Mike Gerber

Most people who know me would say I’m a tech guy. 18 years ago, I started my own digital marketing firm, and then I became the digital director of The Brand Innovation Group, and now I’m the director of IT and innovation here. So, yeah, I like technical stuff. And when something new hits the market, I like to see what it’s all about. If it goes mainstream, then I really get interested to see if it’s really worth all the hype.

Nothing in recent memory has lived up to that definition more than artificial intelligence. Although it’s been making advancements for years, the release of OpenAI’s products, DALL-E and ChatGPT, was kind of a turning point in A.I.’s evolution. Users were astounded by the programs’ abilities to create artwork and compose text with just some simple prompts. Suddenly, anyone could be a Picasso or a Dickens.

So that begs the question, do we still really need Picasso or Dickens in this modern, machine-learning world?

That becomes an even more important debate when you think about marketing agencies. After all, clients hire us for our creative abilities—including design and writing—to further their brands. But if Joe CEO can go online and say the company’s name, what it does, what colors he likes and what his favorite animal is, then maybe DALL-E can give him a logo. Or if a marketing director can input a few sentences about her organization and have ChatGPT formulate all the copy for her next ad campaign, then why not? Are the roles of art directors and copywriters obsolete? Or will they be soon? Or should they be?

Because I’m a tech guy you may think I will take the extreme position that generative A.I. is the future of design and content and the humans that are involved in them now will not be necessary in a few years or a decade. Or, because of where I work, you might think that I want to preserve the company’s relevancy at all costs and feel that A.I. has no place at BIG. Neither is accurate. I’m here to say artificial intelligence belongs in marketing agencies. It just has to be used correctly.

What A.I. Isn’t

Artificial intelligence should not be an agency’s copywriter or designer. Despite the remarkable progress generative A.I. has made over the past few years, it’s not ready for that. And in some ways, it never will be. 

What users need to remember is that A.I. is just a tool. It equips people with a certain skill set with a little more power. If you gave me a rotary tool and a piece of stone, I would probably come out of my garage a few minutes later with a lot of dust and a few jagged, marble fragments. But if Michelangelo could carve David with a hammer and chisel, imagine what he could do with a modern rotary tool. Since he already knew the principles behind sculpture—proportion, scale, balance, etc.—that would just elevate his art to another level.

It’s similar with artificial intelligence. To be beneficial in design and writing, there needs to be a (human) mind behind it that knows how to use it. And I don’t mean just the technical nature of programs like DALL-E and ChatGPT. I’m talking about having a deep familiarity with the client and understanding the purpose of the project and the strategy so that it can advance the brand.

What A.I. Is (Or Can Be)

So if A.I. shouldn’t replace the creatives in an agency, then what is it good for? A ton. I like to think of artificial intelligence as a launch pad. It can really catapult your thinking in different ways you’ve never even dreamed of. Here are some examples of how an agency can effectively use generative A.I. right now:

• Brainstorming.
• Figuring out your thoughts.
• Discovering what your competitors are doing.
• Learning more about your industry or market.
• As a cure for writer’s/designer’s block.

Take the last example—a cure for writer’s/designer’s block. Every creative gets this from time to time. But there are occasions when it can be really difficult to break out of it. One of the best things you can do in that situation is to have someone give you ideas. But if others are busy, then you can turn to machine learning to give you its adapted version of what you’re working on. And the best part is, even if it’s awful, the cycle will probably still be broken—because writer’s/designer’s block is mostly about self-doubt. If DALL-E gives you a miserable, clip-art-looking logo, then your confidence will no doubt be boosted and you can continue on.

The second point, figuring out your thoughts, is good not only for agency creatives but also for clients. Many times, we talk to CEOs and presidents of organizations and they don’t have a clear idea of their vision, or at least they have difficulty conveying it. While that’s not a huge problem (they are coming to us to help them with that, after all), it can be very constructive for clients like this to play around with something like ChatGPT. That helps us to understand what they’re thinking, even if they’re not wordsmiths themselves.

A.I.’s Agency Role

So does A.I. belong in an ad agency? Yes. But not as principal roles. Instead, it should be adopted by copywriters and art directors as a tool in the professional skill set they already have. Over time, how it’s used by creatives may change as the tool itself adapts, just as designers have evolved with the progression of computers and software. But an agency should always maintain its humanity. After all, BIG’s tagline is “Love God. Love People. Love Branding.” No artificial intelligence model is capable of doing any of those things—and none ever will be.