Any agency that shuns all AI and stays completely old school, whatever that means today, is an agency that most clients will feel is out of touch. They’ll believe their agency is not bringing them all the resources they can and feels dated. It would be best to decide what AI means for your agency and how you use it to serve clients.
How do you use it internally for systems and processes? How do you use it to crunch data, gather facts, and research? It can do many things; you don’t have to do all of them in your agency. But not understanding AI, not experimenting with AI, not having a policy inside your organization about internal use, and not having a client-facing policy about how your views about AI will translate to your clients and prospects down the road means that you are out of touch.
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Hey, everybody. Drew McLellan here from Agency Management Institute this week coming to you from Pacific Beach, California. I had a conversation with an agency owner today who's getting some resistance from their employees around using AI. It's not uncommon. A lot of you are struggling with should we use AI? How do we use AI? What's the policy around it? And here's what I will tell you. Back in the day, when I was working at an agency, before I owned my own, computers were launched into our business. And there were some employees who thought it was cheating to use a computer to do graphic design and layouts or logo design. They thought that it was not true to the work, and so they refused to use it. And I will tell you, within six months or a year, most of those people retired, whether it was with some help from their boss or on their own, because they refused to stay current with the resources and tools that were available to them.
And that is the truth about AI today for agencies. Any agency that has no understanding of, no utilization of, no taking advantage of what AI can do for agencies and our clients isn't going to exist five years from now. I'm telling you, an agency that shuns all AI and goes completely, stays completely old school, whatever that means today, is an agency that most clients are going to feel are out of touch, aren't bringing them all the resources they could and feel dated. So each of you need to decide what does AI mean for your agency? How do you use it to serve clients? How do you use it internally for systems and processes? How do you use it to crunch data, to gather facts, to do research? It can do many things, and you don't have to do all of them in your agency. But not having an understanding of AI, not doing experimentation with AI, not having a policy inside your organization about internal use, and also a policy that is client facing about your views about AI. All that's going to translate to your clients and prospects down the road is that you are out of touch.
So it's time to put on your big boy and big girl pants. Start experimenting even if it's uncomfortable for you. Start playing with it, experimenting with it, exploring what it could do for you and your clients, and then figure out how and how much of it you want to bring into your organization. But to just turn your back on it and say, nope, not for us. It's dangerous. It's risky. I don't understand it. Whatever the excuses, just like those old art directors who shunned the use of computers. It's going to put you out of business or out of your business more quickly than you think. So embrace it. Experiment with it. Be thoughtful about how it can actually add value internally and with clients, and then put it to good use. Again, an inch or a mile doesn't really matter. It does matter, though, that you're demonstrating you are staying current and you're learning, and you're open to learning about new tools. That's all it is, is a tool. So why wouldn't you take advantage of a new tool that might do things faster, better, stronger, different than what you can do today?
