As partner of Studio.One, Ajaz Ahmed is forging a new blueprint for independent brand innovation agencies, rooted in the power of AI. The agency works on the premise that AI tools give a level of power to smaller teams once reserved for massive conglomerates. Without the layers of bureaucracy of traditional agency models, Ahmed has the freedom to run his own creative race.

As the founder of AKQA, Ahmed could easily spend this next chapter of his career focusing on legacy and leaving the reinvention of the industry to others. Yet it is clear that his appetite for innovation is only getting bigger. 

He shares his open-minded and immensely hopeful perspective on creativity and AI as part of The Blueprint’s Truth About Talent: AI interview series, designed to cut through the negative hype cycle surrounding artificial intelligence.

For Ahmed the biggest myth surrounding AI is that it will replace creative people. He explains, “What AI is actually doing is raising the value of the imaginative ones.” He continues, “AI is superb at spotting patterns and producing more of them. Creativity is the leap that breaks the pattern.”

AI is good at giving us more of what already exists. People are good at imagining what doesn't.

As a creative leader who has built his credibility on breaking the mould, his approach is equal parts clinical and astute. “AI is good at giving us more of what already exists. People are good at imagining what doesn't,” he shares, adding: “The ones who keep good judgment, taste and perspective at the centre of their work will lead the industry through every wave.”

The AI advantage

Ahmed’s approach is centred on utilising AI to remove processes, not people. An ethos of removing large and layered teams producing work by committee will be music to many a creative director’s ears. This practitioner mindset underlines just how AI is affording leaders the opportunity to do things differently.

For Ahmed the advent of AI affords the opportunity to reinvention. He points to the example of ‘Jevons Paradox’ to explain the double-edged opportunity of AI. “When the steam engine made the use of coal more efficient, we ended up burning more coal, not less. The point is that when something becomes cheaper to produce then demand expands. AI will do the same to creativity where it will enlarge, not shrink the market,” he shares. 

Another analogy is the simple spreadsheet. He explains: “When it arrived, the professionals who adopted them didn’t lose their jobs, but ran rings around colleagues still working in old school, less productive ways, and went on to define the next generation of dealmaking.”

In essence creative leaders who are slow to embrace AI, may quickly find themselves on the side lines. As Ahmed explains, “Creative leaders who treat AI as an instrument, not a threat, will get dramatically ahead of those who don’t. The fundamentals of taste, judgment, and the courage to back a brave idea becomes more valuable, not less.”

Creative leaders who treat AI as an instrument, not a threat, will get dramatically ahead of those who don’t.

Building AI without bias baked in

In a wider industry ecosystem in which AI risks amplifying bias and stereotypes at scale Ahmed is clear on the opportunity to build better from the ground up.

As he explains, “The advertising industry’s record on diversity is indifferent. AI did not cause this, a lack of leadership did. A model trained on a narrow slice of human experience may reproduce that narrowness at a larger scale.”

He believes that the advent of AI has strengthened the case for inclusion. “The agencies that will produce the most resonant work in the AI era are the ones whose teams reflect the audiences they are tasked to reach and connect with,” he explains. An ethos which has infused the studio’s approach to hiring to recognise the singular truth that who makes the work shapes the work. 

As opposed to an endless search for headcount reduction, or creative efficiencies, Ahmed sees the opportunity for technology to democratise many aspects of the creative process, such as production.

“The ability to render, animate, compose, edit and prototype is now within reach of anyone. That isn’t a threat, it's a massive opportunity,” he explains.

Predicting the rise of one medium automatically equates to another is far too binary an approach for the thoughtful Ahmed. “The camera and photograph didn’t kill painting; it inspired Impressionism and other movements. The synthesiser didn't kill the orchestra but gave us new music. Photoshop didn’t kill photography and the sampler didn’t kill song-writing. Podcasts are thriving so in fact video did not kill the radio star,” he shares. 

As mediums merge and markets fragment, investing in ensuring creatives can make the most of AI is crucial. “The companies that combine technological adoption with investment in human capital will compound their advantage. Those that economise are discovering that they are reducing their future potential,” he shares.

Good work costs the same as bad work. It's about the quality of the people who are working on it.

In the wider agency ecosystem that future potential is often strangled by business models built for a bygone era. So will AI adoption within agencies finally kill the timesheet, cost-plus model?

“On the one hand, the timesheet is an archaic system that rewards hours over outcomes and time over thought and imagination. Good work costs the same as bad work. It's about the quality of the people who are working on it,” Ahmed explains.

He believes that the time sheet model has been incredibly damaging and has commoditised the industry. “A race to the bottom on the billable hour has left agencies with less and less money to invest in the talent that justifies the price in the first place,” he warns. 

This scarcity approach to creativity is the antithesis of what Ahmed is building at Studio.One. Having identified bureaucracy, big job titles and return to office mandates as the enemy of innovation he has made no secret of his desire to do things differently.

Sharing his belief that business as usual is not an option, he explains: “Clients want to buy results and agencies that price the value are thriving. Agencies that continue to meter their work in minutes will have many of those aspects replaced by software.”

For Ahmed, who has successfully escaped corporate captivity, the future affords the opportunity to not just imagine, but build an entirely new model for independent creativity. A future where AI, far from being the enemy of creativity, is the ultimate enabler.