2025 was set to be the year AI fully integrated into the creative landscape and in many ways, it has. Like most studios, we’ve doubled down on learning new techniques, stress-testing the latest image-generation platforms, and exploring how to scale our workflows. AI is now a daily part of our creative production process.
Clients have been equally curious, eager to see how AI can be brought into projects. It’s proven most useful in pitches and early-stage storyboards, but as tools become easier and workflows smarter, the enthusiasm often stalls when it comes to bringing ideas to life.
Why? Because the best creative work is built on storytelling – emotive, human, and nuanced, grounded in insight and personality, qualities that AI is still catching up with.
It would be naïve to say AI isn’t showing up across the creative landscape. Automated campaigns and the occasional six-fingered model have become the new normal. We’re seeing a wave of content across TikTok and Instagram of Deepfake AI recreations of celebrities using Sora…. used deliberately to provoke, offend, and create short-lived spikes in attention. These moments highlight AI’s ability to break through and capture culture, but also how hollow and transient that can feel.
According to this year’s D&AD trend report:
“There was a surprising lack of AI-led creative work among this year’s entrants. In 2024, 9.3% of Shortlisted and Pencil-winning work self-referenced using AI; this dropped to 7.6% in 2025.”
It seems that while AI continues to evolve, the industry’s most celebrated work is leaning the other way – toward ideas and executions that feel unmistakably human.
Take Burberry, for example. Once known for pristine models in equally pristine settings, the brand has turned to the streets. Shot by punk photographer Bob Foster, their new social-first storytelling captures real people in real places, rich with cultural nuance. Flash on, effortlessly composed, the brand has never felt more connected to real life.
When the creative industry first began paying attention to AI, illustrators and artists rallied against the machine. Would art directors simply generate images and cut out the very artists whose work had trained these models? In reality, the opposite seems to have happened.
The New York Times is pushing analogue image-making to new heights, frequently collaborating with artists like Jack Davidson. His handcrafted approach, blending texture, collage, and intricately built set designs bends reality in-camera, creating work that feels truly alive. His recent collaboration with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is beautifully unnerving, almost a direct response to AI’s uncanny output. It makes viewers double-take and question reality, yet it’s entirely made by hand.
Big brands are also doubling down on craft. Our recent campaign with Coca-Cola, “The Bosses,” was rooted in humanity and local connection, real people, real stories, and a genuine desire by the brand to show up authentically. Every creative choice reflected that intent, from working with renowned documentary director Ross Bolidai, whose approach is deeply human-centric, to using vintage Mamiya lenses and 35mm film to capture both the campaign’s photography and film. Each piece of creative felt unmistakably human and the industry took note: 78% of earned media coverage led with the campaign imagery.
So what does this all mean as we close out the year?
AI isn’t going anywhere, and we’ll continue to explore the best ways to use it to make more thoughtful creative choices. But in a landscape increasingly filled with bland, automated output, it’s clear that when big brands truly show up, the need for human-centric storytelling and real craft has never been more important.
You know the point’s been made when even OpenAI is running ChatGPT campaigns featuring real people, in real-life moments, shot by real creatives.
