FRAMING THE POTENCY OF AI
“Today, we find ourselves at the threshold of the fourth industrial revolution, where AI and ChatGPT technology are positioned as the driving forces.”
History tells us that industrial revolutions have a profound effect on business. Last year, I participated in the University of Oxford AI Programme and the Goldman Sachs 10KSB Programme at the Said Business School. After meeting inspirational leaders pivoting their operations, attending the excellent course syllables and lectures (particularly Dr Alex Connock’s,) I was convinced history would repeat itself. Amigo needed to quickly embrace AI to ensure we were a progressive and relevant creative agency that sat ahead of the curve of an industrial revolution poised to have a profound effect on business.
We are not a technology business, nor we ever will be. Amigo is a people-first integrated creative agency delivering brand, strategy, creative, digital and campaign solutions. We believe our people (along with our frameworks) set us apart from our competitors and make us who we are.
We don’t think that AI alone can deliver creativity that can emotionally connect brands with their audiences. This is the preserve of the human – the specialist who imbues curiosity, empathy, imagination, intuition, and an innate understanding of cultural nuance. AI is also inherently biased. * These observations are true, but our view is that AI offers huge possibilities to add value to the creative process.
This is how AI became the central driver of our business strategy.
OUR TRANSFORMATION
We have now integrated AI to supercharge our operating systems and service delivery processes. Our business strategy has two main drivers:
1. An ever-evolving daisy-chain of AI applications fused with data and insight tools. The combined impact being repositioning, competitive advantage and differentiation, resulting in speed, efficiency, quality and effectiveness enhancements we can pass on to our clients.
AND…
2. Developing our own proprietary SaaS technology to diversify our business – this is called AMI.GO™ which is an AI-driven marketing efficiency and creative effectiveness tool.
The problem we are addressing is the high levels of marketing investment wastage associated with poor client briefing (i.e. “26% of budgets are wasted on poor briefs and misdirected work” - source Marketing Week, Better Briefs and the IPA). The tool helps CMO’s and their teams level-up the quality of briefing and ensure briefs are on strategy and are effectively informing the creative/ideation phase and delivering significant speed, efficiency and effectiveness benefits as well as improving the overall quality of the creative output (performance/results/ROI).
OPPORTUNITIES & THREATS TO THE MARKETING AND CREATIVE SECTOR
“95% of what marketers use agencies, strategists and creative professionals for will be handled by AI at nearly no cost.” Sam Altman, CEO Open AI (March 2024)
While AI has been proven to be better than humans at image, speech and language recognition, and delivering productivity benefits in creative content production, humans still outshine in solving tasks, attention to detail and critical thinking. But if Altman’s prediction is correct, it won’t be long before AI surpasses humans in all aspects, which will hold major repercussions for the creative sector.
Below are some high-level examples of opportunities and threats to be considered. Of course, opinion will be divided depending on the marketing and creative services you specialise in.
|
Opportunities |
Threats |
| Speed and efficiencies | Less skilled low-cost entrants |
| Value-added to service delivery | Clients produce content themselves |
| Quicker and less costly concepting | Declined perception of creative value |
| Content scaling (production/versioning) | Further decline in creative quality |
| Predictive effectiveness & enhanced measurements | Erosion of strategic and creative craft |
| Media transparency | Bias in AI and fakery |
| Importance of strategic and cultural awareness | Questionable client judgement |
| Originality (as a differentiator to AI) | Procurement perception that AI will deliver cost reduction |
| Human judgement (whether data informed or abstract) | Question over IP/creative ownership |
| Improved decision-making | Talent drain for less senior roles |
| Internationalisation | Lack of regulation |
WHERE WE GO FROM HERE = Intelligent Progress™.
With AI evolving at an alarming rate, we knew there would be pitfalls alongside it. It was crucial that we created a framework that could allow AI to be used as a tool. To date, we’ve:
1. Evolved our operational structure and processes.2. Invested heavily in Learning & Development and AI R&D to upskill our talent and develop our own proprietary SaaS technology .
3. Integrated technology within the structure and systems of our business to enable the AI transformation.
4. Rebranded the agency and evolved our proposition.
5. Pivoted our previous evidence-based service delivery framework to be an “Augmented Creativity” model
6. On track with the development of the AMI.GO™ tool for launch as an MVP for a Beta “partner programme” in 2024.We have already seen faster and greater results for our clients. It’s allowed us to take on a “thought leader” positioning and we’re already gaining traction in the form of AI transformation briefs, there are clients coming to us because of our updated way of working and we have been hosting workshops for clients and organisational bodies to help them transition their operations integrating AI.
So how can we keep strengthening our position?
The answer is what it always was. Make sure our talent is the vital ingredient. This will never be an industrialised, factory-type creative production play. It’s about elevating and accelerating every step of the creative process to deliver deeper, smarter, stronger and faster creativity.
I am extremely grateful for what I’ve learnt through enrolling on the University of Oxford AI Programme and the Goldman Sachs 10KSB Programme as Amigo would not be where we are now or have clarity on where AI will deliver benefits and value to our business and clients.
The experience has informed and guided our transition, and I’d like to give a particular shout-out to Louisa Moger my Growth Expert who has been a source of inspiration, knowledge and support.
This is the start of the next chapter of Amigo. The team and I are all extremely excited about how we shape the future, operating within the sweet spot between human and artificial intelligence.
ABOUT US = Amigo Partnership.
Our AI journey has led to a pivot of the business and an evolution of our creative service delivery where we combine the best of creative talent (HI) with machine learning (AI) to deliver speed to market, competitor advantage and creative performance to outpace the competition.
We do this using our proprietary Augmented Creativity™ model which enables human and artificial intelligence to work together in carefully choreographed (creative) partnership to elevate and accelerate your path to Intelligent Progress™.
Intelligent = The carefully choreographed combination of human and artificial intelligence that elevates every step of our creative process. AKA Augmented Creativity™.
Progress = The deeper, smarter, stronger and faster commercial impact that we unlock and deliver for our clients.
Our solutions span Brand, Strategy, Creative and Implementation.
We are always excited to partner with people and clients who are looking to harness AI. If you want to see how AI could be used to supercharge your creative campaigns with efficiencies and effectiveness, we can help. Or if you’re looking for consultation on how to incorporate AI across your internal and creative operations, we help with that too. Get in touch.