I watched an interview recently with the founder of a platform called BossUp, and his take was pretty straightforward — everyone using AI is becoming a manager. Not of people, but of AI itself. And honestly, the more I think about it, the more I reckon he’s onto something.
Because that’s kind of what’s happening, isn’t it? You’re not just opening a tool and pressing go. You’re briefing it, directing it, telling it when it’s wrong, going again. That’s management. We just don’t call it that yet.
The Briefing Problem
After twenty-odd years in design and communications, I’ve seen a lot of new tools land and promise to change everything. Some did, most didn’t. AI is different though — but not always for the reasons people assume.
The people getting the best out of it aren’t necessarily the most tech-savvy. They’re the ones who can communicate clearly. Who can write a decent brief. Who know what they want and can articulate it. Which, when you think about it, is exactly what makes a good client, or a good creative director, or a good colleague to work with.
If you’re putting vague prompts in and getting rubbish back, that’s not really an AI problem. It’s a brief problem. Same as it ever was.
But Here’s the Thing Nobody’s Really Saying
Managing AI takes time. Quite a lot of it, actually. There’s the back and forth, the reviewing, the realising it’s gone off in completely the wrong direction, starting again. And I’ve caught myself — more than once — spending longer “managing” AI on something than it would have taken to just do it myself.
That’s worth sitting with for a minute, especially if you’re a creative. Because the promise is that AI frees you up to do more of the good stuff. The creative stuff. But if you’re not careful, the managing fills that space instead. You end up producing more, maybe — but doing less of the actual thinking and making that got you into this in the first place.
I don’t think that’s talked about enough. Everyone’s focused on output and efficiency, but what about the quality of the thinking behind it? That doesn’t just maintain itself.
The Fine Line
I’m not anti-AI — far from it. We use it at Enigma and it genuinely helps with certain things. Research, structuring ideas, drafting the functional stuff that doesn’t need a creative touch. That’s where it earns its place.
Where I’d be more cautious is leaning on it for the work where your instinct is actually the point. Where your taste, your experience, your way of seeing things is what the client is paying for. That’s not something AI can replicate — but it is something you can lose the sharpness of if you stop exercising it.
Think of it like this. The best creative directors I’ve come across over the years stayed hands-on. They didn’t stop making things just because they were managing people who made things. They kept their eye in. And I think that’s exactly the discipline we need with AI.
Use It Well, But Stay You
So yes — get better at managing AI. It’s a real skill and it’ll matter more and more. But don’t let the managing become the job. Don’t let the tool reshape what you do to the point where the creative thinking gets squeezed out.
Because that’s the bit nobody else can do. Not another agency, and not an AI with the right prompt. It’s yours. Worth keeping hold of.
If you’re figuring out where AI fits in your own business or creative process, we’re always happy to have that conversation.
