Leveraging AI For Maximum Creative Impact

A Personal Journey

Words by Stephanie Alcaino

January 17th, 2023

As we look to the future, it's no secret that technological advancements can sometimes feel overwhelming. The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) has been explored in countless books and films, from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey to Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and with AI continuing to integrate into our daily lives, the question remains: how can we leverage its possibilities, rather than fearing its inevitability? Drawing inspiration from some of Disney's best technology-driven companies, such as Pixar and ILM, I'd like to share some of the ways in which AI has enhanced my own creative processes.

01. Brand Strategy

When working with clients or creative individuals, it's essential to understand who they are at a deep level. Typically, this involves hours of active listening during a Zoom call or an in-person meeting where I ask questions about their origins, the stories that have led them to start their company, and the impact and culture they are trying to achieve. In the past, I used to take copious notes to capture every critical piece of information that could provide me with insight into each client's mission, values, and brand impact. Alternatively, I would record the meeting and painstakingly transcribe two hours of content. Fortunately, AI has transformed this process. By integrating autogenerated transcripts, I can focus on being present, asking meaningful questions, and connecting with the people I'm working with. This allows me to spend more time processing key information and compiling it into a clear story for the client to share with clarity and pride.

In addition to autogenerated transcripts, I've used Google Forms' integrated Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to build profiling questionnaires that help me determine a client's brand archetype through multiple choice. This provides me with visual data, graphs, and percentages that I can use in my brand insight reports whilst optimising results that are accurate to what was shared by my clients.

02. Art Direction

Have you ever struggled to imagine what a fusion between two seemingly unrelated ideas might look like? Have you found yourself scrolling endlessly through "inspo" websites, trying to find enough references to get your idea across? Text-to-image AI apps such as Midjourney, have been a game-changer for me in this respect. They allow me to explore the cross-pollination of varying ideas, generating new moodboard imagery to help me build photography and design briefs.

This frees up my time to ask all the right questions and explore the unknown territories of ideas, while being able to communicate those ideas to others in refreshing ways, allowing them to join me in the process of executing them.

03. Storytelling

When it comes to building a language around a brand, dictionaries and thesauruses are often my go-to tools. They provide quick access to linguistic possibilities that help me shape the language used to build an authentic tone for each brand. However, sometimes finding the right words can take time. If there are certain words that do not embody a brand's tone, it can take a while to find words that capture their persona more meaningfully. Language processing tools like ChatGBT can help streamline this process. Instead of spending time looking for linguistic alternatives via a power thesaurus, I can type in a command asking the chatbot to come up with ten adjective alternatives for a particular word. This allows me to focus on copywriting and storytelling, while AI generates alternatives faster, ultimately leading to a more authentic end result.

04. Reading

Cultivating cultural awareness is an indispensable part of my day-to-day responsibilities. Staying on the pulse of contemporary cultural dialogues, innovative trends, and new ideas enables me to align my thinking with the vanguards and thought leaders both within and beyond my field of expertise. While I love the opportunity to immerse myself in a plethora of articles every day, unfortunately, I don't always have the time to do so. This is where text-to-speech applications like Speechify come to my rescue. Whether I'm down a rabbit hole retouching photos or building briefs and mood boards, Speechify gives me the invaluable opportunity to simultaneously listen to curated articles of my choice, all while making optimal use of my time.

Many creatives fear that AI will replace their jobs, but I believe that if we choose to embrace new technological advancements, we age its capabilities to optimise our creative work, inspire our imaginations, and further ideation processes. Rather than fearing the potential negative impact of AI on our work, why not playfully explore how we can leverage its capabilities to enhance our productivity and creativity?