AI will probably eat up the Fiverr-based ‘make me a logo for my streaming channel’ market but the agency model will remain. Mcdonalds didn’t put the Michelin chef out of business and the Vinyl actually made a comeback against the MP3.

When the internet first weaponised the ad industry, we invented new ways of working. Many agencies created bright new experiences for consumers, while others wreaked havoc on a largely unsuspecting and naive public.
The net result? Trust in Agencies is lower than trust in Estate Agents.

When the dust had settled, the design industry was transformed.
We witnessed the creation of powerful new channels and responded with media tools and process, which we rapidly monetised and made indispensable. Where we inherited new complexity, we found revenue. It could easily be argued that we profited more from this tectonic shift than most clients or consumers.

I’m not comfortable with the implied suggestion that this industry has always been on the right track. That, in the face of another step-change in technology, all we need to do is restructure and redefine a few roles. That’s simply our instinct for self-preservation taking priority over the people our industry purports to serve.

Perhaps our first AI conversations should be less about threat, disruption, or resurfacing old paradigms with a light lacquer of sincerity. We are at a crossroads of significant change. This is an opportunity for the design industry to re-energise people in the manner of Buckminster-Fuller’s ‘Design-Science’ revolution.

Can we not pause, peel back the commercial lenses for a moment, to see the person behind the consumer. Let’s put a little human progress before profit. How can we help create meaningful experiences and outcomes that do more than monetise people’s needs and desires? If we excite the public about a world bettered by the introduction of AI, we can provide a much-needed North Star for everything that may follow.

I would love to see our industry’s press concern itself less with clicks and instead, drive a substantive debate that injects meaning beyond the headlines.