For this week’s edition of Agency Advice, top names in creativity, tech and futurism give us a crowdsourced list of the top tools that are changing the game right now.
Last week, we asked marketing’s top creatives which technologically infused ads stopped them in their tracks, showing a new path forward for the industry. (Whether our collective trajectory towards that bold new world is a good or bad thing is up to you.)
But the output is only half the story: what about the tech itself? So as our Creative Technology for Drummies buyers’ guide draws to a close this week, we look at the other side of the coin. What apps, software and other pieces of tech are driving this revolution?
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Phil Rowley, head of futures, Omnicom Media Group UK: “I’m excited by a technology with the most wonderful name: 4D Gaussian Splatting. It’s a cutting-edge technique that takes existing 2D images or footage and generates a speculative third dimension not captured at the time. It retrofits existing flat-plane experiences by adding navigable depth: an algorithm sees an image as particles ‘splatted’ on to a 2D plane and learns how these blobs move over time to enable 3D ‘virtual camera angles’ of 2D media. Early experiments have seen old footage ‘dimensionalized.’ Imagine seeing Neil Armstrong step on to the moon from the angle of your choosing, generated from the original film stock. From dioramas and scale models to gaming and XR to Google Earth, over the last few decades, we’ve seen a change in how we represent spatial relationships from 2D to 3D. I think 4D Gaussian Splatting is the next natural step.”
Pim Lai, creative director, BMB: “I stumbled across Seaweed-APT2 recently. It broke my brain. It’s like Veo 3 got a real-time upgrade. Instead of waiting for a render, you type a prompt or guide a virtual camera with your mouse and the world builds itself around you instantly. No rendering, no editing timelines, just pure imagination, streamed straight to screen. It’s genuinely mental. Imagine using it to puppeteer digital characters live, direct surreal films on the fly, or explore environments that shift as you move. It’s a game changer for pre-vis, too. You could literally walk someone through a pitch by building a scene live as you talk. Think of all the new ways we could see the world: virtual concerts, sports match replays, world-building in games. It’s not publicly available yet, but just imagine what happens when it is. The way things are going, maybe The Matrix isn’t that far off after all.”
Adam Bodfish, executive creative director, McCann Birmingham: “Caption with Intention rightly took home a Grand Prix in both design and digital craft at Cannes this year. It’s a quietly radical reinvention of something so mundane we’d almost stopped noticing: closed captions. In an industry that worships novelty, this idea stands out by reimagining something we’d become complacent about, making it more inclusive, more human. By infusing captions with emotional tone, creative nuance and intention, it doesn’t just serve the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities; it serves all audiences better. It’s not flashy or AI razzle-dazzle. It’s a creative application of technology that makes people feel seen, literally and metaphorically. That’s what creative technology should be doing more of. It made me sit up straighter, not because it shouted, but because it listened.”
Simon Levitt, global creative technology director, Imagination: “I’m a bit long in the tooth when it comes to tech. After too many overpromises (hi, Magic Leap), I tend to greet new headsets with a skeptical eyebrow. But Apple Vision Pro’s spatial video floored me. I expected jittery, nausea-inducing footage. Instead, I was there, on a canyon tightrope, dodging an NFL tackle, deep underwater with sharks. It wasn’t only a video in front of me; it wrapped around me. The only comparison I can think of is Avatar in 3D Imax. Is it expensive? Yep. Is it ready for mass domestic use? Not quite. But can it deliver a transformative, emotional, seat-gripping experience? Absolutely. It’s not just a new screen; it’s a new way of filming. Just don’t watch it standing up.”
Ashika Chauhan, group executive creative director, Krow Group: “I was amazed by Eleven Labs’ recent v3 (Alpha) release. The human-like voices, varied tone and contextual nuance: it’s crazy how quickly the tech has evolved. The footie commentary example in their demo particularly caught my attention. I hope that we’ll continue to work with voice actors for our final outputs, but this does allow us to present creative concepts in a more compelling way. Like all AI platforms, though, it raises concerns around how tech like this could be used – further enabling fake news and making it even harder for people to distinguish between what’s real and what’s not.”
Arturo Gigante, creative director, Something Different: “We were racing through a fast-moving project when someone said, ‘Try Runway Gen-4, it might help.’ I uploaded a still, added a vague prompt and, minutes later, I was watching a moody, cinematic shot that looked like it might’ve come from a real set. The speed and detail are wild: shadows flicker realistically, hair moves with intention, and somehow it nails tone even when the prompt barely makes sense. There’s this strange mix of awe and unease as a still image begins to move just believably enough to blur the line between real and generated. It’s not perfect; prompts can be unpredictable and sometimes the details get weird. But even the misses spark ideas. Gen-4 didn’t just help, it expanded what felt possible, pushing our concept into motion faster than we imagined. Just keep an eye on your credits. Seriously.”
