The goverment appointed eight ‘AI champions’ to accelerate AI adoption and tackle barriers. The AI champion for the creative industries is Sally Davies, managing director of Abbey Road Studios.
The champions have published AI adoption plans setting out recommendations to boost AI adoption in their sectors. See below for a summary of Sally Davies’ AI adoption report for the creative industries.
If you have a comment on the report or you’d like to share your thoughts on AI so we can share them with Sally, email [email protected]
Sally Davies says with the creative industries often quick to explore new technologies, AI use is higher in the creative industries than across the economy as a whole with 51% of creative businesses using AI, compared with 33% of all businesses.
However, she said there are many barriers to adopting AI in the creative industries. They include:
The plan makes eight recommendations:
Here’s more detail about the key recommendations:
Sally Davies said:
“Many creatives are concerned that AI may replace their craft. That concern must be taken seriously. The value of the UK’s creative industries comes from human creativity, judgement and originality. AI should therefore be adopted to enhance human creativity, productivity and opportunity, not to displace the people and creative content that make the sector world-leading.
“I encourage government and industry to publish an augmentation-first statement for the creative industries and use it as the foundation for my engagement and advocacy. This should support human creative control, encourage best practice before major AI deployment, and link adoption to skills and transition support. To ensure it reflects the realities on the ground, this must be designed with creative workers and trade unions to ensure it acts as a clear pro-worker statement.”
Sally Davies pointed out that the “creative industries are particularly exposed to unresolved questions around copyright and AI”.
In March, the government back tracked on its plan to allow AI companies to train their models using copyrighted works unless the rights holder opts out following strong protests from several groups and individuals in the creative industries. In a consultation, only 3% of the 11,500 respondents backed the government’s preferred option.
The government announced its decision in its ‘Report and Impact Assessment on Copyright and AI’. Sally Davies said the government should carry out measures detailed in that report:
She also said the new Creative Content Exchange could “support responsible AI adoption if it develops as a trusted marketplace for digitised cultural and creative assets. She added: “It could help content owners commercialise their assets while giving data users easier access to high quality, lawful and trusted material. This could support the next wave of creative innovation and help develop high-value AI models.”
Sally Davies said:
“Creative businesses should not be expected to adopt tools they do not trust or understand. Equally, responsible AI use should not be treated as anti-creative. The sector needs a more mature conversation, one that recognises risks, shows practical benefits, and makes responsible adoption visible.”
She said she will support this through initiatives including breakfast roundtables to share examples o AI use, including tools, impacts and lessons learned, quarterly showcases across the UK on how AI is reshaping the creative industries ethically and augmenting human creativity, and a short-form film series showing how leading creatives use technology in their creative process.
She also called for the government and industry to support of “a national programme of knowledge building, including AI demonstrators and peer learning network.
“AI adoption is currently fragmented”, Sally Davies said, with “many creative businesses do not know which tools to trust, what questions to ask suppliers, how to assess productivity gains, how to manage client expectations or how to put proportionate safeguards in place”.
She called for clear and practical guidance on questions including:
Davies recommended the government and industry should consider delivering this guidance through methods including AI toolkits, practical adoption standards and trusted tool and support directories.
Sally Davies said:
“AI adoption should not be concentrated among larger firms or in a small number of locations. The creative industries are shaped by place, identity, networks, talent and cultural context. Adoption support must therefore be locally accessible and connected to existing creative clusters.”
“I support the distribution of growth and innovation across the UK so that regional creative economies can participate in, and shape AI adoption. I encourage government and large firms at the intersection of creativity and technology to identify existing offers, improve signposting, develop partnerships and ensure private infrastructure complements public infrastructure.”
She said this requires action across three key areas:
If you have a comment on the report or you’d like to share your thoughts on AI so we can share them with Sally Davis, email [email protected]
Creating a digital design portfolio can be a tricky proposition: digital design is an umbrella that covers such a wide range of skills. Whether you’re a UX, UI, web designer, or developer, your portfolio needs to showcase what you can do – as well as convey your creativity and the practical value you can bring to a role or project. It’s a tall order. Luckily, we’re here to give you some insider insights on how to stand out right from the get-go.
A truly compelling portfolio will demonstrate how you think, solve problems, and bring value to an agency’s clients.
Before you begin, take some time to plan the most effective way to show your work. You need to think about what your strongest skills are and which projects best showcase them. What work you’ve done will best fit the role you are applying for? Are there some particularly successful examples that will impress a prospective employer with their impact?
If you are applying for a digital design role, your portfolio must demonstrate your digital skills. You’d be surprised how often people don’t do this! Just including a Behance or Dribbble link isn’t enough.
