BETWEEN US AND AI: RETHINKING CREATIVITY & CULTURE IN MARCOM
Artificial intelligence is moving too fast in marketing communications. Many agencies are already relying on it in some form. And while the industry is busy keeping up, the critical impact of the evolution is still unfolding.
In post-AI communications, briefs, brainstorms, drafts, last-minute posts and rewrites all run through the tools. In a short time, AI has moved beyond execution and into the early stages of creative thinking, influencing how ideas take shape.
This remarkable shift raises important questions on the role of AI in the creative process. Where should AI be involved and how? Where does human judgment need to lead? This matters because when content is developed at this speed, creative choices become a responsibility; and good judgement makes all the difference.
Where Creativity Changed (and Where it Didn’t)
Creativity itself hasn’t changed. But almost everything around it has. Creative work now begins before teams even sit down to brainstorm. A media strategist, creative
director and content writer now arrive with options already in view, each with deeper insights in their own area. Their drafts, sketches, and narrative contexts are explored, half-generated, or already refined. As a result, the human role has moved towards decision making.
AI has changed the rhythm of the work. While ideas move faster and put more pressure on intent and direction, time is also freed from routine tasks, allowing more focus on creative substance. A content creator now spends less time hunting for ideas, and more focusing on the message itself and how it lands. Teams can use this extra space to sharpen their creative identity informed by context and cultural understanding.
Culture in Focus
Ask AI to draft a social post for Ramadan. The first version may look appropriate and well-designed but still feels broad. The language could be too formal where a more familial tone in expected; the visuals may lean colder than they should; the team lets it pass; The post goes live, but never quite connects; and audiences sense the distance. Why? Because it lacks a sharp cultural instinct; it is generic.
In the absence of clear direction, cultural authenticity is at risk. Algorithms can produce very well-written drafts in seconds, but they can just as easily slide into generalizations or narrative rhythms that feel out of place. The output looks fine on the surface. Look closer, and the gaps will begin to show.
What has become obvious is that cultural expectations need to be clear at all times to ensure the message and human intent are whole and meaningful. This brings the agency’s creative thought and connection to culture into the spotlight. It also raises a question: how ready is the agency to work in a way where clear human cultural judgment guides AI?
ThinkMate: A Digital-First Agency Model
Embracing AI is not about having the “best” tools. It is about finding the most effective human-AI collaboration model for the agency. This led Hewar to develop ThinkMate, our in-house digital transformation strategy.
Built around the needs of our teams, ThinkMate addresses challenges at the level of all departments through a bottom-up approach. When the strategy was launched in 2025, delegates from each department represented their teams in workshops and identified where friction existed in daily workflows and where AI could meaningfully support the operations. Used cases were developed, and several tools were conceptualized and assessed by each department to identify priority solutions for implementation.
On the Creative Team level, the power of Generative AI is invaluable for enriching brainstorming sessions and supporting the early stages of artistic production. ThinkMate introduced a framework that enables faster exploration while preserving a space for original thinking. This has led Hewar to strengthen its cultural core as a people-centered Integrated Marketing Communications agency, while leveraging AI to expand - rather than define - creativity.
Amplifying Human Creativity
Even as daily work has become more automated, the human role is back at the center of the conversation. Knowing how to work with AI tools is now minimum expectation. What sets strong creative talent apart is their ability to question the work and assess whether the deliverable fits the cultural context and intent.
AI-human collaboration frameworks can help bridge this gap. It can merge AI’s fluency in data processing with the social and emotional depth that people bring. When this is done, the content we create stays true to the agency’s identity.
Beyond its impact on improving content creation, this collaboration creates a cycle of continued learning. As communicators are empowered with more options and deeper research capabilities, they gain broader perspectives. That can push their creative point of view beyond the limits that had previously existed.
Takeaway
Good marketing communication has always depended on judgment. The strongest creative ideas come from people who live in culture, who have clear perspective and purpose. And while we are embracing AI as part of the creative ecosystem, the ultimate goal is to boost human creativity, not dominate it.
And so, between us and AI, the future of marketing communications belongs to creatives and professionals whose skills are sharpened by machines that provide faster access to wider knowledge. This can be seen through agency-led approaches, such as ThinkMate, where teams experiment and adapt tools to their ways of working and build capability over time. This way, even as creation speeds up, the work stays connected to what matters most: meaning and culture.
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