June 29, 2026
00:00:00.040 — 00:00:08.280 · Martyn Cook
We’re not interested in automation. We’re interested in augmentation, how we can make AI an extension of the toolset that’s available to people.
00:00:08.320 — 00:00:14.920 · James Wayman
If what you’re making with AI is not grounded in creativity, then ultimately it’s a fruitless exercise.
00:00:23.680 — 00:00:49.920 · Lee Hanson
So we’re here today, I’m here with James and Martyn, and we’re going to have a bit of a kind of round-robin chat around the subject of AI. We’re going to touch on a variety of themes and subjects connected to AI specifically, and how, um, you know, we’re kind of considering as part of our process what the wider impact is on the creative industries as well.
So we’re obviously being very cautious in the way that we’re kind of beginning to explore these things and trying to do it in a respectful way.
00:00:49.960 — 00:02:03.370 · Martyn Cook
Now, I think that’s exactly right. We’re not pro AI as a blanket kind of policy. We’re certainly not looking to replace things with AI. What we are is very pro-technology. I think focusing on the creative industry in particular, AI is not really that new to us. We’ve been using AI extensively in certain parts of post-production for probably 2 or 3 years now.
Looking forward, it’s obviously going to have more and more of an impact, but I think it’s all about the perspective you approach it with and how you frame it. We’d be much better off looking at it as another solution in the toolkit. We’re not interested in automation. We’re interested in augmentation- how we can make AI an extension of the toolset that’s available to people.
So it’s how it can enable creatives to produce work that’s of a higher standard. Produce it quicker to arrive at the right kind of thinking and decision-making early on. From a business perspective, there’s an opportunity to kind of grow income and revenue as well. But what we’re definitely not looking to do, is take the creative responsibility out of the hands of the highly skilled, trained personnel that we’ve cultivated and grown through the business, to just replace that with AI like that just wouldn’t make any sense to us.
00:02:03.410 — 00:02:16.850 · Lee Hanson
And as someone James, who’s obviously been kind of spearheading a lot of the investigation, the exploratory stuff that we’ve been doing recently as one of our designated AI champions, what’s your journey been like so far and what have you kind of what are your thoughts and perspectives on that?
00:02:16.890 — 00:03:08.660 · James Wayman
It’s been a really interesting journey getting to understand the different sorts of AI, the different models. I think that when people talk about AI, one sort of idea that comes to mind is that it’s some sort of silver bullet, that it will just solve problems, minimal input. And actually, having explored it, I’m finding more and more I’m having to lean on creative instincts.
I’m having to ensure that authenticity is adhered to. It’s so much more of a granular process to create something that is actually creative, and it is actually worthy of a professional piece. It’s been eye-opening. It’s been illuminating. It’s a very fast-moving technology. There’s advancements and changes every single week.
The biggest learning I’ve taken away from it is, you know, at the end of the day, the job is exactly the same as a creative: you have to create, but the tools are the thing that are changing.
00:03:08.700 — 00:03:39.780 · Lee Hanson
I think you just mentioned that a reference the speed at which things are progressing on a daily and weekly basis, and almost keeping abreast of that. It’s almost like a full-time job in itself. And what we’ve noticed as well is, obviously, our clients have expectations on their side that we obviously get to grips, or the industry gets to grips with, the latest trends and working out how we then work that into our responses throughout the kind of creative and production process.
But there’s obviously kind of potential pitfalls there in terms of setting guardrails to make sure that we’re compliant.
00:03:39.820 — 00:05:15.430 · Martyn Cook
A bigger agency may well struggle to bring AI through across the board, and I think it’s probably been used much more in silo. I think we hit that sweet spot of we’re a boutique, so we’re small enough that we can roll things out very quickly, but the business is mature enough that we’ve got lots of safeguards and guardrails, as you described it, in place, so that we’re using it appropriately and ethically, and at the centre of that is protecting the IP of our clients, information security being a really high priority for us.
So we’re really conscious of the impact that a misstep or an error could bring. And AI is no different. Like it’s it still requires a human to put an input in at the beginning, like any process. So it’s just being conscious at the outset of understanding where the risk factors are, how you mitigate those risks, and making sure you onboard and educate the team so they’re using the tools in the right way.
