Aaron Starkman, Rethink, #1 CCO. (Credit: This image was generated by MidJourney, ChatGPT-4, Dall-E 2 and Canva through prompts by Rethink).

Aaron Starkman is the CRC’s #1 CCO, while Sean McDonald sits in the #1 Planner spot at Rethink, this year’s Top Agency. Here, they share their thoughts on AI and how they’re approaching the tech.

So, is AI the way forward or is it a mistake?

Sean McDonald: I wouldn’t put it in that binary. I’m old enough now that I have been through several tech waves. I started in the agency space when the conversation was social media. And then it became digital, and then it was data, data, data. And now it’s AI. And two things always happen: agencies over-index, they productize and they isolate the trending thing du jour. So you’ve got AI agencies that are full of prompt masters and the people who know how to do all of the things. Because it’s a good sales soundbite: “We have the relevant thing you’re excited about that we barely understand.” And then they take on new clients. Or other agencies – either in a laggard way, or in a cautious and very deliberate way – take it on slowly. They bring it to their agency and they play with it and learn how it works and what you can do. 

Rethink has always been Rethink. We’re gonna dabble in AI just like we dabble in everything – things that are great, things that are silly, things that are technological and things that aren’t. Is AI the future? AI is part of the future. But so is the next thing. And so are the three other things that are still happening from the past. I’m a little bit bored of it, to be honest. Because I think people get more excited by the shiny objects than they do about doing the hard work and just challenging themselves to be excellent with any tools that they have. And I think our industry should really double down on enabling people to do great work, leveraging whatever tools they have in place. And if AI is one of those tools, fantastic. But I think we get more excited about these tools than we do about the conditions and the people that really lead to great work. And so I lament that a little bit. I think people are always going to be the future. And I think there’s going to be a litany of tools to help them.

Are you integrating AI in work processes at Rethink?

Aaron Starkman: Wheel-spinning is the enemy of Rethink. And AI has actually been quite beneficial in helping us in our goal of eliminating all kinds of wheel-spinning. Since Rethink’s inception, art directors, for instance, were encouraged to come up with lots of ideas and not waste time using Photoshop or drawing up images. AI platforms, like Midjourney, have been useful in really saving art directors’ time and freeing them up to come up with more ideas. In our process, we also do peer review, and AI has actually been useful with that too. Several teams are using it that way. You can copy and paste a script, put it in there and ask for feedback. And we get shockingly acceptable results. We prefer peer-review with people. However, if there are tight timelines, AI has been useful.

For instance, we heard from AI that a spot was boring in the middle. And that actually lined up with a lot of what some creative directors were saying in peer review. We heard from AI the product wasn’t incorporated early enough in the story. And this is what some of our account people said. AI has also eliminated wheel-spinning in terms of production. You can get into a situation when you’re approaching a shoot, where there’s miscommunication between the agency and the production company or the director because you’re using images that are close to your vision, but they’re not exactly what’s in your head. AI can get way closer than images you will find on Google in terms of depth of field, the lighting, the mood, if there’s a smoky background. And you just get on the same page faster and there’s no guessing. It can achieve that. It can speed things up. It’s just another tool like Reddit or Photoshop. 

One thing that AI can’t do properly, or do well, is creative. Like a headline, for instance, a team has never succeeded in having AI write a passable headline. I do think there are people that could lose their jobs. AI can do a decent rip; it can write decent social copy. But it can’t compete with excellent creatives, and at Rethink, we are always pursuing creative excellence. 

McDonald: AI is operating at the level of a moderately experienced strategy intern. When interns write a brief, it’s the summary of observations. That’s what they’re doing. Here are all the things that I’ve heard everybody say, and I put them in one place. A more experienced strategist can take all of that and say, “This doesn’t matter, this is most important,” and make it interesting by reframing it. AI, right now, is intelligently aggregating salient bits from all over the place, but it isn’t doing the leap from observation to insight. When you have to get to the creative leap – pulling the heartstrings, and managing the intriguing and unexpected turns – it’s useless.

What is it that humans have that AI doesn’t have?

Starkman: Empathy. Freshness is also something we’re always looking for. And that’s not really achieved by AI in any way, shape or form, because AI is working with things that are done. It’s taking things that exist and melding them together. Freshness comes easier and more naturally to humans.

Sean McDonald, Rethink, #1 Planner. (Credit: This image was generated by MidJourney, ChatGPT-4, Dall-E 2 and Canva through prompts by Rethink).

Do you have any concerns about bias or other ethical issues?

McDonald: Bias is a fact. Neither of us is going to fight that it exists. And the reason that bias exists is because AI is only learning from its creators. And the predominant perspective of its creators is not an inclusive representation of humanity, nor Canadians, nor North Americans. Voices are not equally represented in the source material for AI, period. So absolutely. But the reason I don’t worry about it is because, procedurally, we can protect ourselves from that. If you’re asking somebody else to do your homework for you, you’re accountable for not being able to explain how you got to the answer. 

What lessons can you share when it comes to emerging technologies?

McDonald: I don’t know if you remember when Publicis famously said, “Nobody’s going to Cannes, because we’re investing in Marcel. It’s Marcel’s time, the time is now.” People had to miss out on a celebration of human creativity because they were going to create Marcel, which became an intranet, as I understand it. It’s a cautionary tale to say, if you productize something, you are taking a sales motivation, and you are saying to yourself, “I have an asset that I can sell to drive revenue, to create new opportunity.” If you have an excellent orientation towards doing great work, you will recognize all these tools and evaluate their opportunity to help you and stay focused on what you do best. I think everybody has to just calm down, focus on excellence and be devoted to that. If your vision is clear, you’re fine. If you’re subject to trends because of the motivations of sales, then you’re gonna have problems. You’re going to fall victim to any fad.