Artificial Intelligence is reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace and the creative sector is certainly no exception. From streamlining workflows to enhancing creative possibilities, AI is helping us work smarter, not harder. But what do the Spiral team make of it all?
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At Spiral, we all experience AI differently depending on our role. We see both opportunities and challenges in its evolution. Here, each member of the Spiral team shares thoughts on the impact of AI – and how we see it shaping the future.
Simon Turner: Client relationships
AI should only be used if it actually adds to the client experience. We've all used the dreaded Live Chatbot – convenient, perhaps, but ultimately leaves you feeling that a business has saved a bit of money, but lost a valuable connection with you.
AI should never be a substitute for direct human contact. By interpreting what AI is suggesting, then using it to augment, rather than replace, processes designed around the client, AI can help guide them through a creative project from start to finish. AI is also great at uncovering hidden patterns in customer data so you can understand behaviour and preferences – and identify trends in historical records.
This all helps us make more informed decisions, refine strategies – and then provide an even better, personalised, tailored experience. But we should never lose sight of the emotional intelligence and accountability that great people bring to the process.
Our clients love working one-on-one with a professional designer because they want a real person to interpret their thoughts and wishes – and to suggest things they haven’t thought of.
Putting initial thoughts into a platform like ChatGPT simply produces a blended, averaged, often predictable result. A real person can draw on years of individual human experience to interpret the brief - and then deliver an insightful and engaging solution that is augmented rather than led by AI. Using AI correctly demands the motivation to put clients first and a desire for true customer satisfaction.
Rob Maxfield: Creative innovation
AI is great at solving standard problems and speeding up processes. But true creativity is more complex. It’s about taking risks, creating something for the moment, challenging current thinking and connecting with people’s emotions.
Can AI take risks informed by experience? Can it solve nuanced problems? Can it show the emotional ability to connect, without it feeling fake?
For me, the answer is: ‘not yet’.
While AI creative innovation seems impressive, it only shows what it’s capable of, rather than answering a real-world creative brief. Spiral is a trusted creative partner specialising in insight-driven brand design solutions. AI cannot replace what we do for our clients. However, the various tools AI offers our designers – used considerately – can help with initial ideation, creative processes, accessibility and copy editing.
For example, here at Spiral we recently explored how AI focus groups can help us overview our design work from a customer's viewpoint.
AI still needs to be driven by creative experts motivated by a clients’ needs. It can’t empathise with the creative challenges we must solve – but it can help on the way to those innovative solutions, to the benefit of our clients.
Chris Mawson: Internal communications
The use of AI has exploded over the past year. Yet it seems to spark some hesitation in the world of internal employee facing communications.
From my conversations with internal comms pros, it seems everyone’s AI journey is different: some are just getting started; some are already integrating AI into their comms processes. Given the appetite to embrace the opportunities and push the boundaries, I can only assume this hesitation is due to lack of governance, compliance and knowledge.
A recent State of the Sector 2024/25 survey from Gallagher claims two in five internal communicators report having no AI governance or guidance in place.
As more content becomes AI-generated and AI tools learn from other AI-generated content, there is the risk of spreading misinformation and potential brand damage. A clear stance on usage combined with strong governance protocols is critical.
So my big question is: who ‘owns’ AI in your organisation? Is it IT, brand, comms, HR – or even a new bespoke AI unit? Or is a lack of ownership and leadership holding you back?
With the right governance AI could support the evolution of employee-facing communication teams in many ways, without replacing critical human intervention:
So if you’re part of an IC comms team and feel a lack of AI ownership is holding you back, what more can you do to lead the agenda? A chance for IC pros to seize the day, perhaps?
Nik Moran: Design
The AI genie is well and truly out of the bottle and it’s not going back in.
In the world of design, AI is already revolutionising how we work. From automating repetitive tasks to streamlining workflows and sparking creative inspiration, tools like Adobe Firefly and Midjourney are generating high quality visuals in seconds. Impressive, yes – but does this mean my time’s up?
Here’s an example: I recently used Photoshop’s Generative Fill to retouch an image. What would’ve taken me a couple of hours manually was completed in seconds, with nothing more than a well-worded prompt. Honestly? The result was probably better than what I could’ve done myself.
So thank you AI – you’ve freed up my time to focus on what really matters: the actual design work. And that, for me, is the key takeaway.
When I see an opportunity where AI can support me, it makes sense to embrace it to gain a competitive edge. Of course, despite crystal-clear instructions, AI has sometimes delivered laughably poor results. The tech is powerful but it’s still maturing.
So what happens if AI gets so good that it starts to tread on our creative turf – out-designing us with speed, volume and even quality? Is that the end of the road for our profession?
