How AI is Accelerating the Creative Process

By Casey Lissau, Executive Creative Director

There’s a lot of fear out there when it comes to how AI will impact our industry across all functions, but the implications for creative seem to be the most talked about — and with good reason. The work being done with large language models (LLMs) and text-to-image models to empower creative outputs has led the conversation and earned a ton of attention within media circles.

There are always industry skeptics who prognosticate about the detrimental impact of technological progress. “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home,” said Digital Equipment Corp. founder Ken Olsen in 1977, one year after Apple released its desktop model.

“The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper,” astronomer Clifford Stoll told Newsweek, 17 years before the magazine became a digital-only publication.

And in the early days of desktop publishing, we often heard designers say things like, “Anyone with a Mac thinks they’re a designer now.”

Time has often proved skeptics like these wrong while paying dividends for the early adopters. That’s where we find ourselves today with AI as we work to get ahead of the technology’s evolution. Instead of being afraid, we at Saatchi X believe AI should be embraced and harnessed in ways that make mundane work automated and complex work quicker to ideate against. We’re already striving to bring the full power of AI to bear in the work we’re doing for clients. Let’s talk about a few of the directions we’re going.

Visual Concepting

Adobe Firefly, DALL-e, Bria, and other tools built into our approved stock-image platforms are streamlining the first stage of visual concept development. The days of spending hours on end searching for the perfect image to match your wholly unique idea — only to find out that it doesn’t exist — are over. Comping together multiple stock images or sketching to create the perfect visual is no longer a workflow we need to master. Instead, good visual reference and a clear, accurate prompt will get you very close to what you need. We’re already seeing this new workflow dominate our early-round brainstorms and comps.

Brand Customization

Custom AI models are advancing. Soon, making work that mimics a brand’s look, tone, and feel will be part of every team’s workflow. Saatchi X has been beta testing the customized models of a trusted AI-enabled design platform since last summer, and the potential we see is exciting. The model goes beyond simple image reference to instead start learning product design, camera lensing, exposure, lighting, styling, and set design. You can train the model on anything you can think of related to your brand, which means ending up with subpar images that “look like AI” or resemble everything else the model produces will not be an issue.

The one major hurdle we’re still working through is a common issue across all AI models when it comes to commercial use: ownership of the images that are needed to train the models. We’re fortunate that our in-house studio capability lets us shoot the images that can be used to train the model on your brand look, tone, and feel.

Writing Support

Language is the other major use case impacting how creatives are working. LLMs are now our writing partners, helping to quickly derive a list of synonyms for headline-writing exercises, adding in search term keywords to a copy block for SEO, and creating alternate versions of idea write-ups based on desired tone or personality.

The opportunity for AI to help increase productivity within our creative work is huge, but there are hurdles in reaching the long-term potential we all envision. For one, gaining client alignment on how to use AI on their work can be tricky due to the legal implications it brings. There are also many high-profile lawsuits related to how models are trained that need to be decided, as well as ethical questions around AI talent to be answered.

The possibilities are nearly endless if we embrace the technology. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has suggested that “AI has the potential to be more transformative than electricity or fire.” And as Apple CEO Tim Cook once said, “The future of AI is in our hands.”

About the Author

Casey Lissau is a collaborative creative leader who builds strong client partnerships to deliver impactful, commerce-driven work. Over the years, he has shaped iconic brands at top retailers, earning Cannes Lions, Effies, Reggies, Obies, and a coveted spot in Lürzer's Archive.