AI — It’s not a tool, it’s an instrument
The rise of generative AI represents a technological shift comparable to the early days of the Internet, promising to impact nearly every business and sector over the next decade. While basic AI tools like ChatGPT are readily accessible to anyone, using them to generate significant business value and drive growth is far from trivial.
We sat down with Jules Love and Emma Wharton Love, founders of Spark AI, a firm dedicated to helping creative agencies and brand teams implement AI successfully. Jules and Emma, who both come from creative backgrounds as well as being business change experts with backgrounds in major consultancies and central government, were quick to embrace the possibilities of AI and now they use their experience to guide businesses through the same journey.
Drawing on their expertise in AI training and business model evolution, Jules and Emma shared critical insights on how businesses can move past simple "tinkering" to harness AI's full potential.
Hi both, thanks for sitting down with us today! Can you start by telling us a bit about who you are and how you came to be the experts in AI?
Emma: Of course! Our story is an interesting one as AI as we know it now is still quite new. We went very hard into AI very early. We both come from hybrid creative and business change backgrounds and in the back end of 2022 we launched a small employer branding business. Around that same time, ChatGPT really took off. We were going to use AI to scale our own business when we realised there's a really interesting opportunity in helping other businesses to do the same thing. So that's how Spark AI was born.
Jules: I worked as an advertising photographer for 15 years; Emma is a graphic designer. Before that I lead the marketing centre of excellence at Accenture and Emma lead future of work at Parliament. Creative businesses are at the heart of the disruption being caused by AI and we founded our creative business just when all these AI tools were starting to take off! So, we pivoted. I studied generative AI at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emma secured us a grant from Innovate UK, and we spent a lot of time playing with AI tools and learning how to use them best.
E: Spark AI helps creative agencies and brand teams implement AI. We run training to upskill people on how to use the tools that are available, and we work with leadership teams to help them evolve their business models using AI.
Because not everyone can study at MIT, how easy would you say it is for the average person to get to grips with AI?
J: It’s very easy and quite hard at the same time. AI has been around since the 50s, but specifically focusing on generative AI, this is the first time AI has been in the hands of the general public.
When it comes to gen AI, all you really need is to be able to speak English. ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are all free in their most basic forms, so if you have access to the Internet, you can use AI. But getting value out of this technology and being able to integrate it into your business is where the challenge lies.
An analogy that I quite like is that AI is a bit like a musical instrument. You can give anybody a saxophone, and they can make a noise on it. But to actually make something that somebody else wants to listen to, you've got to be trained, and you've got to practice.
E: That’s exactly it. Like anything, people don’t know what they don’t know. We did some research and found there’s something we are calling the confidence capability gap; this is when the capability within the business doesn’t match where their confidence level is. The first step to getting to grips with AI is education and overcoming that gap.
A survey conducted by ANS in partnership with YouGov found that 35% of businesses cited lack of expertise as the top barrier to AI adoption. Other key barriers were high costs and uncertainty around ROI.
What are you seeing from the general landscape in terms of appetite for AI and maturity with technology?
J: We do quite a bit of research at Spark into AI adoption and while we’re seeing adoption increase a lot, there are still a lot of businesses that aren’t really getting to grips with it.
Our latest report that came out a couple of months ago showed that roughly a third of the businesses we surveyed were regularly using generative AI for many different tasks. Another third were using AI sporadically for certain things that they've found it helpful for. And about 20%, were not really engaging with it much or just tinkering with it. And then of course there are the last 5% or so who are trying to make AI a part of everything in their business who are leaps ahead of everyone else.
E: These results really reflect that confidence gap we mentioned earlier. A lot of business leaders feel that they're quite confident about AI and its applications in their business, but sometimes the capability within the business doesn't match where their confidence level is.
AI is now in the world, but in a lot of cases, businesses aren't seeing the opportunities. They're seeing the obvious stuff that's in the news or on LinkedIn about how AI is used, but not necessarily how it could generate new revenue streams or a new side business, or a totally new way of doing things.
According to a poll conducted by Forbes, 79% of respondents had used generative AI to help them at work. Government research found that one in six organisations have embraced at least one AI technology, a stat that is likely to have increased since the research was conducted.
So how are businesses supposed to go about bridging that confidence gap to understand what AI could look like for them?
E: They need to make the time to allow their teams to engage with AI. Ideally, they’d bring in some kind of educational training partner, but the goal is to bring everyone to the same level of understanding about AI so the business as a whole can gain from AI rather than just a few enthusiastic individuals.
In order to have the informed conversations about how AI can be used in your business, everyone needs to be operating at the same level of knowledge.
J: To build on what Emma has said, giving people a bit of space to apply these skills is really important as well. One of the things we help businesses think through is how AI is can help your business specifically, either by doing things more effectively or growing new sources of revenue. Really it all comes down to education and giving yourself the freedom to explore opportunities.
What are the traps and pitfalls people are falling in to when trying to make use of AI tools?
J: There are two common traps we see businesses falling into. One is thinking that gen AI is a simple technology project for an IT team to sort out for you. This results in outcomes that don’t fit the business, and nobody really knows how to utilise it.
The second is underestimating the potential of simply rolling out a tool like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot for their team and instead jump to highly technical solutions. Just training people on these easily accessible AI assistants can see productivity increase in a way that is cheap and effective.
E: Another one we see a lot is people racing to discover how it can be used to do things quicker and cheaper. Pursuing quicker and cheaper is a race to the bottom and it completely overlooks some of the transformative potential that AI can bring.
What would you say to people who are hesitant to really lean into AI if they don't necessarily think it's right for them?
E: Personally, I think that’s completely fair. However, I do think everyone should take the time to understand AI first before deciding whether it’s right for them.
I’d say for most businesses, not implementing at least some elements of AI would be a missed opportunity, but there are definitely some times where AI probably isn’t right for them.
J: Emma is exactly right. It's really about everybody just understanding a little bit about what this stuff is and thinking about what it might mean for them.
I think where we are with generative AI right now is akin to where the Internet was in the 90s. Some industries are going to be impacted earlier than others, but eventually it will influence everything.
A good example is say you are a carpentry and joinery business. You might be thinking well, this stuff doesn't really have much to do with me, but actually it will. It will affect how people find your business online and it will also start to affect the way you can help your clients. You might use AI to visualise what those new kitchen cabinets are going to look like with new image generation tools. Or it could be used to support your sales outreach.
Even for businesses that might not feel very AI right now, it will impact them. It’s never a bad idea to start making moves that will prepare you for the future.
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