Unlocking AI’s Full Creative Potential: Opportunity or Overhype?

UK companies are now spending an average of £321,000 annually on AI technologies, according to new research from Storyblok. But the findings also reveal a curious contradiction at the heart of AI’s current role in business. From website content to customer service and analytics, AI is becoming embedded across digital functions. But while 93% of business leaders believe it’s delivering ROI, nearly half admit the customer experience improvements have been marginal. This raises a bigger question: is AI unlocking creative potential, or are we still only scratching the surface?

AI isn’t replacing creatives, thinks BBH’s CSO Will Lion, it’s becoming their most useful sidekick. “It crunches data into creative springboards, accelerates learning like Neo downloading kung fu in The Matrix, or hunts down the clichéd Zigs so our work can Zag more... it might create sometimes, but we create the big stuff,” he says. At BBH, AI helps teams prototype ideas, curate references, and inspire fresher thinking. But human taste, originality, and storytelling remain non-negotiable.

Though this view does underline a fundamental shift in how top creative agencies are using AI – not to replace human imagination, but to enhance it. The most transformative uses of AI aren’t just helping teams write faster or analyse better. They’re giving creatives space to think more laterally, test bolder ideas, and reframe familiar challenges.

At McCann London, the Atomic Soup initiative is one such example. Every week, creatives across the network convene to explore a provocative topic, feeding ideas into a custom AI system trained on years of interdisciplinary conversation. As Jonathan Brown, head of strategic product, puts it: “It’s the McCann Hive Mind... the more human and divergent thinking you put into your use of AI, the more imaginative the outcomes.”

But for all the success stories, many brands still treat AI as a bolt-on – an overlay on legacy processes rather than a tool to re-engineer them. That’s where Jon Williams, CEO of The Liberty Guild, sees the real disconnect.

“Right now, AI is stuck in delivery mode,” he says. “It’s all very mechanical. Where it needs to be is permeating up through the thinking part – not just the doing part.”

To unlock the real creative value of AI, Jon argues that brands must embed it in the entire marketing process, from insight generation to strategic planning. Only then can production be seen not just as output, but as the end result of a more agile, augmented approach to creativity.

This systemic approach is echoed by Andrés Ordóñez, global CCO at FCB. For him, AI’s value isn’t in speed alone – it’s in how it enables teams to think differently.

“Too many brands treat AI as a plug-in,” he warns. “But to see real transformation, AI must be embedded into the creative system itself. The soul of storytelling still comes from people – but AI frees us to focus on that emotional truth.”

The implications are significant: AI should not merely assist creativity, but reshape how creative work is structured and delivered. That means rethinking workflows, retooling briefs, and most importantly, removing the silos between data, strategy, and storytelling.

And yet, for many companies, the ROI on AI remains frustratingly abstract. The Storyblok data hints at this tension: brands know AI is the future, but they aren’t always clear on how to unlock its full potential.

“Efficiency is table stakes,” says Matt Henry, head of innovation at native@AMV. “Used properly, AI augments all of us. What excites me most is the sheer scale of what’s now possible.” He points to recent projects powered by Omnicom’s AI tools – from resurrecting musical legends to designing entire campaigns in real time. “People expect brands to use AI now,” he adds. “What they don’t expect is how much advertising is going to change in the next 12 months.”

So what does real creative transformation with AI actually look like? It starts with rethinking where and how AI fits into the process – not as a last-minute execution tool, but as a strategic partner from the very beginning.

The most impactful use of AI happens upstream, when it helps interrogate a brief, uncover unexpected insights, and open up new ways of thinking before a single idea is even formed. Rather than simply replicating what’s been done before, AI works best when it’s placed in dialogue with human imagination – sparking creative tension, not replacing it. This requires more than plugging AI into old systems; it calls for building entirely new workflows where data, strategy, and storytelling are deeply interwoven. As Matt points out, the real power of AI lies in the fusion of scale and imagination – not in automating the creative process, but in amplifying its potential.

The Storyblok research may suggest underwhelming short-term results, but that’s only half the story. Beneath the surface, a quiet revolution is underway – one that’s reshaping how brands think, make, and tell stories.

Whether it’s through hive-mind ideation, storytelling systems, or AI-augmented imagination, the most forward-thinking companies aren’t just using AI to do old things faster – they’re using it to ask new questions entirely.

And the answers? They may just define the next creative era.