“The pace of change has never been this fast, yet it will never be this slow again.”
— Justin Trudeau at the 2018 World Economic Forum at Davos

We are beyond the point of fearing or stalling AI; it is important we quickly, and not brashly, implement the role of AI into our business today. Proactive preparation is key as we approach the intersection of various technological advances accelerated by AI — readying ourselves for this unprecedented pace of change.

Technological Step Change — When we examine the top 10 companies by market capitalization, seven of the top ten are under 50 years old (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta, Tesla). They have strategically embraced the contemporary technological advancements of their time, particularly automation through computation and digitization. Four of the seven are 25 years or younger. Alphabet, Amazon and Meta became industry leaders by harnessing the Internet — the technological advancement of their time. The common thread of these step-change advancements in human progress is they provide speed, or scale at speed; logistics. We are at the next — artificial intelligence, AI.

Logistics —Military leaders and Sun Tzu's “The Art of War” emphasize the crucial role of logistics in warfare, and it is just as critical to business. In the space of advertising and creativity, AI, specifically AI Generated Content (AIGC), adds significant logistic boosts at every step of the creative pipeline across different functions. Brands and agencies who institutionalize AI into their business will be positioned advantageously, especially in today’s competitive landscape.

Thinking Partner —Creative logistics can be as minor as drafting project plans, timelines, providing alternate copy recommendations or rationalizing ideas. AI as a first degree collaborative partner will get you to your destination faster, hashing out bad ideas, exploring left field thinking and visualizing accurately your imagination on-screen; for you to consider or trash. Traditionally, these tasks, though critical, have been time-consuming and sometimes mundane, often not the best use of your creative team’s time. AI's role in this context is transformative, automating routine tasks and enabling human creativity to focus on more complex, strategic aspects of the creative process. This shift not only accelerates the production cycle but also enhances the quality and innovation of the output — providing greater value at less effort.

Generative Images —This year already, we’ve seen integration of AI and AIGC into our existing core creative tools, like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere, signifying a major shift in our creative process approach. Leveraging Adobe Firefly AI, the biggest new features in Adobe Photoshop understand what is on canvas, the objects, style and what you have selected; allowing users to “Generative Fill” over spot selections, to replace something unwanted and provide creative options. The new object and background removal, which once required extensive manual effort, can now be accomplished with a few clicks, for you to quickly replace with Generative Fill, making intelligent suggestions and collectively automating complex processes. The new Generative Expand allows users to expand the canvas size, contextually generating the new areas.

Video Editing —In video production, AI has made comprehensive improvements in Adobe Premiere. Features like Auto Reframe and Scene Edit Detection use AI to automatically adjust video frames and identify cuts in a sequence, for a significant reduction in edit time and effort. AI has expedited color grading and audio clarity, and introduced text-based editing, allowing users to transcribe, search, correct, translate with additional tools and add subtitles. Adobe has also teased Generative Video Fill capabilities through their Firefly AI, which could be added to Adobe Premiere or Adobe After Effects by 2024.

Video Production —Soon we’ll be able to import a script into Adobe Premiere, and AIGC will generate storyboards, pre-visualizations (pre-viz), and full control of camera motion to generate motion renders for review with the film director, DOP and client. Through this powerful pre-production, we can get closer to our decisive final output, leading to more effective planning of film hardware preparation and shoot sequencing, eradicating much of the downtime in video production.

Collective Use —Here is a demonstration of AI collectively used from a single thought “Australian animals playing sport”.

First I use ChatGPT to help deliberate and rationalize which Australian animals would be best matched with each sport. Then I ask it to help generate the MidJourney prompt.

MidJourney provided a lot of fun visuals, but not quite what I was after:

Which is okay, because now that I have my “AI Stock”, I can adjust with Photoshop’s AI capabilities:

Let’s explore adding motion to this static image using Runway’s Gen2 Image-to-Video function (https://runwayml.com/). Alternative options include PikaLabs (https://www.pika.art/) and recently released Stability Video (https://stability.ai/news/stable-video-diffusion-open-ai-video-model).

This demonstration from thought to motion visual is about 10-15 minutes worth of effort. With more experience, it would be closer to 5-8 minutes. The format of how we express ideas has truly been elevated.

Social —Ogilvy China’s ContentForce has recently collected numerous awards for their innovative implementation of AI in the social influencer space. The team has systemized a workflow that segments videos into descriptively tagged snippets. AI then reassembles into a multitude of videos suited for diverse scenarios, each highlighting unique selling points. After human review, the videos are released on social channels and measured against viewership and likes. Content is re-processed to further refine which tagged snippet composition works best for each micro-audience profile; crucial for our increasingly saturated market.

Typically an undertaking of this magnitude would take considerable content analysis and manual video production effort; additionally, further fragmentation of audience segmentation would not be practical; however today, we are seeing considerable transformative change in social through AI.

Metaverse, AR, VR, Virtual Humans, Blockchain —  In 2022, the world was abuzz with the promise of the Metaverse, AR, VR, Virtual Humans, Blockchain and more. They haven’t disappeared, but are rather silently developing, transforming, and integrating into our daily lives and industries in more subtle but profound ways than initially anticipated.

The convergence with AI has been a driving force behind this progress. AI is not just enhancing user experiences in the Metaverse, AR, and VR; it's revolutionizing how we interact within these digital realms. It is able to create more intuitive and responsive environments, additionally making these technologies more accessible and enjoyable for a broader audience through generative creation. Virtual Humans and Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) inside these virtual realms are now visually crafted by AI and conversationally powered through AI personalities, as opposed to previously following a script.

Blockchain had previously faced criticism for its high energy consumption, just be the nature of how it was initially designed. AI is being used in blockchain to optimize processes for efficiency gains. AI algorithms can handle complex computations faster than traditional methods, reducing the time for transaction processing and validation on blockchain networks. Additional operational optimizations, such as security, through AI has been making headway in an effort to make blockchain more environmentally sustainable.

These technologies are converging into a cohesive digital ecosystem, largely thanks to AI's unifying capabilities. This integration is creating new opportunities for innovation, paving the way for revolutionary business models and novel ways of digital engagement. AI's role in bridging the physical and digital realms is not only making technology more immersive and interactive but also more beneficial to our daily lives.

The Future with AI —As we look to the future, the positive impact of AI in shaping and accelerating these technological trends is undeniable. The exciting part lies in harnessing AI to take what we already love doing and push it further and faster. The progress we’ve already seen this year with AI and its converging technologies underscores transformative disruption to come. The future belongs to those who keep pace with change and can effectively blend human creativity with AI's computational power, leading to unprecedented levels of innovation and logistical efficiency.