Amidst the rapid proliferation of AI, Initiative is adopting a thoughtful and measured approach to the integration of the technology, according to CEO Helen Galanis, who believes industry adoption of AI tools will soon level the playing field.

“[The technology is] going to become quite undifferentiated across the agency landscape,” says Galanis. “We will all be equipped with very similar tools, because technology is democratized and we’re all going to have to figure out how to use it effectively, eventually.”

So how does Initiative plan to get ahead? Galanis believes the agency will need to rely on the “people who are activating those tools” and that her mission now is to build out its “human advantage.” The best example of this, she says, is when Initiative partnered with McCann on the “See You There” AI-driven campaign for Black & Abroad.

Using Gen AI, the brand and agency teams created customized landing pages, placing visitors in images of travel destinations such as Senegal, Ghana or France. The aim was to have travellers imagine themselves in new destinations. However, the team discovered that AI had some biases – the generative models tended to depict Black travellers in poverty-stricken areas of Africa.