We’re thinking too small about AI
2.12.2024
Ville, Samuel, and David reflect on how AI is often seen as just a tool for efficiency, but it has the potential to reshape industries and creativity.
Hey! (It's Ville here!)
I recently attended Grand One AI Day with Samu, and both of us felt compelled to share our thoughts. While we're well-versed in AI technology, the event – particularly David Wedebrant's (Managing Director of AKQA) compelling keynote – gave us a real wake-up call. It highlighted a crucial problem in how Finns are approaching AI: we're thinking too small.
After the event, Samu and I sat down to collect our thoughts, and we were fortunate to get some additional insights from David himself.
Fair warning: this might get a bit ranty.
So… what’s the issue?
Ville: So, how I see it is that we're facing an interesting paradox.
On one side, there's this pressing need for practical use cases. We need to find ways to integrate AI into our work and discover genuine applications. There's been so much hype and visionary promises thrown around that some practicality feels necessary – we need to ground these possibilities in reality.
The worry I have, though, is that this focus on practicality might be making us miss AI's true potential. We have this natural instinct to integrate AI into our existing processes, to optimize what we already do. As Finns, we excel at this kind of optimization. We're pragmatic, methodical, and results-oriented. All great things.
But here's the thing: while we're busy figuring out how to make our emails slightly faster to type, we're missing the bigger picture: what are the completely new things we could do?
Samu: Exactly. We're not thinking big enough. The real challenge isn't about mastering prompts or finding the perfect use case for ChatGPT or Midjourney in our current workflows. That's just scratching the surface. The key shift we need to make is to stop viewing AI as just another tool in our toolkit. I mean, sure, AI is a tool, but in the future, being good at prompting will be as basic as knowing how to use a printer. We need to see AI as a springboard to imagine completely new possibilities.
As David pointedly remarked during his keynote, "While some are using AI to cure cancer and develop new proteins, in marketing, everything is possible." Yet, we're still stuck asking how to do meeting summaries and sometimes thinking that image made with Midjourney is a cool thing to do.
David: The greatest risk with AI today is not using it poorly—it’s thinking too small. We’re at a crossroads where AI can either become a tool for incremental improvements or a catalyst for redefining entire industries. The real question isn’t ‘How can we use AI to do what we’re already doing better?’ It’s ‘What entirely new opportunities can we create with AI?’ The future belongs to those bold enough to ask the bigger questions.
Ville: Indeed, this is why we need to completely shift our questioning. Instead of asking "How can we do our current work faster?", we should be asking:
- What problems can we now solve that were previously impossible?
- What entirely new possibilities have opened up?
- How can we reshape our entire approach to creative work?
- What if we started from scratch – what would we do differently?
Jaa
Samu: I agree. This really requires us to rethink everything we have and all our processes, to start, kind of, from a clean slate. It might sound extreme, but sometimes you need to tear down the old to build something better. It’s not about fitting AI into our already complex workflows — it’s about reimagining them entirely. Remixing our creativity in ways that weren’t possible before.
David: AI is like giving your creativity a superhero cape. Sure, it can make things a little faster or easier, but that’s not the point. The point is that now you can fly. If we limit AI to just optimizing our current workflows, it’s like using a jetpack to walk to work. We need to think bigger. What would you do if there were no limits? That’s the real question AI might help us answer.
So, here's our challenge to you: Next time you're thinking about AI, don't start with what you already do. Start with what you've always wished you could do.
Ville Ruokonen serves as a Creative Strategist and Samuel Räikkönen as a Lead Creative at SEK, part of Grey & AKQA. David Wedebrant is the Managing Director at AKQA.
David: AI is like giving your creativity a superhero cape. Sure, it can make things a little faster or easier, but that’s not the point. The point is that now you can fly. If we limit AI to just optimizing our current workflows, it’s like using a jetpack to walk to work. We need to think bigger. What would you do if there were no limits? That’s the real question AI might help us answer.
So, here's our challenge to you: Next time you're thinking about AI, don't start with what you already do. Start with what you've always wished you could do.
Ville Ruokonen serves as a Creative Strategist and Samuel Räikkönen as a Lead Creative at SEK, part of Grey & AKQA. David Wedebrant is the Managing Director at AKQA.
Creative Brand House