Greetings earthlings,

Welcome to Spark Intelligence – your AI navigator in the creative and marketing world, by Emma, co-founder of Spark. Whether you're testing the waters or fully embracing AI, we're here to keep you informed and ahead of the curve.

It’s busy times at Spark HQ, we’ve been recruiting and onboarding the team (more soon, very exciting), launching new courses (AI for Agency Leaders 👀), delivering AI Accelerator programmes and AI Activation workshops and getting ready to teach at Oxford University’s AI in Business diploma again. Not to mention keeping on top of and testing the constant flow of AI tools and updates so we can keep you in the know.

But less of that and more of this. Here’s what’s inside this week:

1. DeepSeek: The new AI app beating ChatGPT

2. AI and copyright—What you need to know today

3. Are we about to start marketing to AI agents?

4. AI for Creative Agency Leaders day—What agency leaders thought

5. Launching our new remote course for creatives and marketeers

Let’s get into it.

DeepSeek: what’s all the fuss about?

DeepSeek has become the most downloaded free app in the US, beating ChatGPT.

Before you panic about needing to change your subscriptions, for most everyday use cases, ChatGPT 4o, Claude, and Gemini are still better options.

But the big takeaway for agencies and marketers? AI is getting cheaper, faster, and more accessible.

Why this matters

👉 Faster AI Adoption – With more models available at lower costs, expect brands and businesses to integrate AI into their workflows much faster.

👉 Data Control is a Reality – Running DeepSeek (or similar open-source models like Meta's Llama) locally means you can process sensitive data securely without sending it to third-party servers.

Hype or real disruption? Read our take 👇

AI and copyright in the UK and US

One of the most frequent questions we get:

The UK government has launched a consultation on copyright and artificial intelligence, which will run for 10 weeks, closing on 25 February 2025 (get your comments in!). This consultation aims to address the current legal grey areas around the use of copyrighted materials for AI training in the UK.

Key points of the proposed reforms include:

• A new text and data mining (TDM) exception for commercial purposes, allowing AI developers to use copyrighted content for training AI models.

• An ‘opt-out’ system where content can be used for AI training unless rights holders explicitly reserve their rights.

• Potential removal of copyright protection for computer-generated works.

• Transparency requirements for AI developers regarding the works used to train their models.

• Possible labelling requirements for AI-generated or AI-manipulated content.

These proposals aim to balance the needs of the creative industries and the AI sector, addressing concerns from both sides. The government's objective is to make the UK more attractive for AI development while also supporting content creators' ability to control and monetise their work. It’s a tricky and contentious line!

Have your say on the UK AI copyright consultation.

Across the Atlantic the US Copyright Office just clarified their position

The US Copyright Office has published their guidelines which help clarify the situation across the Atlantic. Broadly speaking they have ruled that in the US:

• Prompts are not copyrightable

• AI generated work is not copyrightable UNLESS you select, coordinate and arrange AI generated content in creative way. (This could include modifying a Midjourney image in the editor).

A few things to note:

1. This is broadly how copyright law applies today, and how we advise agencies approach this issue in our Activation workshops and Accelerator programmes.

2. This is guidance from the US, whose copyright laws are meaningfully different to the ones we have in the UK (e.g. the provision for fair use). The UK Intellectual Property Office is still in consultation (as note above) about AI and copyright. Make your views heard!

3. Attitudes change. Photography was not copyrightable in the decades following its invention as it was regarded as simply operating a machine. Fourty years later the artistic intent involved was recognised and photography works became copyrightable.

Read the full report at the US Copyright Office.

Small AI win of the week

Have you tried ChatGPT Tasks yet?

You need to be on a paid plan (which you should be anyway to keep your data safe!). Go to the drop down menu top left of the ChatGPT window where you choose the model you are using, and select ‘ChatGPT 4o with scheduled tasks’.

Then write a prompt describing what you would like it to go off and do, and how often you want it to do it. Start with a simple prompt something like:

Every morning at 8am GMT search and summarise daily AI news from the following RSS feeds and websites:

<list your feeds and websites>

Please supply this in 300 word summary form with the url to the article.