Rather than relying on an off-the-shelf template with little customisation, present something that reflects your personality, creativity, and attention to detail. In most cases this will mean creating a website. Platforms such as Webflow and Framer are ideal for this, allowing you full creative control but remaining accessible for designers without advanced development experience. They also don’t require much maintenance once setup, meaning you won’t end up with a never-ending to-do list.
Whichever platform you use, it’s vital to make sure you test everything thoroughly. As with a project for a client, errors such as broken links, spelling mistakes, slow loading times, or responsive layout issues ensure a negative first impression. Employers will be concerned if they’re presented with work that isn’t polished, professional, and reliable across all devices.
One of the biggest mistakes designers make is only showing the finished product.
While the final designs are important, employers also want to understand how you arrived at that solution. Showing your process demonstrates how you think through a problem.
For example, a website project could include research, wireframes, user journeys, concepts, prototypes, as well as the final designs and product. You don’t need lengthy explanations (walls of text will detract from your work) but there should be enough context for someone reviewing your portfolio to understand the challenge, your approach, any key decisions and why you chose the solution that you did.
Any company you apply to will want to know that your designs can solve problems and contribute to their business objectives. Showing commercially relevant work helps them imagine how you would work with their own projects and clients.
If possible, show measurable outcomes for things like improved engagement, increased conversions, better user experience and improved accessibility etc. These can provide evidence that your work is effective, and even just some small details around business impact can make projects feel far more professional and credible.
Conceptual work still has value, especially when demonstrating creativity, but practical work that solves real business problems will carry more weight during the hiring process. It’s all about giving agencies and businesses more confidence in you.
Different agencies and companies prioritise different skills, tools, and workflows, so what you present and the work you include needs to be tailored to them. Before applying, research the company and the type of clients they work with. Dive into the services they offer, their visual style, and the technologies and platforms they use. It can make you feel like a good fit from the start.
Creativity is also essential. Employers are not just looking for technical ability, they want to see originality, and the ability to approach challenges in interesting ways that push boundaries and create work with added value.
Sometimes it’s the presentation and execution of your portfolio itself that elevates you above other candidates.
When it comes to portfolios, quality is always more important than quantity. It is far better to have four or five strong, well-explained projects than 10+ average ones with little depth or explanation.
Every project included should feel polished, demonstrate clear thinking, show your process, support the type of work you want to do professionally and show the final outcome.
Careful curation shows confidence, professionalism and will help make sure employers see your real strengths.
The strongest portfolios show more than just your headline projects. Often employers are looking for, and are impressed by, small details that demonstrate deep understanding of digital design considerations.
Consider highlighting things such as accessibility, interaction design details, design systems, components considerations, typography choices, communication skills, or SEO/AEO. It’s a great way to give you extra credibility as a well-rounded candidate capable of building successful and rewarding digital experiences.
As we’ve mentioned above, you should be treating your portfolio like you would a real client project, and that includes being prepared to talk confidently about digital design and the details of each project you’ve included. Have a think about what you might typically be asked by a client and have those answers ready should you be invited to interview. It’s not just about showing your work; it’s about giving you an opportunity to talk with expertise and enthusiasm about what your digital design skills can do for them.
At Proctor + Stevenson, we help clients with every aspect of their digital design needs. If you’d like to learn more about what we do, and how we can work with you, drop us a line at [email protected].
We are delighted to announce we’ve appointed James Hirst as Bristol Creative Industries’ (BCI) new managing director, alongside the addition of three new board directors: Nicky Clark, Aimée Norman and Robert Rawle.
James Hirst’s appointment reflects BCI’s commitment to strengthening our leadership and delivering enhanced value to its growing community of creative businesses and professionals.
Commenting on his new role, James Hirst said:
“I’m delighted to be joining BCI at such an important point for the sector in this region. The organisation has a strong foundation, supported by an active and highly engaged community. I’m looking forward to working with the team, our members and partners to further develop our offering, deliver our ambition to be the voice of creativity in the region and ensure we continue to create sustained value for our members.
“The South West has an extraordinary concentration of creative talent and entrepreneurial energy. There’s a real opportunity to build on this momentum and amplify the region’s reputation nationally and internationally, strengthening collaboration, and championing the sector as a key driver of innovation, growth and cultural impact.”
Hirst brings a wealth of experience in creative, digital and commercial growth, and will work closely with the board and wider membership to shape BCI’s future direction.
His appointment comes as we prepare for a landmark milestone – our 20th anniversary next year – offering an opportunity to celebrate two decades of championing creativity while setting an ambitious course for the future.
Joining the board are three highly respected industry figures:
Together, these appointments reflect BCI’s intention to broaden its perspective, deepen industry connections and ensure it continues to serve a diverse and evolving membership base.
