AI that protects creative work: Clive Dickens' practical thesis
Clive Dickens isn't betting on bots that replace people. He's backing tools that make skilled pros sharper, faster, and more valuable. Through The Meliora Company and its new A$4.6 million Meliora Ventures Fund One, he's investing in early-stage AI that helps creatives and journalists ship better work without losing their voice.
His stance is simple: technology should amplify human creativity, not erase it. The story still matters. Characters still matter. Humanity still matters.
The "messy middle" where ideas become products
Meliora runs advisory, product, and venture under one roof, with a lean team across Sydney, London, and Los Angeles. Dickens' background at Shazam, Seven West Media, and Optus shaped a blunt view of AI's job in creative industries: support the craft, don't imitate it.
He's unimpressed by short AI videos framed as "the end of Hollywood." A stitched-together clip trained on a director's work isn't a film. A film is intent, taste, pacing, and people.
What Meliora funds
Meliora prioritises teams shipping real, usable products with clear value. The fund targets roughly 15 companies, with most investments expected outside Australia. The filter is practical: does this make professionals measurably better at what they already do well?
Case study: Springboards.AI for creative ideation
Springboards.AI gives agencies a system for turning briefs into stronger directions-faster. Instead of starting with a blank whiteboard, teams use structured prompts, examples, and constraints to generate angles worth exploring.
Built by founders who were made redundant, the tool moved beyond generic language models to support real creative process. It's attracted backing from Google and Blackbird, and it's built to boost output without diluting judgment.
Case study: StoryDesk.AI for journalists
StoryDesk.AI supports trained journalists under deadline pressure. It helps with source organisation, research, structure, notes, and voice consistency-inside existing workflows.
The goal: publish more original, on-voice stories with stronger sourcing and a visible trust signal. Think more bylines, not more noise. As Dickens puts it, we don't want AI slop-we need well-sourced reporting to keep the fourth estate healthy.
Returns that fund more creativity
Meliora's early bets span Australia, the UK, Ireland, and France. One highlight is Fluency AI, an operations platform that simplifies back-office processes so teams can spend more time on work that actually connects.
Fluency raised US$8.5 million from Accel and moved to San Francisco-early validation that useful, boring software can fuel more human-focused work.
Why this matters to creatives
Budgets are tighter. Expectations are higher. AI won't save weak ideas, but it will remove the busywork that blocks great ones. That's the leverage: keep your taste, speed up your process, protect your voice.
How to use AI without losing your voice
- Start with your point of view. Use AI to expand routes, not to decide the destination.
- Set guardrails: a tone glossary, approved references, and banned phrases for your brand or byline.
- Move grunt work to tools: research sweeps, first-pass outlines, variant headlines, presentation polish.
- Track outcomes: time saved, ideas explored, win rates, quality feedback.
- Demand provenance: tools should cite sources, keep notes, and show a trust score for factual work.
- Protect IP: prefer tools with clear data policies, enterprise controls, and opt-outs where possible.
What to look for in creative-grade AI
- Augments your existing workflow (Docs, CMS, project tools) instead of forcing a new one.
- Respects voice and style with reusable tone profiles and version control.
- Clear data handling: who sees your inputs, what's stored, and how it's used.
- Measurable ROI in hours saved or wins earned-not vague promises.
The bigger picture
Meliora's thesis is direct: AI should help humans do more of the work only humans can do. For creatives and journalists, that means protecting originality while scaling output and consistency.
Dickens is putting capital behind that belief. The future won't be synthetic content replacing people-it will be professionals using sharper tools to make their best work, more often.
Next step for creatives
If you're building an AI stack for pitching, writing, or concept development, start small and measure everything. Try one tool for ideation and one for polish, then keep what proves its value.
Want a curated starting point? See practical picks for writers and marketers here: AI tools for copywriting.
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