In the latest installment of our AI series, Doug Dimon, SVP and Group Creative Director at DEFINITION 6, speaks on understanding and embracing these tools for a more efficient workflow.
Does your agency encourage or deter the use of AI in your work? If applicable, how does your team integrate these tools into the creative process?
We encourage our staff to use all the tools at their disposal. From kickstarting concepts to automating tedious tasks, AI saves us time and assists us in crafting solutions for our clients.
The things I can do with generative AI tools still amaze me, but they aren’t able to produce truly great work on their own. We use them to speed ideation and concept, such as having ChatGPT or Bing help generate a bunch of ideas, taglines, treatments, etc., and then we pick the parts that work and synthesize them with our own thoughts, knowledge, and experience. We also use some AI tools to help us finish work. The new tools in Photoshop Beta or the video tools from Runway allow tasks that would have taken hours to be completed in minutes. Additionally, AI is coming to our project management platforms and we are looking at how to leverage those to gain efficiencies in our process.
How does the accessibility of these tools affect the way it is used?
We haven’t actually purchased any tools at an agency level. Most of our staff use free or trial versions. It’s not easy to adopt new technology at an enterprise level, especially when we are still figuring out how to make the most of it. AI tools are being integrated into some products we license (Adobe comes to mind), so those are having wider adoption. As AI gets added to platforms that are already in our workflow, I expect adoption will become more widespread.
As AI advances, how is the role of the creative redefined? In what ways do you see the landscape of creation changing/shifting in response to AI?
When Photoshop and Illustrator came on the scene (yes, I’m that old), everyone said the graphic designers would go away. That obviously didn’t happen because no matter how sophisticated the tools are, I think you still need talented people to make great work. What did happen was that people who were purely draftsmen became largely obsolete because those tasks were now part of the digital toolset.
The tools made it easy for anyone to make mediocre work, and I think the same is true of AI. I said earlier that AI tools can do some amazing things, but amazing doesn’t necessarily translate to good creative. Advertising creative needs to be purposeful. It needs to be able to grab attention and drive behavior. I’m not saying ChatGPT can’t author a great commercial script; I’m just saying it won’t likely do so without collaborating with a human. Understanding and embracing these tools will become necessary as they get more widely available and adopted.
If AI furthers its capability to create and think, what is a responsible way to use these new technologies?
Without regulation, “responsible” is more of a concept than a business plan. If a CMO can drop a brief into AI and get everything they need without an agency partner, they will do that. I think the better way to approach these changes is to figure out how to integrate them into your workflow, so you are always adding value on top of what AI can do. Things are definitely going to shift, so start shifting with them now.