“Would McDonald’s make us laugh and cry at Christmas with AI in the driving seat?”

In her signature no-nonsense style, Chaka Sobhani cuts through the noise surrounding AI with a simple proposition: creative leaders should help shape AI, not fear it.

Speaking as part of The Blueprint’s Truth About Talent: AI series, the global chief creative officer at TBWA offers an optimistic perspective on a technology that continues to divide the industry.

As a champion of mass-market creativity, Sobhani rejects the notion that AI-powered personalisation will replace the kind of work made famous by brands such as McDonald’s.

“I’m not a fan of terms like replace or the view that one thing necessarily becomes obsolete because some new capability comes along,” she explains.

“We seem to think we’re passive bystanders to the development of AI.”

Shaping, not fearing, AI

Having built her career through television, founding ITV Creative before leadership roles at Mother and Leo Burnett London, Sobhani is no stranger to disruption. Her view is that AI is simply the latest chapter.

Rather than retreating into defensiveness, she believes creative leaders should embrace the opportunity. As she explains: “We seem to think we’re passive bystanders to the development of AI as opposed to the practitioners and shapers of doing some amazing shit with it, seeing where it won’t work, and ultimately taking it where we want to go.”

For Sobhani, rejecting AI altogether is not an option. “I just don’t see AI as the enemy or something to be feared. It’s something to learn, understand and play with,” she explains.

“Rejection is madness,” she says, adding: “The genie is out of the bottle, and we won’t be going backwards, so would I rather stubbornly pretend the world isn’t growing and changing, or be on the side of figuring out how we can shape it for the better?”

“Creativity is about constant change, curiosity and things being additive.”

The value of curiosity

Sobhani argues that the industry's challenge is not technological but cultural. Leaders must remain open-minded enough to see AI as a possibility rather than threat.

“A lot of things are additive, and I like that we now have a far greater mix of where and how to engage with audiences,” she explains. “There isn’t a one size fits all or a single answer to what we do.”

This mindset extends to leadership itself. “The role of creative leaders will undoubtedly evolve, but in the same way that every advancement, either technological, cultural or societal, has shaped that evolution,” she shares.

In a year dominated by an industry-wide negative AI hype-cycle, Sobhani advocates for a more balanced perspective.

“Creativity is about constant change, curiosity and things being additive. It’s not scary or reductive,” she explains, adding: “We have new tools at our disposal. We can create in new ways. We can turn up in new places.”

Yet adaptation remains essential. “We’ll need new skill sets that merge with the more well-known, and they’ll evolve and grow into something new,” she adds.

Democratising creativity

One area where Sobhani sees clear benefits is access. “Technology overall has democratised creativity. And that’s absolutely fucking brilliant.”

She points to the smartphone as a powerful example. “20 years ago, you had to have a hefty budget and deep connections to be able to make any form of film. I am so fucking happy that any kid today can shoot, edit, mix, apply graphics, grade, visual fx and tell any type of story from the phone in their hand,” she adds.

Sobhani also believes younger generations offer an important lesson in how to approach AI. She says: “I have a 14 and a 16-year-old daughter and their relationship with AI is so much more organic, calm and measured. They are using it in the ways that fit into their lives and they’re not in a race to ‘keep up’ because they’re already in it.”

For that reason, she cautions against reducing AI to a productivity tool alone. “When AI is attached only to efficiency and not growth in equal measure, we lose the sense of play and possibility around where else we might go,” she shares.

Mindset over skillset

While technical expertise matters, Sobhani believes leadership in the AI era is ultimately about mindset. “You don’t have to be the expert in everything,” she says, adding: “That’s madness as the world and technology is developing at too fast a rate.”

Instead, she advocates curiosity, collaboration and a willingness to learn. “I want to try new things, to learn from people who know more than me, and to help figure out how to connect people who haven’t necessarily crossed paths before, but who might be able to do incredible things together,” she adds.

She is equally dismissive of unnecessary complexity, arguing that jargon often serves as a barrier rather than a bridge. “Leading in the age of AI means having the humility to acknowledge what you don’t know,” she shares, adding that empowering people with deeper expertise will ultimately lead to better work. Perhaps even the kind of work that makes us laugh and cry next Christmas.