Who knows – maybe. But strangely, I’m not panicking. I’m hopeful – and here’s why.
AI can replicate, remix and reimagine existing ideas. But the magic lies in the journey – and that creative process is uniquely human. It’s messy, nuanced, collaborative but filled with insight, intuition and emotion.
In one recent project, the final outcome was beautifully executed (OK, I’m a little biased) yet deceptively simple. And as any designer knows, simplicity is often the hardest thing to achieve.
AI could never have done this alone. It took months of collaboration – talented, experienced people working closely with the client, challenging assumptions, evolving the brief and responding to every twist and turn along the way. It demanded creative agility, strategic thinking, emotional intelligence and trust.
At Spiral, we aren’t just delivering a design – we’re solving problems, building relationships and navigating complexity. Clients need a reliable partner – someone to lean on when the road ahead looks uncertain. That trust – that shared journey – is just as important as the end result.
Great design is thoughtful, informed and intentional. It’s not just about making things look good. It’s about asking the right questions and crafting the right response.
So, as long as we stay self-aware – recognising where change is happening, where our strengths lie and where we need to adapt – I believe we’re in a strong position. By embracing the opportunities and mitigating the risks, we can remain resilient, relevant and ready to continue serving our clients with the creativity, the care and the expertise they’ve come to rely on.
Jess Bentley: Office management
The most exciting thing about AI is the infinite possibility of its use across almost all areas of human society. Many of us were probably introduced to the concept of AI through art: software that can look at near-infinite images and use them as reference to create a brand new artwork based on a prompt. It’s a captivating way of seeing what AI is capable of.
But why on Earth would we want AI to do art for us – which most human beings do for joy and self-expression – when it could cover a lot of pretty undesirable day-to-day labour for the masses, leaving us humans to spend more of our time, energy and skill on the good stuff?
Not that I’m keen to do myself out of a job, but right now the primary focus for AI implementation should be things like administration and accounting.
I’d challenge anyone to point out an industry, business or even job role that doesn’t in some way touch on these crucial areas. By using AI to cover the bulk of basic admin and bookkeeping we would save businesses an inordinate amount of time, energy and money, leaving the more complex, meaningful – and dare I say exciting – work to us humans.
For example: with our accounting software, Xero, AI reads the vast majority of information I input from accounting paperwork and then auto-fills it to the software for me. It’s also learning many of the monthly, quarterly and annual processes that I regularly carry out, so it can now anticipate those tasks coming up and essentially preps the job for me. All I have to do is proof-check the assumptions and edit if necessary.
Not only does this save me time to manually input information, but it also means I can be far more effective in error-checking the AI’s work. The overall benefit being that I’m able to focus my human capabilities on more complex, creative or people-focused tasks.
Gavin McEwan: Motion graphics
The platforms we use to manage workflow are already being integrated with AI – and we now have plenty of generative AI tools in creative software like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop too.
Undoubtedly, these things are starting to play a bigger part by enhancing the motion graphic ideation and pre production work we do – but we’re not here to cut corners.
Yes, it’s possible to try and replace human talent. AI voiceovers have been around for a while now. More recently, it’s even possible to create entire short movies using just prompts and a combination of AI platforms. But AI shouldn’t replace our team members or the human talent we rely on.
As long as we are selective, using tools that improve efficiency without compromising quality, originality, AI can play a role in development and refinement without removing the human touch. Real creativity will always come from our team’s vision, judgement and experience.
Our approach at Spiral will evolve as the technology does – but in the meantime, we should be committed to using AI smartly, ensuring it supports our craft without ever replacing what makes our work unique.
Steve Coombs: Web development
The rise of Large Language Model (LLM) AI in code development is reshaping the digital landscape. Short term it’ll change how sites are built and maintained. Traditional CMS-based websites, often hosted on large shared platforms, could soon be facing significant disruption. Longer term, AI driven searches will raise fundamental questions about what a website even is.
As a developer, one of the most valuable aspects of AI is its ability to act as an instant, on-demand collaborator – providing ideas, suggestions and even functional code.
AI models have been trained on vast code repositories like Stack Overflow, GitHub, Reddit coding forums and more. That means I can now describe a task in natural language, receive AI-generated code and then refine it through iterative feedback.
This has given rise to something called ‘prompt-driven coding’, where programmers leverage AI to quickly generate functions, libraries – or even entire modules, which can then be integrated into larger projects.
Human expertise is still essential for defining problems in a way AI can solve, reviewing code for security flaws and efficiency – and integrating AI-generated solutions into a cohesive project.
While AI accelerates development, it also lowers the barrier for malicious actors. Attackers can use LLMs to generate exploitative code to bypass security measures, automate vulnerability scanning and data extraction and develop sophisticated attack tools with minimal effort.