All our processes around AI are very much bookended by humans at the very least. And in reality, as James probably attests to, humans come into contact constantly through the process because you don’t just put one prompt in and generate an output at the other end, and it’s, you know, it’s ready to go. It requires that constant fettling and curation of the direction of travel.
All our policies and procedures are based around, not even humans in the loop, but kinds of humans in the lead. An input instigated by a human and at the end sense check by human or multiple humans before it goes anywhere, even across departments. And I think that’s the key. It’s like it’s creating efficiencies within the human workflow, not trying to remove humans from the workflow.
00:05:15.470 — 00:05:25.830 · Lee Hanson
Yeah, there’s that constant evaluation as part of the process and that kind of quality control, I guess, throughout. And I think you found that yourself haven’t you James, in terms of some of the projects that you’ve been trialling?
00:05:25.870 — 00:06:07.800 · James Wayman
There’s a lot of ways, I think, that it is important to look at AI, particularly with outputs. I think critical thinking is something that is so understated when it comes to AI. Um, these outputs, they need to be scrutinised, they need to be checked. And as well as that, it’s what goes in at the other end. I’ve mentioned earlier about how you need to retain a creative vision with what you’re putting into AI.
You need to make sure that the sources you’re putting in are correct, they’re accurate. You know, you don’t want to be misrepresenting things. You want to retain authenticity at the heart of what you’re making. If what you’re making with AI is not grounded in creativity, then ultimately it’s a fruitless exercise.
00:06:07.800 — 00:06:28.080 · Lee Hanson
So obviously what we’re finding as well at the moment, is a lot of the brands that we work with, are kind of looking to us to help inform them around, you know, best practices, how and where and when to adopt the latest technologies, creative stage, production stage. So, you know, obviously that’s different from client to client.
And I just thought it’d be interesting to kind of reflect on that.
00:06:28.160 — 00:07:09.130 · James Wayman
There’s some really interesting ways that we see it used across the company even now. So with a lot of the pitching process, we’re seeing that, you know, as employees, we’re really able to pressure test our ideas. We’re able to interrogate them. We’re able to get instantaneous feedback as we go. And when it comes to concepting, actually being able to develop visuals and really pointed, clear, communicated text when we create our pitch decks really allows us to bridge the gap between the understanding of the creative, and the client.
And I think that that’s really, really valuable in presenting those ideas when everyone’s on the same page, everything runs more smoothly.
00:07:09.210 — 00:07:14.650 · Lee Hanson
Does that kind of change from client to client in terms of how we respond to their particular needs as well, would you say?
00:07:14.770 — 00:07:35.730 · James Wayman
Definitely. I think, you know, when you’ve got a client in mind, it can help with how you interpret that brief as well. That’s part of that whole pressure testing. So, you know, you’re always referring back to exactly what the client wants and just double-checking that everything you’re writing, all of the content that you’re coming up with, is in direct alignment with what the client needs.
00:07:35.770 — 00:07:51.250 · Lee Hanson
Yeah. And obviously, for every brand that’s keen to explore things further, there are certain instances that we’re finding now where brands are almost kind of blanket taking the opposite tack. They’re almost kind of caveat briefs with no gen AI. And that’s something that we’re kind of finding more and more.
00:07:51.290 — 00:08:39.340 · Martyn Cook
Every brand is different. And I think sometimes to differentiate yourself you have to take certain standpoints. But also there might be very strong ethical reasons why people don’t want to be involved with AI content production, which is brilliant for us because we’ve got a team of in-house creatives and we shoot content.
That’s what we do. We edit content, and equally, if there’s brands that want to explore that, we’re open-minded enough that we can see like a direction of travel. And it again brings that tool into the arsenal. It’s helping us to develop. It’s helping a client to develop. I think anything we do is done with full transparency.
So we’re not using AI. If the client doesn’t know about it, it would all be agreed upfront. There are some clients that are looking to explore it because they can see the obvious benefits on it. Pick a direction, and we’re happy to support and learn with a client on that journey.
