Independent agencies are finding that artificial intelligence amplifies their human talent rather than replacing it, allowing them to compete with larger rivals while keeping overheads low. Creative leaders from Boundless, Uncharted, and Luma described how AI gives smaller teams an extra hand to flesh out ideas, impress clients, and produce high-polish work quickly.
Extra scale without losing human scale
Roanna Williams and Fran Luckin, co-chief creative officers at South African agency Boundless, said using AI lets their experts get more hands-on with clients and creative work. "What is great about incorporating this into a smaller agency is how it does allow for that nimble agility," said Roanna. Fran added: "It helps you punch above your weight a little bit. … When you're a small agency and you have to keep your overheads low, there is something in just being able to flesh out ideas to a high standard of polish in presentations very quickly."
Laura Jordan Bambach, co-founder and chief creative officer at Uncharted, sees the same effect. She believes the approach is "much more about people and businesses where creatives are at the centre." Her team used a small crew and AI tools to produce an experimental film for a gin brand that had been offered a hometown cinema screen - a big platform but not one that justified a huge budget. Laura said the process didn't change her instincts as a creative director. "It helps me, the creative director, to get to a point where I know what feels right quicker without having to spend the money and then go… That's not quite right."
The person behind the keyboard is what matters
Fran Luckin argued that AI allows creatives to inject "more of themselves" into projects. She recalled Roanna presenting billboard concepts to a chief marketing officer who was a fan of the tools. "She said a sentence which I find fascinating, which was: 'I want the Ro effect'. … There's such an artistry in these tools." Roanna agreed. "What's important is the person who's the brain behind it, because it's not going to just give you stuff. You still have to input what you actually want to achieve. … It's still a tool at the end of the day, and you're not gonna achieve great stuff with it if you're not putting in the vision and the thinking behind it."
Laura Jordan Bambach is currently using AI to create an Australian folk horror story about perimenopausal women - a project that leans into creative idiosyncrasy while testing the technology's biases and limits around representation.
Intuitive tools keep the focus on craft
Jason Day, head of EMEA for Luma, said the platform's design deliberately makes interaction fun. "One of the things that we take the deliberate decision around is to try and make the technology fun to engage with, and enjoyable to interact with, so that we can get to the idea in an enjoyable way rather than just feeling like a keyboard warrior."
He noted that a creative tool that feels like a chore won't deliver the best results. "We're seeing a real split between platforms that feel intuitive and those that feel like you're just bashing out commands." The goal, he said, is helping people land on exciting ideas in an engaging way. "The moment it all becomes about mass-producing generic content, the magic is lost. … The best tech should feel like a creative partner, not a machine you're just operating."
Intentionality, not blind adoption
Both agencies are serious about the ethical pitfalls. Fran Luckin said Boundless is "very anti killing human jobs" and stressed that AI helps keep overheads low without substituting for public-facing production. "We're going to intentionally make sure that we train up youngsters. … You don't just blindly go into something like this. You actually have to go, we have to have a stance on it. We have to use it intentionally and we have to use it like craftspeople." Laura, who trains students on creative AI use, agreed: "That key word is intentionality, right? … We can't just blindly rush into it and not think about what the long-term consequences would be and how we use it to do great things for our industry."
This intentional approach, combined with powerful but intuitive tools, puts ideas back at the centre, Jason argued. "Anyone can generate an image, sure, but what makes it meaningful? What makes it connect with people? That comes from the skill, the taste, and the vision of the person guiding the process. The best results we see are always a blend of new technology and timeless creative craft."
Fran Luckin summarized the indie stance: "It's like anything; yeah, you could use it to make very average work very quickly and make a huge margin, or you could take the artisanal approach and go, 'Okay, we're going to use it to make wonderful things that we couldn't make'."
Why this matters for creatives
These independent shops show that AI works like a scalpel, not a cudgel, when guided by human taste and intention. The real competitive edge isn't the tool - it's the person using it. For creatives, that means choosing platforms that feel like a partner and committing to craft over speed. The goal isn't more output; it's work that wouldn't be possible any other way.
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