Anu Kumaresan, junior creative, Cheil UK: “The advancements in deepfake technology are what fascinate me the most. We’ve gone from fake news videos to combatting scams with AI grannies. O2’s Daisy is voiced using a model based on a real-life grandmother. She’s virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. H&M has recently announced plans to use AI doppelgangers to run its social media accounts. Rather than using AI image and video generators which rely on existing datasets to generate prompt-based content, this new approach helps create content that feels more human-centric. It also allows actors and other artists to focus on their craft rather than spending long hours posing in the studio. It’s scary and amazing to think of this technology’s potential. What if influencers could create digital twins on social media platforms? As creatives, we can significantly increase creative output by reducing cost and removing the hassle of scheduling hard-to-book talent.”
Mike Caguin, chief creative officer, Betty: “Have little to no musical talent and little to no budget, but want to inspire a client or brand with an audio-based idea in a pitch? Suno, an AI music creation platform, absolutely blew our minds with its capabilities. We created musical anthems in several genres, as well as polished audio spots that sounded radio-ready. Were we amazed by what the tech could make with a few inputs? 100%. Did it also make us a little nervous (and by a little, I mean a lot) about where this is all headed? Also 100%.”
Tim Smith, founder and creative director, Fluoro: “I first encountered TouchDesigner through the work of Aditi Srivastava, a master’s graduate whose visuals immediately struck me with their fluidity and energy. When she shared her process, I realized it was TouchDesigner – a platform that lets you DJ with visuals, manipulating feeling in real time. The outputs blur the line between graphic art and commercial design – a space where code becomes energy, motion and emotion. More than software, it’s an expressive instrument that demands practice and instinct. There’s a raw, punk-like quality to it – experimental, unpredictable and alive. Every export reacts differently to scale, shape and context, making each output uniquely human despite being entirely code-based. It resists commercial polish in favor of pure sensation, thriving on spontaneity and live interaction. AI can’t replicate this.”
Dean Harland, senior front-end developer, Interstate: “A real ‘sit up and take notice’ moment came when I moved beyond simply observing tools like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and started actively using its API to analyze real-time data streams. The ability to pull from multiple sources at once (social media feeds, news outlets, user or product and device data) and have the AI filter the noise and identify trends is one thing. But the true impact hit when we used that to shape a creative output that adapts in real-time. We’re at a point where we can build digital experiences that dynamically change messaging and visuals based on live sentiment and data-driven events. It’s a shift from static, curated content to living, breathing communication that is always relevant. Moving from passive information gathering to active, adaptive content is a powerful, slightly unnerving glimpse into a future where creative outputs are not just created, but ‘alive’ and constantly evolving.”
Henry Scriven, creative director, Eight&Four: “The AI-powered storyboarding revolution represents the most significant evolution in previsualization in nearly 100 years, since it was first pioneered at Walt Disney Studios in the 1930s. Tools like Runway, Veo and Midjourney have transformed the pre-production process, moving from referential sketches to bespoke motion boards that accelerate creative alignment. Clients have always wanted to ‘see the film before you make it’ and we’ve never been closer to wowing them before recording anything. Cinematic frames, moving or still, can now be produced in seconds. They convey emotion and narrative using consistent characters, locations, style and product. Clients no longer need to imagine the outcome; they can see it, almost frame-for-frame. That clarity brings more useful feedback earlier in the process, reduces time on set filming coverage, reduces post-production time and strengthens the client-agency relationship.”
Henry Daubrez, global vice-president, design & creative innovation, Dept: “Tencent’s Hunyuan GameCraft has recently caught my eye. It’s not just a technical demo; it’s a working signal of where things are heading: real-time, controllable gameplay videos generated from scratch; keyboard and mouse map directly to camera moves. We’ve talked for years about better engines, but this is something else. Scenes aren’t built; they’re summoned. It’s cinematic, playable and deeply responsive without ever being ‘played’ in the traditional sense. For anyone building interactive stories or game worlds, this is a glimpse of the toolkit that’s coming. The future of storytelling won’t be about authoring everything. It’ll be about shaping the rules and letting it unfold.”
