The one-day AI Creative Summit drew more than 300 people from production companies, agencies and tech teams to London’s BFI Southbank this year. The theme was clear: how to use AI so that it helps and does not complicate life. Here is a quick overview of the most important points raised.
In the opening session, Alex Mahon, chair of the newly formed Centre for Creative AI and former head of Channel 4, aptly named something that most creative teams quietly feel: everyone sets their own rules for working with AI. Ethics, data governance or licensing look different in every studio. Instead of one clear framework, a set of rules is emerging that each person adjusts their own way. And when things are unclear, caution arrives and slows the pace. And once work slows down, it is creativity that takes the hit.
Setting rules is the key to success
The solution is not complicated. Simply start with yourself. Set simple rules within your organisation that everyone knows, and stick to them, whichever partner we are working with. In a time when there is noise all around, clarity itself becomes a competitive advantage.
Similar uncertainty surrounds legislation, typically copyright. Training data, consents, ownership of outputs… These are topics that ran through practically every panel. Representatives of ITV spoke openly about how different legal approaches from suppliers often slow down production more than the technology itself. And sometimes very little is needed: a single shared rights checklist that eases the work of everyone involved in a project.
Smaller production companies vs. media houses
It is interesting how differently AI resonates across organisations. Smaller production companies work with it almost on instinct. They quickly try out what works and simply discard what does not. Large media houses behave more like a tanker: enormous power, but it takes time to turn. And it is precisely this difference in pace that will only grow in the coming years.
What united all the speakers, however, was a change in who everyone will need. The future belongs to those who understand both creation and technology. People who are not afraid to use a new tool, because they know it will not take away their creativity. In short, when AI is led by someone with feeling, work and room for experimentation speed up dramatically.
Even rarer and more in demand will be people who use AI not only in creation, but also to build new tools. A person who not only comes up with a scene or a concept, but can also build a quick tool that saves the whole team hours of work. These small prototypes often make a bigger revolution than large investments in technology.
In the end, the summit showed not so much “what AI can do”, but rather everything that is needed for creative teams to be able to use it fully. Seen through our lens, much of this already lives in our daily practice. At the start, we managed to set our own rules and a legal framework, to have clarity over data and to give room to people who know how to use AI. Thanks to this, AI for us is not an add-on, but part of the infrastructure that powers creation, promotion and internal processes.
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