00:08:39.380 — 00:09:20.500 · Lee Hanson
Yeah, so it’s recognising what’s right for that particular client in that particular audience or that particular name. I think it’d be fair to say that even within our own team, we’re here at Kingdom, you know, there are very fundamentally different perspectives on the role of AI within what we do. And there’s differences of opinion there.
And I think certain people are more kind of happy to embrace it. Some people are a little bit more sceptical, I think you yourself, James, were maybe more on the sceptical side. Maybe you can talk more a little bit more around that. But I think what’s fair to say is that, you know, we’re trying to arm ourselves with more knowledge as we move forward so we can have more of an opinion and more of an educated kind of perspective.
So I don’t know if that’s something that you had any strong feelings of one way or the other.
00:09:20.700 — 00:10:08.350 · James Wayman
Yeah. Caveating that I did come into this quite sceptical is quite important because, you know, I came into this exploration of AI from a place where there is obviously a lot of fear around it, there is a lot of white noise. And conversely, I wanted to understand it. I wanted to build up a knowledge so that I could properly be informed about it.
And I think having, you know, gone through several months of experimenting with it, it’s safe to say that there is a lot of nuance around it. I think that there are definitely some use cases for AI that are fantastic. Um, conversely, I think that there are some places that it does fall short. I think that, you know, this is a conversation that’s going to just keep on evolving over time as the technology evolves.
And it will be a fascinating one to watch play out.
00:10:09.150 — 00:11:23.080 · Martyn Cook
I don’t think it’s even just like an interesting thing. I think it’s a critical thing to have that difference of opinion amongst the team. So I think it makes you challenge your thinking on whether using AI in a particular way is right. Is it ethical or is it the right choice? Is it the right tool to even utilise in this situation, regardless of the ethics?
Is it actually the right solution in the same way that is, fix it in post the right solution or something like that. So I think having those differences of opinion help challenge the thinking of senior leadership or people pioneering these technologies within the business, with people like you at the forefront in the champions program.
Um, I think by having those people that question it just that a little bit more gives you the right perspective and the right framing to approach things correctly. And that pause for thought moment where the line from Jurassic Park, ‘they were too busy wondering whether they could. They didn’t think to consider whether they should.’
And it’s kind of a moment like that where it’s kind of, is this the right thing to do? Have we thought this through correctly, and what are the wider implications of it? And I think with that, that’s how you kind of develop a mature approach to anything. But certainly the technology that’s moving so quickly, that kind of internal reflection, uh, is, is key to making sure we build the right processes.
00:11:23.080 — 00:11:37.400 · Lee Hanson
We’ve talked quite a bit about, you know, what we’ve been doing over the past few months. Um, but kind of looking ahead and, you know, obviously that’s part of a bigger plan and a kind of longer-term vision. I don’t know if that’s something that you’d like to kind of expand upon, Martyn?
00:11:37.400 — 00:12:39.280 · Martyn Cook
2026 was designated as like our key kind of turning point in AI with, uh, we were dabbling in silo with bits and pieces of technology, a lot of it off the shelf. Um, not necessarily particularly structured, and certainly nothing that was touching any final client outputs. 2026, that was all changed.
And we’ve laid out a full roadmap of our journey in AI, how we use it ethically, how we use it appropriately and how we use it creatively as well. And that’s been driven by our AI champions, who are a group of kind of early adopters who are pioneering tools and testing them out, or even establishing whether a route isn’t the route we want to go.
It’s kind of like a hot house kind of testbed to work out what works for us and what doesn’t work for us. That’s all part of laying the key foundations of what AI really will be for us at Kingdom, and those cornerstones and frameworks of how we operate, so that then we get it right as new tools come on board.
And we also don’t lose where we came from and affect the body of work that we’ve built up to this point.
00:12:40.120 — 00:13:03.040 · James Wayman
I mean, it’s fair to say that with Kingdom’s body of work, I’m surrounded by colleagues that just make some absolutely amazing stuff. And I think with the AI champions program and what we’re building towards with the roadmap, it’s finding the best way that we can integrate AI in a way that complements it, doesn’t circumvent it, fits into that process, and it helps uplift this amazing content that my colleagues deliver.