ChatGPT will turn it into a task that looks something like this:

Tomorrow morning, your news will be ready made. Great for keeping tabs on your clients, competitors and industry / sector news too.

What inventive things have you set up 'Scheduled Tasks' to do?

Do we need to start marketing to AI agents?

While human-driven SEO remains essential, brands are now also optimising for AI agents—autonomous digital assistants that make decisions and take actions on behalf of users.

AEO: Is it the next frontier in digital marketing?

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is an emerging strategy that focuses on optimising content for AI-powered answer engines and conversational AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Co-Pilot. As these technologies evolve, understanding AEO is becoming increasingly important for maintaining visibility in a shifting digital landscape. “Oh no, not another thing to add to my to do list!” We’re with you. We need to sort our website too! Here’s what you need to know:

Key Differences Between AEO and SEO

While SEO targets search engine results pages (SERPs), AEO optimises content for AI-generated responses. This shift requires a new approach to:

Intent-focused content: AEO is all about user intent and conversational queries.

Structured data: Schema markup becomes more important for AI visibility.

Natural language processing (NLP) optimisation: Content that aligns with AI’s language understanding capabilities.

Strategies for effective AEO

1. Question-answer format: Structure content to directly address specific queries.

2. Semantic relevance: Build topical authority with comprehensive subject coverage on your niche.

3. Conversational tone: Write in a way that mimics natural language patterns.

4. Structured data markup: Use schema and other structured data formats.

5. Entity optimisation: Clearly define and interlink key topics within your content.

Why does it matter?

With mobile-first now over 20% of people rely on voice search worldwide, which is powered by AI. And Google's AI powered featured snippets receive 8.6% more click-through traffic than regular organic results.

Implications for you and me

Firstly, our content strategies—we need to think about content creation now to serve both human readers and AI systems (consider our tips above!).

When you’re tracking your analytics make sure you also track performance in AI-powered search and recommendation platforms.

Client education: Position your agency as a thought leader in AEO.

Our new AI for Creative Agency Leaders day

Last week, Jules and I ran an AI for Creative Agency Leaders day at citizenM in London for agency leaders. Normally, we train creative and marketing teams in-house at agencies and brands, but every few months, we open up a cohort for leaders to get hands-on with AI.

Wayne Roberts, COO of Brandpie called it "a fantastic session—packed with insights, collaboration, and forward-thinking discussions." Thanks Wayne!

Here’s what everyone thought:

• 10/10 NPS—attendees found it invaluable.

• Attendees thought what they learned will save them 3-5 hours each per week from repetitive or more routine tasks, freeing time for strategy.

• And it follows that attendees all thought what they learned will also lead to better quality work.

We asked attendees what would they would say to other agency leaders? 👉 "Go for it. It’s an invaluable introduction to the possibilities of AI." 👉 "You need to do it now.”

We are feeling humbled—thanks everyone!

📅 Want to join our next AI for Leaders Cohort on 10th April?

Early bird tickets just launched 👇

Read more about it:

Our much loved AI Activation course now has a remote option 🖥️

Over the past year, we’ve trained dozens of agencies and teams in using AI for creativity, strategy, and automation through our AI Activation course. One thing we kept hearing?

So we listened. Our AI Activation course is now available as a 3-part remote course on Maven!

100% of past attendees felt more confident using AI after the course. Attendees rated it 9.3/10 on average, with 100% NPS from agency leaders. Mark Horley, Creative Director of Tonic said, "It’s a business changer. Just do it."  

Who’s it for? Leaders, designers, strategists both on agency and brand side.

Our first cohort launches on 24th March - we’ll split the course into 3 x 90 minute sessions across one week.

Register for your place👇 

Read more about it:

Join us at the Bristol Marketing AI Network launch

We’ve teamed up with Ghyston to launch a Marketing AI Network in Bristol. Join us at our first event for breakfast on 27th February.

Whether you're a seasoned marketer or simply curious about AI’s potential, this session will be the ideal starting point to connect, learn, and share ideas. Hope to see the Bristolians among you there!

Read more about it:

That’s a wrap for this week. What do you most need to hear about in future newsletters? Hit reply and let us know.

See you in the next edition,

—Emma & Jules
Co-Founders of Spark AI