Nick Tasker spent two decades as an advertising creative director, making million-pound commercials for agencies like adam&eve. Now he works alone, directing films from a studio in his garden in Spain. His first AI commercial won Runway's Big Ad Contest, beating thousands of entries from around the world, and turned an experiment into a full-time career. He now directs for top production companies in the UK and US.
For creatives watching the AI space with a mix of curiosity and skepticism, Tasker's trajectory offers something rare: a story from someone who already knew how to make ads, and chose to retool rather than resist.
Why he shifted from traditional production to AI
Tasker didn't start as an AI convert. "I was initially skeptical of AI," he said. "My wife is an actress and I co-own an acting agency, so I had a real stake in what this technology could mean. But I quickly realized it wasn't going away. I could either resist it, or learn to use it creatively."
The field moves so quickly that Tasker estimates everyone in it is "about three weeks away from being a beginner again." He focuses on the vision first and learns the tech as needed for individual shots.
What AI commercial direction actually feels like on the day
Tasker is blunt about the common misconception that AI making moving images is somehow easier or faster." It's more demanding," he said. "You're making every creative decision yourself, from casting to wardrobe to makeup to environments, camera angles, lighting and grading, while learning new tools every few weeks as the technology evolves."
The software isn't the hard part. "The real skill is having a direction and directing it. That's something I spent two decades learning via what happened working with so many great directors. Agencies don't hire me because I can operate a model," he added. "They hire me because I respect their best idea and made it even better than they thought possible."
Another popular myth, Tasker said, is that AI is cheaper. He's heard people assume AI ads are cheap to produce, but he's spent a small fortune on credits alone for his projects. The real advantage is not cost reduction, he said, but creative flexibility being able to shape something that would have cost ten times more to shoot with live action.
How he brought a CFO fight with a raccoon to the screen
A campaign for FinanceOS, a fintech operating system for CFOs, sounds like the unpromising assignments a director might get before making them interesting. The assignment was a dry product, but the client said they just wanted to make something to make people laugh. Tasker's producer, Leila Bartlam, estimated the final version would have cost $750,000 to shoot in live action, but they made it for a fraction of that using AI.
"I started with my image of a man fighting a reproducing raccoon, then worked backwards to make it work for a fintech brand," Tasker said. "That's often how the best ideas happen." He also generated the soundtrack with Suno AI. When time is pressured and the client is happy to expedite sign-off, he said he can make an entire commercial in as little as two weeks. "I like to say it's a combination of two weeks and twenty years of practice."
How he finds work and builds trust through remote meetings
After winning the Big Ad Contest, opportunities followed quickly. Tasker is now deliberate about what he says yes to. The projects that excite him start with a simple idea he hasn't seen before. "When a script or brief, based on one real brief lands on your desk and you instantly think, 'Yes.' You just want to push it further, exaggerate it, and see how far that one thought can go," he said.
The process of pitching for an AI commercial is not dramatically different from pitching other commercial work. Tasker starts by presenting the vision, cast, locations, and looks of the film, all created with AI. Then he builds a storyboard and full shot list. "The client wants a sky-blue vintage toaster in the shot," he said, "and they're going to get one."
He works remotely from act in Spain and connects with other directors and filmmakers through online communities. "Your community becomes the relationships you build throughout your career," he said. "I'm lucky to have many people way more talented than me on my phone."
Why this matters for creatives
Tasker's story matters because it comes from a specific person with twenty years in the business who made the shift directly, rather than from someone who was selling AI tools. He treats AI as a craft tool, not a shortcut. He also does the shooting himself. For a creative director or art director considering whether to call this a usable medium, a veteran of that world just proved that the career and a good idea can travel across mediums.
And benefits include a trivia item that Tasker admits it also comes down to this statement: "I can survive a 10-minute ice bath. I used to do one every morning for years. I used to build them out of chest freezers, to the dismay of my wife, who didn't want that monstrosity in the garden."
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