Will AI ever be able to create the big audience-influencing idea?

 

There’s no doubt about it. AI is incredible. Like many creatives, it’s now part of my workflow. It’s the latest tool in the pencil case – and one I wouldn’t want to lose.

But – you knew there was a but coming.

For all the things AI can do – copywriting, research, brainstorming soundboard – there’s one thing it still can’t reliably deliver. And to prove AI didn’t write this, I’m going to mix my metaphors.

AI still can’t produce the big idea.

The lightbulb.
The S.T.A.R. (the Something They’ll Always Remember).
The hook.
That single, unifying concept that everything hangs from.

And despite using AI for a few years now… I’m not convinced it ever will.

 

The Creative C.O.D.E.

In my 28 years in the industry, every meaningful brand, campaign or repositioning is born out of a four-stage creative process. Being B.R.A.V.O (Baz Richardson And Various Others), and loving a good acronym, I call this process:

The Creative C.O.D.E.

Collect
- This is where I immerse myself, interrogate the brief and load my mind with the raw materials.

Osmosis – This is the pick it up, put it down, pick it up, put it down phase. This is the messy ideas stage where subconscious and conscious chemistry happens to create a swath of big ideas.

Develop – Shortlist the ideas. Challenge them. Kill the weak. Strengthen the promising ones.

Execute – This is the final stage where I bring the winning idea to life. Craft it properly and make it work for the front lines of marketing.

AI is excellent at supporting the Collect, Develop and Execute stages. Where it truly struggles is Osmosis. And that stage, is above all, the most important one.

 

Osmosis is messy.

It’s the idea that wakes you at 3am.
It’s the eureka moment in the bath.
It’s “this is rubbish… but what if?”
It’s half an idea from day seven suddenly connecting to half an idea from day two. In osmosis, one plus one… equals three.

And this is where AI consistently disappoints me. Not because it’s unintelligent.
But because it doesn’t feel friction. It doesn’t have lived experience. It doesn’t have a mental filing cabinet full of brave ideas that won pitches, challenged clients and more importantly, changed behaviours.

 

Osmosis in action

To give you a few examples, here’s what osmosis has helped deliver for my clients:

• For The Tottenham Experience, the brief was to build awareness of the stadium’s versatility. The big idea? Remove the word Tottenham. That counterintuitive move won the pitch.

• A biotech launched a product called One-W. Not the sexiest name, right? The campaign became “Be the One-Who…” (See what I did there!). This clever wordplay actually became the hero.

• Engineering firm Fluenta wanted a value proposition to position itself as the global authority. I removed the “A” in their name. They were so knowledgeable, they were fluent.

• Amina creates incredibly innovative invisible speakers. And so to convey this intelligence, I made the “A” in their logo visible and invisible through negative space.

• For RealVNC’s remote access software, I challenged computer-reliant professionals to reconsider what “work” really means – crystallised in the proposition that with the right software “Work is a verb, not a place.”

 

All of these ideas worked as scribbles. And that’s the test. If you know the idea works on a napkin, it will only get stronger on screen. Because when the thinking is right, the style enhances it. When there’s no big idea, design trends and style have to overcompensate. But style alone doesn’t make people buy. Emotion does.

 

The upside-down triangle

Research shows that the majority of purchasing decisions are subconscious. We don’t buy with logic alone. We rationalise after the fact. To make someone do something, you have to make them feel something. And that feeling rarely comes from colour palettes or typography trends.
It comes from the idea.

Think of an entire campaign or brand like an upside-down triangle. Budget, media spend, production, tactics – all balancing on a single strategic thought. If that thought is weak, everything above it wobbles. That’s why the big idea carries such weight.

And that’s why I remain underwhelmed by AI’s contribution to it.

Because the stakes are high.

 

Thinking is sharpening

The best thinking is thinking about thinking. Get the underlying thought right and you get your audience thinking – ideally in the right direction… yours. AI is a remarkable amplifier. But amplification only works when the original signal is strong.

In marketing, we often talk about “cutting through the noise.” Abraham Lincoln famously said:

“Give me eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first six of them sharpening my axe”.

Osmosis is the sharpening.
The big idea is your edge.

Because no amount of budget, media spend or polish can compensate for a dull thought. And you don’t cut through with blunt thinking.

So next time you need a big idea, before you reach for a prompt, perhaps reach out to a strategic thinking creative (that’s me btw)

 

 

Oh, and if you’re wondering, this is what ChatGPT ‘thought’ of the article

“

Firstly, zero offence taken.

If anything, this reads like a mature, intelligent positioning piece.
It’s not AI-bashing. It’s craft-defending.

And you’re right about something important:

AI is brilliant at development and execution elasticity. It is far weaker at true osmosis, because osmosis requires lived tension, bias, taste, risk appetite and emotional intuition. What you’re really saying isn’t “AI is useless.”

It’s:

AI can help build the house.
But it can’t decide what the house should be.

That’s a powerful thesis.

“

 

In need of some very effective strategic creative? let’s chat

Baz Richardson is the Founder & Creative Director of
Bravo Creative