John Ilian: What I learnt from losing a client

By John Ilian, Sharper Pencil, Perth

As a Freelancer, I recently lost an important client for whom I had been writing about 60 radio commercials a year.
I was disappointed. But not distressed.
They were commercials for the station’s ‘direct clients’ – mainly those who were too small to employ a large, expensive ad agency, but too large not to have the job undertaken properly.

The radio station’s sales team in question, now uses ‘CHATgpt – the free, open source AI writing tool.
You can fight ‘free,’ but it’s rare that you win.
But what AI’s CHATgpt cannot do, is knowing what will impact, what will resonate.
It won’t have original ideas.
It only operates on the prompt(s) that you provide.

For me in this instance, rejection isn’t the end.
It’s an opportunity to learn to be smarter.
This is what I both culled and learnt from a recent D&AD report on AI.

DISRUPTION REMAINS CONSTANT.
We’ve lived through the sea change of digital media, shifts in audience behaviour, and the dramatic rise of mobile and spatial computing.
Each time, we’ve learned. We’ve adapted.
Each time, we’ve evolved.
Generative AI is a powerful new tool, but like any tool, the impact and value lies entirely in how we use it.
Think pen and pencils verses computers.

AI CANNOT TELL US WHAT WILL RESONATE.
AI allows us to iterate more quickly, meet new demand, and scale in exciting ways.
But it cannot understand the nuance of what moves an audience.
That artistry still lies with us.

AI MAKES CREATIVITY MATTER.
The creative industry isn’t wrestling with whether to use AI.
It’s wrestling with its consequences.
It challenges our definitions of authorship, originality, and creative value.
But it has simultaneously allowed creative leaders to have a window to shape new standards, lead with integrity.
And ensure AI strengthens, not flattens.

WHERE TO FOCUS VALUE NOW
The ideal is to position creative thinking as the product.
Not just what wraps around it.
To make strategic insight visible in decks, decisions and pricing.
And clarify the gap between automation and original thinking.

AI DOESN’T KNOW WHAT CARE IS.
The challenge isn’t as much about grabbing attention (AI can do that easily).
It’s about earning trust, connection, and emotional impact.
That’s still the prerogative of human creativity.
You can feel when something’s has had care put into it.
AI can generate a hundred options, but it doesn’t know which one to choose.
That’s still down to us.

THE ENEMY IS THE EXPECTED
Some fear AI will replace designers, writers, editors.
But its real enemy is mediocrity: the templated, the obvious, the expected.

ORIGINALITY IS A POINT OF VIEW
AI doesn’t know what to value.
That’s still our job: to choose what matters, and why.
To make work that resonates, not just reaches.
Craft is what happens when instinct overrides instruction.
It’s the silent, human judgement to do the bold things that a machine wouldn’t choose.
The creative edge is still human. That edge depends on how we use the tools.
Not to churn, but to challenge.
Not to shortcut thinking, but to stretch it.

THE FUTURE OF CREATIVE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO COMBINE CURIOSITY WITH CARE.
It belongs to those who know how to ask better questions, and who can lead others through the noise.
Creativity belongs to those who use AI not as a crutch, but as a catalyst.
Not to cut corners, but to find stranger paths.
The playing field is level. What matters is that which we bring to it.
The real revolution isn’t the technology.
It’s the people who know what to do with it.

AI IS NO LONGER ON THE EDGE OF CREATIVITY.
It’s inside the process, reshaping it from within.
Accelerating the best. Exposing the lazy.
This isn’t just technical change.
It’s cultural.
Faster and cheaper isn’t the brief.
Sharper, deeper, braver is.
We now have the tools to deliver it.
That is, if we choose to use it with care, with courage, and focused intent.

OUTCOME IS WORTH FAR MORE THAN OUTPUT.
AI means moving from time-based charging to ‘value’ charging.
So it’s not how many people have worked on the project for how long that should determine the invoiced amount.
A better (and fairer) idea is to charge for the worth of the outcome.
I’m sure I am not the only one to suggest that putting a price on the worth of an idea, is smarter than billing for the time expended on it.
This notion is now closer thanks to AI.
[Back in 2005, I developed a method and a matrix for assessing the likely efficacy/performance of any work before it was published or broadcast.
I’m happy to share it with anyone who asks.
It could easily be adapted to ascertain or predict worth].

AI WON’T REPLACE ORIGINALITY
But it will expose anything less.
It will challenge the old habits, old hierarchies, and old excuses that once held the industry back.
Creative leaders who thrive from here, are not standing still.
They’ll experiment, provoke and reimagine.
The tools are here. The standard has shifted.
It’s our move.

Now perhaps it’s time to strap on the wetsuit and see what the Indian Ocean is serving up in the way of surf.

About John Ilian:

“You are old, Father Ilian,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head—
Do you think, at your age, it is right?”

“In my youth,” Father Ilian replied to his son,
“I feared it might injure the brain;
But now that I’m perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again.”

With apologies and acknowledgement to Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – 1865).