Stop Hiding the AI

I've just got back from two days in Copenhagen with one of our clients. They're about as far ahead on AI as any brand I've worked with. It isn't a side project or an innovation team tucked away somewhere. It's in every part of how they run the business, and they talk about it openly.

On the flight home I kept coming back to one thing: as an agency, we sometimes downplay how much we use AI. We use it every day, across strategy, analysis, copy, design and delivery. We're getting good at it, and we're probably still not using it to its full potential. Yet there's still a reflex to keep quiet about it, as if admitting it somehow cheapens the work.

That needs to stop.

I'll put my hand up here. Just over a year ago, I was using ChatGPT to help build slides and draft content, and I felt like I had to keep that quiet. It felt like cutting corners, even when the end result was better. Now AI is part of absolutely everything in my process, from the first rough thinking through to the finished piece, and I'm not interested in pretending otherwise.

The shame is misplaced

The worry usually goes something like this: if a client knows AI was involved, they'll assume the thinking is lazy, the output is generic, or they're overpaying for something a machine did in five minutes.

I get where that comes from. We've all seen the slop - decks with the same tired structure, copy that reads like it was written by a very polite robot, visuals with the giveaway sheen. That stuff is bad and it shouldn't be leaving anyone's building.

Even so, that output is often better than what people produce without these tools. The bar for "obviously AI" isn't as low as people like to think. It's just recognisable.

That's not good enough for an agency, though. Clients pay us to be at the top of our game. If you're a genuinely strong user, your AI-assisted work should never look or feel like AI. It should look like your best work, done faster, with more time spent on the thinking that actually matters.

So the answer to bad AI output isn't to hide your AI use. It's to get better at it.

It's becoming a hiring question

One conversation in Copenhagen stuck with me. The CMO told me that how candidates use AI day to day is now a qualifying question in their interviews. Not a nice-to-have - a filter.

I suspect plenty of candidates walk in and downplay it, thinking it makes them look less capable. They've got it backwards. The people who come in and talk openly about what they've figured out - the workflows they've built, the time they've saved, the problems they now solve differently - are exactly who that brand wants. For them, it's non-negotiable.

If that's where the most forward-thinking clients are heading, agencies hiding their AI use are sending the wrong signal entirely. Clients don't want to hear that we're doing things the slow way. They want to know we're doing them the smart way.

Stop giving it the credit

There's a related habit worth dropping. When we present something, there's often a little throwaway line - "with a bit of help from Claude" or "my friend ChatGPT helped with this one". It's meant to be light-hearted, but it does two unhelpful things. It undersells the work, and it treats using AI as something unusual enough to need a disclaimer.

We don't credit spellcheck, Google or Excel. AI is just how the work gets done now. Being open about how you work is one thing - apologising for it every time you present is another. The output is yours. Own it.

What the shift looks like

For agencies, it means being upfront about how AI is part of delivery and being clear about where the human judgement sits. The value was never in typing the words. It's in knowing what good looks like, asking the right questions and making the call.

For individuals, it means treating AI fluency as a skill worth talking about, not a secret to keep. Put it in your CV. Bring it up in interviews. Show your working.

The people and businesses who will do well over the next few years aren't the ones pretending they don't use AI. They're the ones who use it well and aren't embarrassed to say so.