Hardly a week goes by without a new tool promising to make creative development faster, cheaper or easier. Plenty of them actually deliver, and we use them across Plato from time to time to get from a first conversation to a first idea quicker than we ever could before.
But when creating gets faster and easier, knowing what really needs to be created matters more than ever. Knowing what to say, who needs to hear it, which idea to back and how to bring it to life all comes down to understanding a business properly. As a Client Director, I’ve seen that understanding come from one place every single time: a great relationship. It’s what lets us ask better questions before anyone starts creating answers.
More isn’t the same as better
AI has certainly added more power to the creative process, whether that be through having more ideas or being able to bring them to life more easily. But this year’s research shows that doesn’t automatically mean the work is better.
In May, Syracuse University’s Newhouse School and Ipsos put this to the test. They took 20 ads from 10 well-known brands and showed them to 3,000 consumers, pairing each human-made ad with an AI version built from the same brief. On Ipsos’ sales validated measures, the human-made ads scored 11 points above benchmark, while the AI versions landed 5 points below. AI struggled most with storytelling, emotion and having a distinct point of view.*
Marketers are noticing it too. In the WFA’s Clients and Creativity 2026 study, 58% of senior marketers said they’re worried AI is leading to a “sea of creative sameness”.**
So while these new tools might have raised the baseline we’re all working from, it’s still the real human thinking and craft that work hardest. Standing out takes a deep understanding of a business, its customers and the challenges it’s facing, and that understanding comes from a strong relationship. It gives us the trust and insight to challenge assumptions and build a better brief before we jump into solutions.
Good relationships make honest conversations possible
Relationships sit at the heart of everything we do at Plato. The best work I’ve been part of has always come from partners who feel comfortable picking up the phone, sharing what’s really going on in their business, and telling us straight when something isn’t right.
That kind of trust is built through regular check-ins, being upfront about budgets and timings, and showing up when things don’t go to plan. Once it’s there, we can ask the tricky questions early and push back when we can see a better path, and our partners know it’s because we want the best result for their business.
It’s also where great briefs come from. Research from BetterBriefs, cited by the IPA, found 89% of marketers and 86% of agencies agree you can’t get good creative work without a good brief. In my experience, the best ones are built together.***
When a simple request turns into a smarter solution
A recent project is a great example of this. A global product brand came to us wanting to add e-commerce to their website, which looked like a simple request on paper.
Once we dug into their product range and how customers were choosing between products, it became clear a standard online store was going to struggle. Customers needed help figuring out which combination of products their project actually called for before they were ready to buy anything.
We designed a set of calculators across the site instead. Customers pop in their project details and see exactly which products they need. The site is now far more useful, there are natural opportunities to add complementary products, and people stay engaged for longer before heading off to a stockist. It also sets the brand up properly for e-commerce down the track.
None of that would’ve happened if we’d just built what was asked for. Building what was asked would have been the easy part, and AI could have helped us do it faster. The bigger win came from working out the right problem to solve. The trust we’d built gave us room to challenge the brief, and our team’s strategic and creative expertise turned that understanding into a better commercial result for the business.
Where the tools fit
We use AI wherever it helps us move faster and explore further. It speeds up our research, opens up more creative territory early in a project and keeps the day-to-day ticking along, so more of our time goes into strategy and craft. The tools let us explore more possibilities in less time, and what we know about each client’s business helps us decide which of those ideas are worth pursuing.
Every final piece, from campaign creative through to websites, is developed and finished by our team. The judgement on what’s right for a brand, and all the little details that make work feel considered, stay with the people who know the business behind it.
Getting the most out of working together
The strongest work always starts with partners who share the full picture. Before your next project, it’s worth having a think about:
- What the business needs to achieve, and what that would look like in measurable terms
- Who your customers are and how they make decisions
- What’s getting in the way right now
- What you’ve tried before and how it went
- How you’ll know the work has been a success
We’ll bring the questions, the creative thinking and the tools to explore plenty of options quickly, then work out together which ones are worth chasing.
The tools will keep changing, and each new one will make it a little easier to create answers. That makes the relationships behind the work more valuable than ever, because the right questions only get asked when there’s trust, context and a shared understanding of what a business needs. If you’d like to chat about what you want to achieve, we’d love to hear from you.
Sources:
*https://news.syr.edu/2026/05/18/newhouse-research-finds-ai-ads-fall-short-on-sales-impact/
**https://wfanet.org/leadership/marketing/clients-creativity-2026
***https://ipa.co.uk/news/betterbriefs
