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Generative AI is a fact of life at agencies and creative studios moving forward—that part is in the books. What’s missing are the actionable strategies for creatives and producers, from entry-level to vets, that ensure we’re all equipped to embrace AI as it becomes embedded in creative and business operations.
Over the past year, we’ve had more and more clients asking about how we’re using AI in our work and what our perspective is. People are in an information-gathering phase with AI, so creatives have space to consult and recommend, much like we’ve always done. So here are a few actionable strategies for future-proofing yourself for the new era—wherever you are in your creative career.
Become a prompting expert for specific AI platforms
The effectiveness of any AI tool hinges on the quality of the prompts it receives. Prompting is a delicate art, a push-and-pull relationship between the creative and the tool to fashion results that are usable and helpful.
In the near future, it will be incredibly important for agencies to have go-to employees for specific platforms and prompts. Can you focus in and become a Gemini Prompting Expert, making you an invaluable gateway between the tool and the creative work? That kind of nuanced expertise will help set you apart.
And who better to master these tips than people who are already masters at the creative work? For example, we have designers and VFX artists on staff who have spent endless hours improving layouts or composites and have experience spotting minute errors or design tweaks. These skills are all incredibly valuable when prompting or using AI-generated images. Even with good prompts and trying again and again, AI is getting you 50% of the way there before having to spruce it up, so it makes sense that the same person creating the work is the same person who is trained to prompt—they have the judgment needed to pick, choose, and enhance.
If you’re just getting started on flexing your prompt engineering skills, here are a few key tips:
- At the end of the day, it’s copywriting: Word choice and structure will greatly impact the results. Be as specific and clear as possible. Slight differences in wording can deliver very different results.
- Track your results and feedback: Mark down what prompts were most effective, then go back and look for patterns for how this specific tool responds. Don’t be shy about iterating.
- Provide context and references: If it’s a more complex ask, add context by submitting images, PDFs, or videos that illustrate specific tones or aesthetics.
- Personify the prompt: Test adding a role or persona as a starting point for context—for example, “Act as a marketing director,” before the task you want to be done, such as, “Write me a brief or a launch plan.”
Identify the white space
AI tools are trained on existing information, so the clear takeaway is that the tool is spitting out copy or visual elements based on campaigns already out in the world. The creative who can use AI to identify the obvious choices of a campaign and then pivot to something never-before-seen will be the most valuable voice in the room.
It’s been amusing and helpful for me to use AI simply as a bad idea generator to identify clichés. That can be as much a jumping off point as a positive or usable result.
While the wider world is simultaneously bullish and fearful of AI, we in the creative industry have seen and survived disruptive tech booms and crashes many times. Looking backward while looking forward, finding parallels, and drawing on the nuances of our industry gives a framework for action and adaptation. I don’t think AI can do that.
Which leads to something AI will never do for you.
Make human more human
Creativity and client management is something that AI can never truly touch. Fortifying your people skills and your critical thinking are still the most important pillars of our work and always will be. Winning new business and successfully managing that work are two areas where it’s possible to show direct value and results.
Anyone who has even casually played around with AI tools knows that they struggle with context and meaning. Spend time fully understanding your creative goals and briefs so you can deliver work that undeniably maps to the goals of the clients or stakeholders. AI can help with the research, but you need to spin that into cultural context and creativity.
Socially minded, culturally informed viewpoints are already table stakes for being a great creative. But the introduction of AI means that we need to be more thoughtful, more cautious, and more forward-thinking about how certain tools are being used, how data is being gathered, and what methodologies are sound. Clients aren’t comfortable without assurances and an emotional connection, and we can expect these needs to increase with more technical complexity and fast-moving trends. Using AI to help you get more time for human connections is the big win we all want to see.
