I believe we can all agree that we are in the middle of a complete restructuring of the client-agency relationship because of AI … As I speak with peers, and other agencies offering services, there is an evolving conversation: Do you publicly highlight the use of AI? Do you admit it?… or do you keep it anonymous and hidden behind the scenes?
Let’s break down some obvious pros and cons on both sides of the visual design project:
Use of AI:
In some use cases (like photo editing) it can save 10x the amount of time
Pros for Client:
- Much faster. What previously took days to execute, it now takes minutes
- Much cheaper. It makes sense: Less working hours, less billable hours
- Higher quality. While AI cannot match a top-notch visual designer with decades of experience, it will surely raise the bar far beyond junior talent.
Cons for Client:
- Less protection. AI work is still in its infancy, and whoever owns the ultimate copyright is being tested in courts worldwide. As of today, although there is more and more protection against infringing others’ copyright, it is still largely difficult to claim the result as your own intellectual property (law requires much more human craft than machine-made. And how your protected content is delivered into random clouds with no clauses of guardrails, might compromise the privacy of data.
- Less reusability. This might change soon, but as of now, human work can be architected to be modular, reusable, and editable (i.e. Photoshop layers and versioning). AI tends to skip many of the steps and cannot traced back or teased apart for future modifications.
- Less differentiation. With less human intervention, AI can easily do the same output for your competition. A unique style and artistry is harder to bake in (this will also improve rapidly).
Pros for Agency:
- More agility. To clients that is… ability to solve a problem in the often common fire drills increases the client’s dependability.
- More competitive. I am old enough to remember seeing architectural firms wither for the lack of adoption of CAD systems. You might not want your team to use
- More efficiency. Why insist on delivering a tactical process when you can focus on strategic services?
Cons for Agency
- Less billing hours. Large amounts of work that although mechanical and dull, brought in helathy amounts of billable time.
- Less needed. Why hire your agency when a junior resource or even an automated self-help tool can do?
- Less signature. If AI makes most of the ultimate details, the less opportunities to drop a signtaue style.
Besides all these internal pros and cons there is also the topic of honesty and transparency… If we have established that using AI shortcuts has some clear benefits for the client (i.e. speed, why hide the efficiency savings on your side? I feel unethical to continue charging for the time old processes took.
Summary
Some creative agencies advertise AI-savyness with the hope to differentiate and ride this new buzz before it is inevitably taken for granted (Remember Blockchain? Web 3.0? The Cloud? Motels with Color TVs?
Some others hide it or even refuse it as they fear it will cheapen their output or dilute their self-image image of bespoke custom-tailored solutions. Handmade beats automation!
At gr! Design We have been increasingly accepting the evolution of AI and increasingly adopted more and more transparent ways to bring AI to the gamut of tools employed when providing quality yet efficient solutions to our customers. At the end of the day, AI is just one of many tools and most of what we do goes through several passes and several tools working together. No output is 100% AI, and although completely enthused and believers of its benefits, we still don’t see the day when any AI output is not edited, vetted, and steered by humans.
Hope for the future
Many of these issues will evolve… For example: The issue of copyright and privacy can be ameliorated with the use of not-so Large Language Models that are installed in the “walled garden” of agency’s computers instead of offshore clouds. Fewer folks and companies are involved, less legal paperwork and less changes of leakage into competitors’ hands.
0 Comments