Dentsu's global creative teams produced a maximalist, AI-generated film to articulate its "AI for Growth" philosophy-a project that threw a dozen teams across time zones and cultures at an open brief with no budget constraints. The film, and the process behind it, demonstrates how artificial intelligence can be used as a launchpad for creative ambition rather than just an efficiency tool.
"This is not about just shortening the time, it's about creating something which hasn't been done before," said Matt Cross, global head of external comms at Dentsu. The "AI for Growth" concept originated in Dentsu's Japan headquarters and evolved globally as the network sought to differentiate its AI offerings from the industry's prevailing focus on optimisation.
From photorealism to pure imagination
Octavio Maron, Executive Vice President and Head of Creative and Content at Dentsu Creative in the United States, believed the film needed to feel authentic and avoid the hype that clients increasingly distrust. He made a counterintuitive choice: abandon photorealism in favor of a fantastical, maximalist exploration. "We want the work to feel real. We want the work to feel authentic... and acknowledge the challenges, acknowledge the expectations, and acknowledge how that process, how AI will live beyond us in real life," Octavio said. The creative mandate was to build a film that lived in the space between 'Yellow Submarine' and 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds'.
For the creatives involved, the brief was remarkably open. "We pushed the teams, 'just go nuts… We don't have budget constraints because we're creating everything on AI in terms of production… And you have the liberty and freedom that we are our client. Just go. Do these as a pure expression,'" Octavio said. That lack of restriction, he noted, was confronting for people used to tight commercial guardrails.
A global, open brief
Octavio recruited a dozen teams from across the network-spanning Taiwan, Japan, South Africa, Italy, the UK, and more-each tasked with bringing a segment to life. The teams were cast from creative directors, designers, illustrators, and videographers. Keen-eyed viewers can spot Easter eggs that hint at which region produced which part of the film. The approach not only reflected the network's diversity but also brought different cultural understandings of AI to the project. "The way I here in US see AI versus the way someone in Germany sees AI or someone in Japan sees AI... [is] quintessentially different from the start," Octavio said.
The production reality
Stitching the disparate segments into a fluid, cohesive whole became a production headache. "The join of each of these became a production nightmare," said James Niklasson, director of Innovation at Dentsu, Tag and Gate. His team had to invent solutions on the fly-a process he described as "a properly fun process." The work also exposed a core limitation of generative video: the lack of object-level control. Unlike traditional VFX, where artists can tweak individual elements without disturbing the rest of the image, AI demands regeneration of entire scenes. The slightest change to a prompt can produce drastically different results. The team responded by developing new production techniques and using 3D projection.
Despite the project being a massive showcase for artificial intelligence, the human count surprised the leadership. "We had never planned to have that many humans involved... We probably had more humans than AI models," Matt Cross said. He pointed to the importance of "people intelligence" as a counterbalance-the skills, subjective tastes, and perspectives of the various creatives and producers gave the final film its tension and intrigue. Octavio reinforced that point: "Do we still need the CG artist to do a lot of this work? 1000 percent. Do we still need the editor to do the work? 1000 percent. But we were able to enable our ideas and our visions in such a better way."
"The moment you understand that it's an enabler, not a maker for you, like it's a tool in your tool chest, not something that would do the work for you... you do better work," he added.
Why this matters for creatives
This project is a case study in how an AI brief, when stripped of efficiency-only thinking, can stretch creative muscles. The technical obstacles, non-linear workflows, and the vulnerability of a limitless brief forced teams to problem-solve in ways that a standard commercial, production would not. For creatives looking to integrate AI into their own practice, the takeaway is clear: the technology becomes most interesting when it is treated as an enabler that pushes ideas further, not as a shortcut that replaces human judgment. The result is not just a film-it's a demonstration of how AI can foster creative growth alongside business growth.
Your membership also unlocks:
