Harnessing generative AI tools involves making swift, instinctual decisions—a multitude of them
As a creative director, I find that this process mirrors the core function of my role. Is this idea effective? Does it align with the brief? Does it resonate with the brand identity? Is it predictable or does it surprise? How can we elevate it further?
Personally, I leverage my experience to strengthen our work, and recently I've realised that this process mirrors what every creative engaging with generative AI tools is experiencing. You've been doing it with your own work, but now, you're also sifting through AI’s proposals, making swift, instinctual decisions based on your understanding of the brand and brief. In essence, everyone has become a creative director to some degree.
So, if you're not officially a Creative Director, congratulations on your impromptu promotion.
Let’s explore a few strategies to support you:
Understand the assignment. Unlike human colleagues, your AI team never tires, continuously offering suggestions and revisions. However, unlike humans, you can’t discuss the origins of their ideas or their thought process. This presents a challenge because when discussing work with humans, oftentimes, a great idea that was missed in execution can be uncovered. So, before assigning a task to your team, you must thoroughly comprehend what you seek. You need to have a clear concept prior to providing the briefing.
The upside is that you're likely already doing this. You receive a brief, conduct some research, and ideas start forming during the process. By rebriefing your AI tool on your thoughts for a visual or text solution, you’ll instinctively know when you've stumbled upon something effective, even if it’s unexpected.
In fact, amidst the multitude of choices that AI offers, your instincts become even more essential. AI is a powerful tool, but it's just that—a tool. It doesn't supplant the human touch, your gut feeling, your intuition.
How do you trust your instincts? It's an amalgamation of experience, understanding, and confidence. Experience is gleaned from practice, from making thousands of tiny decisions that mold your creative work. Understanding involves knowing the brand, the brief, the audience—having a comprehensive and nuanced grasp of what you're working with. Confidence? That's about trusting your decision-making ability, even when faced with an AI-generated plethora of options.
One approach to practice is to begin by assessing the AI-generated ideas and noting your immediate reactions. Which ideas resonate with you? Which ones don’t? Try to articulate why. This exercise can help you tune into your instincts and comprehend them better.
Also, don't shy away from making mistakes. Sometimes an idea that seems wrong can lead to something outstanding. Other times, an idea that seemed perfect falls flat. Both scenarios are valuable learning experiences. Over time, you'll gain a better sense of what works for you and what doesn't, honing your instincts, decision-making skills, and using the AI tools to supplement your style, not supplant it.
The fundamental principle to remember in this human-led AI partnership is this:
AI offers choices, but you make the decisions.
It's your understanding, your instincts, your creativity that transform these choices into captivating work. And your style should shine through, especially as you are the only one in this scenario with a unique style.
One key to thriving in this evolving landscape is adaptability. Our industry has always been fast-paced and dynamic, and the introduction of AI tools into the creative process only marks the latest shift. It's thrilling, challenging, and requires a willingness to embrace change.
Keep in mind, too, that AI is not a static tool. It's perpetually learning and evolving, and so should you. Stay open to new techniques, new ideas, and new ways of working. Keep learning, experimenting, and refining your approach. As you evolve alongside these AI tools, you'll discover your own unique method of leveraging them to direct the creation of impactful work.
As these tools join our teams, it will be interesting to see how creative roles evolve. Creating human connections between the brand, the work and the audience is something that can never be replaced by our robot friends. Socialising those ideas with real human creatives, and strengthening them with real human client insight is something that can’t be synthasized. But deciding where and when we involve our generative AI tools, and how we sort through the digital trash to find treasure is absolutely a skillset that all of us need to develop.