One of the prevalent questions in our industry currently is whether the rise of AI will reduce the costs of creative design services for businesses and provide a better-quality end ‘product’?
Will you get ‘double-bubble’ for half the price?
On the face of it, it may seem like AI could automate parts of the design process, leading to lower costs and better quality. However, we’d argue that the value of using a truly creative agency lies way beyond just the mechanics of the design process itself. The art of great creative thinking and great ideas is something that AI simply can’t replicate.
The heart of any agency worth its salt is creating ideas that solve specific communication and business challenges. Therefore, the true value of a great idea is the commercial value it brings to a business, in terms of problems solved or opportunities realised. That might be obvious things like increased share price, revenue, market share or number of ‘bums-on-seats’. But it’s also about the less tangible value of building trust and instilling belief – the way customers, employees, partners, and the wider public feel about your business and your brand.
Does value = time?
With the notion of delivering true value in mind, it begs the age-old question – why do so many agencies continue to use time-based pricing for their services and not the business value that their ideas will deliver?
Perhaps it’s because that’s what the market expects or is used to. Perhaps time-based pricing is the root cause of why there’s a perception that AI will make creative design services cheaper. There’s an assumption it will make the whole process quicker – i.e. less time = less cost. And in addition, perhaps that’s why there’s also an assumption that AI will make design services ‘better’ because it provides access to an endless supply of information and ‘knowledge’, more than any human ever could. That must be ‘better’ too, right?
Does AI = ‘gloop’?
Imagine a world, though, where every business relied on AI for ideation and design services? We’d potentially be running the risk of swimming in an even bigger homogenised gloop of bland, indistinct, vanilla branding and communications. We’d be in danger of instilling even greater apathy and disengagement within our audiences – and that’s the last thing the B2B world in particular needs right now.
AI, no matter how advanced, is driven by the data it’s trained upon and the instructions it’s given. So, the more it’s used, the more information it trawls through, the more generalised and diluted it’s likely to become, spitting out variations of the same old ‘vanilla’ ideas. And now more than ever, brands NEED to be both distinctive, and to connect with their audience, they simply can’t afford to blend into the crowd.
Does human creativity = value?
When we’re talking about delivering true value, there are three critical ingredients that make the great agency ‘secret sauce’. Three things that AI struggles to provide:
- Creative lateral thinking
- The ability to create emotional connections
- A creative eye for what’s right.
A creative mind does things that defy logic. It takes a brief and turns it on its head. It interrogates the ‘logic’, but also looks for the ‘magic’ – the unexpected, the unpredictable, the coincidences that create connections between the challenge, the solution, and the audience. It does things that AI algorithms would never do – like suggesting a gorilla playing the drums to a Phill Collins track to sell Cadbury’s chocolate. A great idea is where the great value lies.
A human mind also brings intrinsic empathy and human intuition into play. We’re humans after all and we have emotions and feelings which, like it or not, instinctively trigger and fire up our senses and make us act. Humans are way better at that than AI – think about the power of the damaged ‘tree lungs’ in the WWF advert, or for those old enough to remember, when J.R. Hartley finally found his fly-fishing book thanks to Yellow Pages. Tapping into that, is also where the value is.
A creatively trained mind also knows what good looks like, what works and understands design principles. Great design looks effortless and easy. Most untrained minds don’t even see it or need to see it, because it just ‘looks right’. In addition, a creative mind has an eye for great typography, colour selection, layout, art direction, balance, style, etc. Those nuances that makes something unique and special, the subtleties of distinction and difference, definitely not AI’s forte, but that bring another dimension to creative value.
Does AI = a better creative industry?
There are big benefits that AI can bring to the creative design process – like making the impossible possible. The execution of an incredible idea that just wouldn’t be practical, feasible or affordable can now be created with the right direction using AI. Yes, there’s still an absolute human skill in prompting, refining, and knowing what looks right, but it’s amazing what can be achieved. AI is also fantastic at trawling for base content and doing the ‘legwork’ research or things like real-time analytics, meaning that human time can be better spent on the ‘valuable’ stuff.
Undoubtedly, how, where and when AI will be used is changing rapidly and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future, but it’s here to stay.
The real skill is judging when and how to use a human mind, or when and how to use an AI ‘mind’ to bring the creative ideas we have to life.
Does AI training = increased costs?
One of the fundamental aspects in the successful use of AI in our industry is having the skills to use it effectively. It’s about understanding the art of the possible, about honing the skills to use the right prompts and inputs, but also keeping up to date as to how those skills can continuously and effectively be applied in wholly new technologies – this in itself, not an inconsequential task.
But as with any emerging technology, the costs of keeping creatives and designers fully trained and up to speed takes time and is a continual process. The cost of doing this will therefore impact overhead costs and utilisation time, which will invariably impact on the creative design services pricing equation. But using more highly-skilled people that may come at a higher cost will also bring even greater value – even if does take less time to do the job.
Does the AI bottom line = value
AI is a great tool, without a doubt. But great creative design is about so much more than the technical processes and output. It’s about
- creating ideas that deliver impact;
- creating a human-centric approach that captivates your audience and compels them to act;
- creating value; not about how long something takes to do.
AI is nowhere near replicating these abilities – at least not any time soon. And while it may positively automate some aspects of our industry, it won’t be making creative design services any cheaper. True worth lies not in AI, but in the minds and experiences of our creative humans and their agencies who contribute game-changing ideas. Those, that when you think about it, could (and rightly should) command higher fees for the immense value they deliver.
Does AI = the future?
One of the key perceptions about AI and its impact on the creative industries, is that it will make the design process quicker, cheaper and (eventually) may omit the need for creative job functions altogether. As a creative agency, it’s prompted us to consider these potential risks, to join the debate, and to question our own processes, ways of thinking and working. After all, we should never become complacent, right?
We welcome AI’s perceived threat. It will help increase understanding of the power of creativity, its place in communication, and to cement its true value and importance. And it will help the creative industry push the boundaries to achieve greater engagement and understanding in our world, something that should be welcomed by creatives and clients alike.
We’ve explored the current position around AI, discussed it long and hard with smarter and more learned folk, and are confident of our thinking – today. But could this change over time? Possibly in years to come. Greater machine learning capability twinned with the processing power of quantum computing may mean that AI, and its impact on the creative industry, could be a very different proposition in the future. Until then we remain resolute that the power of human creativity is alive and well.