Even commercial AI models with safeguards can sometimes be manipulated into producing harmful code. The same variability that makes AI-generated code unpredictable for stable systems can even be weaponised to create adaptive, hard-to-detect attacks – and this means businesses must strengthen their defenses.
In terms of your marketing website, what is its purpose if users shift to using LLM AI to answer their questions? This is effectively a new type of SEO, where your website will need to be written to present well to LLM AI so it can be addressed as a primary data source.
AI may reduce overall website traffic as people find their answers directly within the AI search response. However, the value of the traffic that does reach the website will be significantly higher with visitors more engaged, seeking active contact, interested in purchasing services – or looking for in-depth, first-hand information.
Changing the profile of fundamental website interaction is very much a new horizon of the web and likely to be more disruptive than the shift-to-mobile of the 2010s. Spiral is well placed to adapt to these changes.
Experienced professionals are more critical than ever – both to harness AI’s potential and to defend against its misuse. Whether you're looking to enhance your website or secure it, expert guidance will ensure you leverage AI’s strengths while mitigating its risks.
Dan Craven: Resource management
As Spiral’s Artwork Manager, I often need to onboard freelancers to help upscale our team at busy times. AI can transform this kind of resource management by helping us forecast, allocate and utilise resources with more precision and less spreadsheet-induced frustration. And because AI can process vast amounts of data in seconds, it can help make decision-making faster and smarter.
Specialist tools like Talent Mapper are already capable of assessing organisational needs, the skills required and who is available. Over time, these tools will get even smarter by learning from past assignments and fine-tuning their recommendations.
AI works best when paired with human expertise. It should be a tool to improve a process, rather than replace it entirely.
Yes, AI brings speed and the potential for data-driven decision-making – but a good resource manager brings experience, emotional intelligence – and the ability to sense when a freelancer is better than their personal marketing might suggest!
Resourcing humans needs Human Resources. The best approach is a balance. Let AI handle the heavy lifting while we (the humans) provide the strategic thinking and – occasionally – the much-needed ‘gut feeling’.
At Spiral, we’re beginning to embrace AI while staying true to our people-focused values. By blending AI’s efficiency with human insight, we’re trying to unlock smarter and ever more productive tools to allow us to work with brilliant people, perform better and recoup time for ever more creative work.
Jacob Thornton: Project management
In the digital workspace, it’s amazing how ubiquitous AI has already become.
AI tools are now easily available or even integral to some platforms – and it’s all happened in such a short space of time.
Google Gemini can summarise your Gmail or help you with your Google Doc content. ChatGPT is now plugged into apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams for assistance, summarisation and content generation – and Microsoft Copilot does the same for Microsoft 365, with data analysis to boot. You’ve got Zoom’s AI Companion making real-time meeting summaries and automating note-taking – and Canva Magic Studio giving you design suggestions and text-to-image generation. Whereas over on LinkedIn, AI provides post suggestions, CV enhancements and personalised job recommendations.
I’m enthusiastic about the huge time-saving benefit these AI tools can offer us – boosting our efficiency and productivity, and passing that benefit on to our clients. But, like anything that almost seems too good to be true, we have to be careful.
Here at Spiral, we’ve never cut corners. We know when and where we should tread more carefully. We’ve all seen the AI hallucinations (errors). The strange hands with six fingers are funny, but inaccurate AI-generated content used in a business critical report is not.
Many AI users already trust AI uncritically. I worry that the ‘move fast and break things’ approach to tech innovation means some people are relying on AI in a mad rush for speed and profit.
This risks quality and originality – AI-generated trends are fun on social media, but fall short on critical client projects – and it affects the jobs of skilled human professionals (we still use human proofreaders, copywriters and creative freelancers – thanks to our freelance partner Nick Copland for his editorial services on this very blog). Data security and client confidentiality has to be considered, not to mention intellectual property. Then there’s the environment – a single AI query uses up to 10x more energy than a standard search engine query. Those disposable AI-generated posts are costing the Earth.
Now don’t get me wrong. AI-powered project management tools are helping us track deadlines, allocate resources and automate repetitive admin tasks like never before – and this is freeing up my time for more important or complex things.
The California Gold Rush began with independent prospectors taking calculated risks and staking a claim. But once industrial mining moved in, so too did low-wage labour. If we are to continue to produce creative gold, we must look to the future and be mindful of how we use this new-found opportunity – or like the California prospector, we might find ourselves commodified.
AI at Spiral: where next?
AI is already enhancing the way we work, and its potential is still unfolding. Spiral is nothing without its people – and those people see AI as a tool for empowerment, not replacement. The challenge is for us to embrace AI’s strengths while ensuring that creativity, strategy and human connection remain at the heart of everything we do.