Barney Worfolk-Smith, chief growth officer, Daivid: “The biggest eyebrow raise of recent times was when we took our creative data – the ones and zeros of ad creative assessed at scale across a variety of attention, emotions, brand and intent metrics – and put that JSON data into an agentic AI called Agnitio. Basically, in natural language, anyone can ask a bunch of questions about how to improve a set of creatives. Thousands of creatives, potentially. I’m a firm believer that technology should come to you in a way that feels intuitive. Asking a bunch of questions in the familiar format of a search bar is exactly that.”
Tom Ajello, global director, experience, innovation & engineering practice, Lippincott: “Figma is design multiplied by the power of collaboration. This has been a game-changer for design getting done at scale and speed, with all input accounted for. Officially, design now feels like a team sport. Yet this technology has also sparked new rituals: intentional, small-group work in real life. As designers seek quiet, focused time to shape their vision, offline sessions are on the rise. In this way, tech has created both a retox and a detox for creativity – giving ideas room to grow within community while also freeing imagination to roam beyond the screen.”
Courtney Tsitouris, chief creative officer, Greatest Common Factory: “ChatGPT isn’t just a tool; it has become a kind of creative co-processor. What’s most startling isn’t the breadth of what it knows, but how it remembers and fuses conversations over time. It doesn’t just respond – it accumulates. I can start with a strategic deck, shift to campaign voice, tweak copy across six formats and then return days later to build on that same thread. It adapts to my tone, understands my brand, and helps me push ideas further, without ever needing a fresh brief. There’s something eerily intimate about it, less like a machine and more like a creative partner with perfect recall. The kind that sharpens thinking, not just speeds it up. For strategists and creatives working across multiple layers – brand, media, messaging – this kind of continuity is transformative. It makes the creative process feel less like restarting and more like evolving.”
Joe Carolino, creative director, Instrument: “It’s decades ago now, but Macromedia Dreamweaver was the first thing that really blew my mind. It turned vague design dreams into something I could actually build, bridging my brand design skills with the digital world. That rush reminded me that tech has always reinvented design, from Gutenberg’s press to today’s creative tools. Now, Claude AI is my go-to sidekick for smashing through bad ideas faster and finding those ‘aha’ moments sooner. As a designer who thinks strategically and visually, it’s thrilling to use AI to sharpen my words and speed up creative breakthroughs. We’re seeing another big leap for design. I’m ready to see what we can make together.”
Erik Norin, creative partner, Birthday: “It may be a surprising candidate for the technology that has had the biggest impact on creatives, but I’d go back 11 years to when Google Docs came out. Advertising has never looked back. Collaboration, feedback, updates, presentations, workflow: almost overnight, the day-to-day at agencies changed fundamentally. The process became more democratic and the development of ideas less isolated. There is a time and a place in creativity for solitude, a single vision when communal decision making can be detrimental. But Google Docs made advertising more inclusive, more collaborative and… better.”
Edward Usher, creative partner, Ark Agency: “When I started out in advertising, there was a Chrome extension called Shove that let me forcibly open browser tabs on my partner’s laptop screen. The time it saved! The workflows it enabled! The japes that were had! It was 2015 and Shove indicated a future full of possibility, in which I could casually flick the contents of my iPod Touch to my TV, or my phone to my Google Glass from my Hyperloop seat. I imagined seamless content fluidity, uninterrupted interoperability and unencumbered co-operation. Whereas this morning, I watched a man who runs a bleeding-edge AI company struggle for 10 minutes to find the Airplay button on his MacBook. Shove no longer exists – the founder couldn’t monetize his creation and we’re all poorer for it. But the realization he brought about in me, of the potential of technology to enrich the human experience, will never die.”
Daniel Bickerton, head of design, TBWA\MCR: “You can’t escape the noise around AI and its impact on the creative industries. It feels like we’re on the edge of a new way of working. As an early adopter of tools like Kling, Midjourney and ChatGPT, I stay optimistic because behind every great output, a human still needs to steer. Platforms need intent, intuition, and imagination – things AI can’t replicate. At this year’s D&AD Festival, Javier Campopiano, global chief creative officer of McCann Worldwide, gave a brilliant talk titled I’m Not a Robot, exploring the essential human role in this AI-driven era. One AI moment truly shook me: Boston Dynamics’ robots dancing on America’s Got Talent to Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. Their uncanny coordination was awe-inspiring and unsettling. As the audience gave a standing ovation, all I could think was: are we applauding our replacements? And how close were those films to predicting our future?”
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