Greetings earthlings,

Welcome to Spark Intelligence – your AI navigator in the creative and marketing world, written by Emma, co-founder of Spark AI. We’ve had loads of new subscribers this month so if you are one of them - welcome! Whether you're testing the waters or fully embracing AI, this week’s Spark Intelligence gives you quick wins and strategic insights to keep you ahead with AI. Here’s what’s inside:

1. Ideogram’s latest features

2. Hugo Boss goes all-in on AI video

3. New 1:1 AI coaching

4. Is AI turning our brains to mush?

Let’s dive in.

1. Ideogram’s latest features: More power, same simple UX

We’ve been early fans of Ideogram for its slick, user-friendly interface - and now it’s had a major glow-up. The latest updates make it even more useful for creative teams, with:

• Canvas Mode – A new space for iterative design, letting you refine layouts and mock up edits inside the platform.

• Batch Processing – Generate large-scale content efficiently.

• Team Collaboration – Work collectively on AI-generated imagery, streamlining creative workflows.

Brilliant for rapid concept exploration and brand-consistent visuals, whether you’re testing new ideas or fine-tuning assets.

Are you using Ideogram? We’d love to learn how it’s fitting into your workflow.

2. AI in the wild: Hugo Boss goes all-in on AI video

Hugo Boss just became one of the first major brands to integrate AI-generated video into its e-commerce site. Using an in-house Stable Diffusion model, the brand is generating high-quality visuals that stay true to its identity—no generic AI stock in sight.

What’s the big deal?

• Brand consistency at scale – AI lets them create on-brand video assets faster.

• The start of a bigger shift – As AI adoption grows, expect more fashion brands to develop their own AI models for hyper-personalised content.

The AI fashion revolution is here—which industry is next? 

3. New 1:1 AI coaching

We’re testing something new – and we’d love your input.

We’ve been hearing the same thing from across our community:

So we’re trialling a personal coaching offer for individuals – designed to help creative agency leaders, CMOs and AI leads bring AI into their actual workflow. Focused support to work through live issues in your agency or role.

Here’s the offer:

• What: Private AI coaching for individuals

• Who it’s for: Agency leaders, CMOs and AI leads

• Focus: Solving your real business problems using AI in practical, time-saving ways

Bring your unique AI adoption challenge, pitch you’re prepping, the campaign you’re stuck on, or the deck you need to finish – and we’ll use AI tools together to move it forward, fast.

This is for individuals, not teams - think: personal training for your AI practice. We’ll offer early access to those who are keen to start.

Why we’re doing this

We’ve seen how fast people build momentum when leaders get hands-on. This is your chance to get focused help, build confidence, and make AI part of your day-to-day in a way that sticks.

4. Is AI turning our brains to mush?

If you’ve been feeling a little uneasy about AI’s growing role in creative work, you’re not alone. There’s a fine line between boosting efficiency and losing our creative edge—and every agency leader and CMO is trying to walk it.

So, is AI making us lazy, or is it just changing the way we create? Let’s break it down.

The risk: Could AI dull our creative skills?

AI can brainstorm, refine, and even execute ideas at lightning speed but over-reliance on AI might be eroding critical thinking.

• A Microsoft/Carnegie Mellon study found that when people blindly trust AI-generated outputs, they stop questioning or verifying them. That’s a problem if you want to push creative boundaries instead of just rubber-stamping AI’s first suggestion.

• A study in education found that students who used AI to solve maths problems performed worse on tests, having skipped the struggle that leads to deep learning. The same goes for creative work—if we never engage in the hard part, do we risk losing our ability to craft bold, original ideas?

The takeaway? Use AI as a collaborator, push it’s thinking challenge, ask it to challenge you. Don’t just ask it a question and take the answer for granted. You wouldn’t do this with your human colleague. Your best ideas still need human intelligence to stand out.

The other side: AI can supercharge our thinking

Andrej Karpathy (formerly of OpenAI) argues that AI will soon be able to out-analyse the average knowledge worker. But he thinks our real differentiator is human agency.

No matter how advanced AI gets, it can’t:

• Take initiative and challenge norms

• Convince a client to take a bold creative risk

• Build real human relationships

AI might suggest an idea, but it’s up to us to push it further, add context, and make it resonate. This is where the next generation of creatives will shine and where we now need to focus skills development—not just in execution, but in leadership, strategy, and vision.

How to insure against a world of AI blandness

1. Keep your creative edge by demonstrating how to use AI brilliantly

Teach strategic AI use. AI can churn out ideas quickly, but your team needs to refine and elevate them. We are curators now as well as creators.

Avoid homogenisation. Without human intervention, AI-generated content is formulaic. Train your team to challenge outputs and make them uniquely yours.

2. AI for competitive advantage not a race to the bottom

Faster turnarounds, sharper ideas. Teams who understand how to wield AI effectively produce better work in less time.

AI literacy is now an expectation. If your business doesn’t have an AI strategy, you need to get on it this year.

3. Invest more than ever in relationships and your people

Human connection wins. AI can write, but it can’t build trust, manage clients, or handle tough conversations.

Future-proofing your team. AI will keep evolving. Your team’s ability to think strategically, ask the right questions, and inspire action will be what sets them apart.

5. The Robots Are Coming – and we’ve got the research to prove it

This week, Jules and I had the total privilege of headlining Agency Hackers’ “The Robots Are Coming” event in London – where 200 creative agency leaders gathered to talk AI and the future of creative work.

We shared the first public reveal of our updated AI in Creative Agencies research, fresh off the press. Here’s a taste of what we uncovered:

• One third of agencies still haven’t meaningfully started with AI.

• One in five are already using AI to drive real, measurable competitive advantage.

• And the rest? Sitting somewhere in the messy middle – experimenting, dabbling, or stuck.

This sparked big questions in the room:

• What’s holding teams back?

• How do we move from pilot projects to actual performance gains?

• What’s the role of leadership in driving real change?

We’ve now published the full report for anyone who couldn’t be in the room – and it’s ready to download: 👉 Download the updated AI in Agencies research here

It includes:

• 30+ interviews with agency founders and marketing leaders

• Benchmarks on where agencies really are with AI

• The capabilities that separate AI leaders from laggards

• Practical strategies to take your next step – wherever you are on the curve

Huge thanks to the brilliant team at Agency Hackers for hosting such a generous and thoughtful event.

See you for more soon,
Emma
Co-Founder of Spark AI