“The biggest myth I would love to see busted is that AI is replacing creativity. It isn’t.”

In an industry still oscillating between AI infused hype and anxiety, Ben Williams, global chief creative officer at Dept, is striking a more grounded tone. For him, the real opportunity AI brings is the expansion of ideas, capability and creativity.

Speaking as part of The Blueprint’s Truth About Talent: AI interview series, he argues that too many agencies are still framing AI as a production tool rather than a creative catalyst.

At Dept, that thinking has already shaped how the agency works. Its AI orchestration layer, Deptify, connects tools, data and workflows for brands. All work is filtered through an empathy-first framework to decipher when an AI solution, a human, or a blend of both is best for the task at hand. “We know creative efficiency or orchestration can’t come at the expense of creative excellence,” he shares.

We know creative efficiency or orchestration can’t come at the expense of creative excellence

Closing the AI innovation gap

He believes the industry is in danger of missing the true potential of AI because many agencies still treat it as a standalone capability rather than something embedded across the entire creative system.

“Far too often, traditional agency models still treat AI, and in some instances, technology more broadly, like another department or capability rather than a layer across the entire business,” he shares.

That separation, he believes, limits its impact before a brief has even been written. “If a perspective on technology, and in particular, AI, enters the creative conversation after the brief, after the strategy, or after the conceptual phase, you’ve already limited its impact,” he adds.

The real opportunity lies in leveraging all these new tools and workflows in ways that elevate the role of creativity to solve bigger problems

Avoiding the AI slop cycle

For all the noise around AI productivity gains, Ben returns repeatedly to a more fundamental point: volume is not the same as value.

“The opportunity isn’t to make more content faster or cheaper,” he explains, adding: “The real opportunity lies in leveraging all these new tools and workflows in ways that elevate the role of creativity to solve bigger problems, imagine what was otherwise impossible, and create work that truly blends human ingenuity with technology for today’s world.”

That shift requires resisting the temptation to simply optimise existing models of output. Otherwise, AI risks accelerating sameness rather than originality.

It also requires consistency in how the industry prioritises progressive change. Ben is clear that the rush toward AI should not come at the expense of driving critical progress in DEI.

“As an industry, we’re quick to move to the ‘next shiny toy’,” he explained, sharing: “While AI presents a big shift that requires attention, adoption and smart change management, it should not come at the cost of other initiatives and areas of focus that move us forward as an industry.”

He also sees a role for clients in setting expectations, not just around output, but around responsibility, including mitigating the environmental impact of AI systems.

We all have the responsibility to interrupt the defaults

Bias, he warns, is another area where complacency could have significant consequences as AI has the ability to supercharge stereotypes at scale through synthetic data.

“We know AI simply reflects the data, perspectives and assumptions we feed into the models, so without intentional human oversight it can absolutely amplify existing bias,” he explains. Yet, equally he sees an opportunity to use AI to challenge those patterns systematically at scale.

“I believe we all have the responsibility to interrupt the defaults. Not only are the defaults boring and expected, they’re perpetuating bias stereotypes that don’t reflect the world we live in,” he explains.

Closing the AI enthusiasm gap

If efficiency dominates today’s AI conversation, Ben believes imagination is what’s missing.

“Firstly, we have been, and continue to be overly indexed on the ‘creative efficiency’ side of AI, how we can make the same types of things, content, media, creative assets, in new ways that are faster and cheaper,” he explains.

That focus, he argues, risks flattening ambition at a moment when it should be expanding. “The things that can now be created now that AI is more readily available and integrated. This, to me, is more interesting, and truly showcases the potential for talent that can get them excited. Not just the ‘how’ we make things, but also the ‘what’ we can create,” he shares.

That reframing has implications for how teams are built. The traditional creative duo, he suggests, is no longer enough. “Don’t get me wrong, I love art directors and copywriters,” he says, sharing that the notion that those two disciplines can solve the challenges that modern creativity is being asked to solve is completely misguided.

Instead, he sees a shift toward genuinely multidisciplinary teams. “A modern creative team augments art, copy and design by including engineers, data scientists, product designers, experience strategists and AI specialists,” he adds.

Open-sourcing progress

Ben also believes the industry needs to rethink how it shares knowledge. Too often, he argues, agencies showcase outcomes while keeping the processes behind them hidden.

“We are all very keen to show off what is possible to be noticed by clients, the industry, or talent, but the real conversation about the ‘how’ something is made, the tools, the workflows, are too often kept tightly guarded and rarely shared.”

That lack of transparency, he suggests, slows collective progress. “We all need to be a little more ‘open source’ to bring the next generation of talent along,” he shares.

Even within Dept, he is candid that there is no fixed formula for the optimum talent mix for the AI era. “I think everyone is still trying to nail down what the ‘optimum talent mix’ is,” he shares, adding: “At Dept at least, we’re actively adapting and developing our talent mix as things advance and progress and have teams leveraging AI in workflows and the creative process, but whether we have the optimal mix is hard to say at this stage.”

Orchestration is where Ben sees the future of creative leadership thriving as a new generation focuses on curation and connection. As he puts it: “Gone are the days where the creative leader had all the answers.”

In their place is a more fluid, collaborative model of leadership; one defined by curiosity, adaptability and the ability to ask better questions of both people and machines.

Because for Ben, the agencies that will define the next era of creativity won’t be those that simply use AI most efficiently, but those that use it to expand what creativity is actually for.