Why the Agencies That Win in an AI World Put People First

I believe that, in an AI-shaped industry, your people are your product. What I mean by that is this: right now, every agency is propelling automation. That much is obvious. But while the tools get cheaper, faster, and smarter, the real question becomes sharper: who are you when AI can do what you do? 

The answer, I think, will define the next generation of agencies. And it won’t be output. It’ll be outlook. Not what you make, but who you are. Because the best agencies aren’t consultants.

They’re not content factories either. They’re ecosystems of talent – amplified by AI, grounded in creative instinct, and built to drive cultural relevance.  

That’s the approach I'm taking, in any case.  

The rise of the creative solutionist 

The future belongs to the Augmented Creative Solutionists – multidisciplinary thinkers and creatives who blend emotional intelligence with strategic clarity and practicality. They’re not defined by job titles, but by impact. They don't consult, they solve! They translate. They connect and they effortlessly partner. They’re nimble problem solvers. Insight-driven, behaviourally fluent and creatively fearless. 

These are the humans that machines can’t replace – not because they out-code AI, but because they out-feel it. Culture, nuance, timing, trust. That’s the Solutionist’s domain. And I believe, and I’ll make the case for you, that this is where Ogilvy already excels.

Human Ingenuity in an AI World

As content creation becomes increasingly automated, brands face a paradox: endless content, declining resonance. So, when AI can generate output but not meaning, the question remains, how do brands harness its power but stay out of the sea of same? 

The best ideas aren’t scalable. They’re surprising. They make people feel. And feeling drives attention, engagement, loyalty, and long-term brand impact. 

That's why agencies must evolve – not away from people, but toward people amplified by machines. That means embracing power skills: empathy, critical thinking, storytelling, co-creation.

This is the Solutionist toolkit. 

At Ogilvy, we’re already building job architectures around empathy gradients – protecting the roles where emotional connection matters most, while letting AI handle the repetitive and the helpful. It’s not about resisting the machines. It’s about knowing which battles are still ours to win. 

Creative differentiation comes from who, not what  

Agencies of the future won’t be judged solely on what they make, but who they are.
Clients don’t want faster decks. They want strategic partners. They want people who fight for meaningful brand differentiation, not just clicks. They want champions of
not what worked in the past, but what will innovate today and tomorrow.

And that’s where Solutionists thrive. 

Take Hellmann’s 'BRAT' – a real-time cultural hack from Ogilvy UK that turned a banned Charli XCX tour poster into an unmissable moment. When Charli joked on TikTok that her poster looked like 'just a sandwich bag.' we took the hint. We showed up at her Birmingham show with actual sandwiches in plastic bags, labelled 'club classics' – matching the BRAT album’s lo-fi aesthetic with outdoor, social, and influencer content. It earned disproportionate attention, but more importantly: it earned a place in culture. 

That’s Solutionist thinking. Not a bot. Not a brainstorm deck based on a Large Language Model. Just humans moving at the speed of culture. That’s what our network is known for. ​

The truth is: no AI would pitch a sandwich bag. No consultant would greenlight it. But we at Ogilvy did – because we listen closely, and we dare to act out-of-the-box. (As Kantar points out, brands with a meaningful difference grow three times faster. That’s the point.) 

So yes, AI will assist – it will augment thinking, creativity and especially execution. But it won’t manage influencer relationships, brand moments, or creative conflict. And while new roles like Prompt Engineers and AI Quality Controllers will emerge, they’ll sit alongside creative thinkers, not above them. 

Reinvesting in the next generation 

In my opinion, the fear that ‘AI will replace all juniors’ is not just false. It’s dangerous. 

Junior talent doesn't just help with execution, it brings the lived experience of the audiences we serve. They’re fluent in now. That’s not replaceable – it’s essential. 

I believe graduate programs, mentorship, and pipeline planning are business-critical. Not just because they’re inclusive, but because they’re urgent. If we fail here, we don’t just lose diversity. We lose velocity. 

Creativity thrives on contrast – of age, background, worldview. It’s not just representation. It’s acceleration. Mark Zuckerberg recently said that AI will transform ad efficiency​

Of course, performance content will become more automated. And yes, – making performance campaigns faster, cheaper, and hyper-personalised. We don’t disagree. But here’s the thing: brand equity is critical to short-term and long-term performance. Prompts alone won't build long-term brand equity. Empathy does. Creativity does. Human insight does. That’s why the brands that will win tomorrow aren’t the ones that just use AI. 

They’re the ones that know when not to. 

Creativity isn’t dead. It’s just been upgraded.  

The agency of the future isn’t just about what you make. It’s about who you are. 

That’s why at Ogilvy, we continue to foster Augmented Creative Solutionists – people who think with clients, move with culture, and use AI not as a shortcut, but as a springboard for sharper human ideas. 

Because when everything else sounds the same, human creativity isn’t just a nice-to-have. 

It’s the only thing that breaks through.