What happens when AI joins the agency?

Summary: Dr Matthew Maxwell reflects on AI's arrival in creative agencies through what it changes, what it doesn't, and why knowing how to manage this strange new colleague is now a core leadership skill.

Author: Dr Matthew Maxwell

Date: 29.04.2026

Read length: 3 minutes

Spark is an AI training and transformation partner. We build AI capability inside agencies and brand teams – providing the training, governance and practical tools your team needs to harness AI across your whole organisation.

Often, it’s the quiet ones you need to look out for.

Covid taught me that: some minds work best in the dark, alone.

I realised that the opinionated, flamboyant talents I typically hired said more about me than them. I liked the bantz and craic and the jolly back-and-forth of a busy studio. But I discovered that pandemic isolation – and the remote-working it spawned – seemed to draw out something valuable from the quietest of sources. The introverts. The deeper thinkers.

What kind of colleague is AI?

In today’s creative agencies, a stealthy new colleague has shimmered into the room and taken a seat at the table.  And this softly spoken, shy and self-effacing creature turns out to be exceptionally talented.

It goes by many names: ChatGPT, Gemini, Weavy, among others. But seems happy to answer to its nickname: “AI”

AI is always on call. AI never complains. It researches back stories, trends and markets. It quietly comes up with concepts and hooks.  It ideates, explains and cajoles. It seems able to do everything. Without fuss. Tirelessly. Automatically.

For teams under constant pressure to deliver faster, cheaper, and more, this newbie might seem like a godsend. Fewer blank pages. More options. Less friction. 

What about the humans? 

But these gains also highlight the contribution AI’s human colleagues bring to the party.

Creative work has always drawn its power from lived experience: cultural awareness, emotional intelligence, instinct sharpened through failure, taste developed over time. This knowledge resists reduction to datasets. It’s earned. When automation begins to lead rather than support, creative work risks drifting toward the average — efficient, competent, and strangely hollow.

The danger isn’t that AI replaces creativity. It’s that it tempts us to stop reaching for it.

Used well, AI-powered automation expands the field of possibility. It helps explore directions faster, tests visual languages, provokes unexpected combinations.

Used poorly, it compresses thinking, encourages aesthetic shortcuts, dulls authorship.

Like any new hire, especially one this gifted, AI needs careful onboarding and empathetic managing. For agencies, the opportunity lies in redefining creative partnership: let the machines propose, remix, and accelerate. But insist that humans judge, frame, and decide what matters. Inspiration still comes from people – from observation, curiosity, disagreement, and risk — not from optimisation.

What does this mean for leaders?

The most compelling brand work ahead won’t reject automation or surrender to it. It will be shaped by creatives who know when to lean on AI, and when to step away from it. When to listen and when to argue. How to work with this strange new colleague, whose relentless work ethic is off the charts, and whose quiet, inexhaustible omniscience seems as destabilising and alien as the opportunities it reveals.

But, as I learned when the studios closed, knowing how to interact with ‘other’ intelligences is a critical agency skill. Capitalising on strengths while supporting weaknesses. We talk a good talk on inclusivity, neurodiversity, and ‘teamwork making the dream work’. Well, now is the time to prove it. 

Leaders – your task remains the same. Getting the best out of your new AI colleague  means deploying it where and when its skills and energy can do the most good, folding it into workflows so the disruption it brings can be positive, not damaging. An accelerant, not a wildfire.

So welcome onboard, AI! You’re part of the team.

Frequently asked questions:

How do you onboard AI into a creative agency without disrupting the team?

The mistake most agencies make is treating AI as a tool to be deployed rather than a colleague to be integrated. That means starting with workflows where AI can accelerate tasks, such as research, initial ideation, exploring directions at speed, rather than handing over the creative brief and waiting. The agencies seeing the most value have thought carefully about where AI sits in the process and how human judgment stays central.

What's the difference between using AI well and using it poorly in a creative context?

Used well, AI expands the field of possibility, providing more directions, less friction, and ideas you might not have reached otherwise. Used poorly, it compresses thinking, encourages shortcuts, and gradually erodes the creative instinct that makes the work worth doing. The difference usually comes down to who controls the judgement. The decision about what's actually good has to stay with the people in the room.

Why does human creativity still matter when AI can generate so much so quickly?

Because what AI generates is a recombination of what already exists. Human creativity draws from lived experience and cultural awareness. That knowledge doesn't compress into a dataset. The most compelling creative work comes from people who bring something of themselves to the brief. AI can support that process, but it can't replace the source of it.

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