creating tailored, relevant, and engaging experiences at scale, while freeing up human creatives to focus on strategy, storytelling, and brand building.
Can you share an example of how AI or emerging tech has helped unlock creativity or efficiency in one of our projects?
Rather than talking about a project, I’d like to mention how emerging tech, including AI has helped us to think differently. Take InDesign, for example. We still use it a lot for brand design work, and some of those projects can get pretty complex. Adobe lets you run scripts to automate things like generating a calendar with all the dates for the next two years. Before, you’d need to know how to code to do that. Now, with tools like ChatGPT or Gemini, you can just explain what you want, and it’ll spit out a working ExtendScript which is a JavaScript-based script for you.
Automation that saves tons of time and lets designers focus on the fun stuff. Creativity and efficiency checked at the same time.
Take image searches, for example. Stock libraries can be frustrating, especially when you’re stuck using clunky keywords. Instead, we can quickly generate an AI image not perfect fingers or arms required 😉 with the exact mood or composition we’re aiming for. That becomes our reference point to track down better stock images. It’s a clever shortcut.
We also use AI for all kinds of things: generating avatars for online classes, creating campaign videos, producing final images for key visuals, organizing files, you name it. But really, it’s all about finding those small, smart ways to make our work smoother and free up more time for creativity. And to top it off, our team of developers builds all kinds of fun tools to support that process.
What should branding agencies be doing today to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to integrating AI meaningfully – not just as a trend?
First off, don’t be afraid to dive in and experiment.
AI isn’t just another shiny object, it’s fundamentally changing how we work. Agencies that start experimenting with it in smart, intentional ways today will have a major edge tomorrow. The best part? R&D has never been more accessible. You no longer need to be a hardcore programmer to build a smart assistant or creatively connect tools.
There’s a growing number of user-friendly AI platforms that empower creative teams to quickly prototype ideas and see what sticks. Agencies should be rolling up their sleeves, testing tools, running small pilots, and building real confidence in how to apply AI to solve practical, everyday problems.
At the end of the day, AI isn’t here to replace anyone, it’s here to elevate the work. The agencies that will truly stand out are those that know how to blend human creativity with AI’s speed and scale. That means freeing up the sharpest minds to focus on big ideas, strategy, and storytelling, while the tech takes care of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.