In a recent feature by The Drum, our co-founder Kate Ross offered a refreshingly grounded take on the AI frenzy currently dominating the marketing world. With artificial intelligence, particularly GenAIm hailed as the next great technological revolution, it’s easy to get swept up in the noise. But Kate is urging the industry to pause, reflect, and think more critically about where the real value lies.
For the past 18 months, marketing agencies and brands have scrambled to adopt AI, funneling significant time, energy, and investment into new tools and platforms. Much of this enthusiasm has been driven by a sense of urgency - fear of missing out on the next big shift. But as Kate succinctly puts it, “AI is a modern, mad, gold rush on social network steroids. It’s a combination of people wanting to be part of history, the feverish social echo chamber we now live in, and FOMO about the bags of money being thrown about.”
The comparison to past revolutions, like the internet or mobile, can be misleading. Those innovations replaced clunky, expensive systems and delivered immediate, scalable value. GenAI, on the other hand, is still searching for its transformative moment. “GenAI hasn’t created any seismic opportunities yet, and we’ve spent a literal trillion,” Kate points out. “I’m not anti-AI, but I don’t want people to get sucked into the hype.”
That doesn’t mean AI is useless. Far from it. At eight&four, we’ve successfully integrated AI into our workflows in targeted, results-driven ways. From post-production augmentation to TOV (tone of voice) governance in long-form content, and even specific data maintenance processes, GenAI is already delivering efficiency gains. But Kate’s message is clear: broad, indiscriminate adoption is not the answer.
“The industry needs to stop treating AI like a silver bullet,” she says. “It is absolutely critical to be nuanced in your approach. GenAI is a very big hammer - choose your nails wisely.”
The real challenge isn’t whether AI is useful (it is). It’s how we apply it with intention. Agencies must move beyond the hype cycle and adopt a more discerning view: Where can this technology drive value? Where does it distract from the core of what we do? And perhaps most importantly—where does human creativity still need to lead?
Kate’s perspective is a reminder that being early isn’t the same as being strategic. The agencies that will truly benefit from AI aren’t the ones shouting the loudest - they’re the ones thinking the clearest.
Read the full article here.