Lis Anderson, co-chair of Bristol Creative Industries, said:
“We are absolutely delighted to welcome James as our new managing director and to strengthen our board with the appointments of Nicky, Aimée and Robert.
“BCI plays a critical part in supporting and representing the creative sector in the region – fuelling innovation, driving investment and shaping the region’s identity on the global stage. With this strengthened leadership team, we are well placed to build on our success, elevate the voice of our members and ensure the sector continues to thrive.
“We have ambitious plans for the future including adding more valuable benefits for our members, building on our events and training offer and expanding our partnerships to create new opportunities for skills development, collaboration and growth.”
As BCI approaches our 20-year milestone, we are focused on expanding our programme of events, training and advocacy, strengthening connections across the region, and further establishing itself as a powerful voice for the creative industries.
The new leadership team will play a key role in delivering these ambitions, ensuring that Bristol and the South West continue to be recognised as one of the UK’s leading creative hubs.
Not yet a member of Bristol Creative Industries? Join today!
A few days ago, MOYA Studio was named Creative Startup of the Year for the South West at the UK StartUp Awards 2026. Now we are heading to the national finals in September, representing the South West region. We’re still a little stunned, honestly.
But the award isn’t really where this story starts. It starts with a bag. And a lot of frustration.
When I launched my own handbag brand back in 2022, I hit a wall that nobody in the industry talked about openly. The fashion manufacturing world simply isn’t built for startups. Designers raise their fees and limit iterations the moment they hear the word “Startup”. Manufacturers want minimum orders we can’t meet. The worst is that nobody in this process supports the experimental, trial-and-error mentality that startup founders have. And if our idea is genuinely new, which the best ones always are, there’s no roadmap to follow.
Through my work as a freelance bag designer, I saw the same problem happening repeatedly. A founder is often stuck in no man’s land, caught between a designer who didn’t understand production and a manufacturer who couldn’t see the vision. I realised how broken the process was.
So I built the thing I wished had existed.
MOYA Studio is an end-to-end design and development consultancy for bag and accessory startups. Not a design agency. Not a sourcing agent. One partner who holds the whole picture, from a rough concept through design, prototyping, sourcing and into manufacturing – until the founder receives the products at their doorstep. The creative vision and the commercial reality, kept in the same room throughout.
In just one year, our studio has supported 20 founders across the US, Europe and beyond. Products that are genuinely new, from modern motherhood bags, patent-pending smart bags to pet carriers or sustainable accessories, built by people who are close to real problems and brave enough to do something about them.
The award is a wonderful thing. But if we’re honest, it belongs as much to those founders as it does to us. The ones who trusted us with their idea at the earliest, most vulnerable stage. That kind of courage deserves the right support. We’re just glad we get to be that.
MOYA Studio is Bristol-based. We’re heading to the national finals in September.
Come say hello at www.moyabagstudio.com
Quick answer – NO!
This week I released an article about how Claude Design can create PowerPoint slides for you. Or at least how it tries to and does a shockingly bad job!
Here at The Prezenter, we specialise in presentations, and it made sense for me to give an honest review to our network.
If your clients are starting to say ‘AI did this design for us in about 5 minutes’ then I’d encourage you to create your own honest reviews for people to see because a lot of these AI systems are being seriously overhyped. And usually by non-designers who don’t have a clue what good looks like!
Here’s a link to the original LinkedIn post.
And the review I did for YouTube is also linked in this article.
Has anyone out there done something similar for their own clients?
Wow, what a way to mark the tenth edition of the Gather Round Presents event series. Thank you to everyone who came through the doors at Brunswick Square last week. To our incredible speakers and sponsors, this really was our best one yet… and before the doors had even opened, all the signs were there.
A queue snaked around the block. People peering through the door asking to get on the list. Familiar faces greeted new ones. Conversations started on the pavement long before anyone stepped inside.
By 6.30pm, our gorgeous space at Brunswick Square was already coming to life. Hot pizza from our friends at Pizzucci disappeared almost as quickly as it arrived, while the first through the door claimed a free, delicious Boardwalk x Left Handed Giant beer. A huge thank you to Boardwalk for sponsoring the evening and helping us create an experience that felt special from the moment guests arrived – the totes went down a treat. Summer beach bag, sorted.
Soon every seat was filled. Each corner humming with conversation. Strangers became collaborators. The energy was infectious.
What unfolded over the next few hours was generous, thought-provoking and often deeply personal. Nine creative voices from the local scene shared stories, observations and lessons on the subject of taste, while our audience of curious, engaged minds helped shape the conversation in return.
We left feeling incredibly grateful, and more than a little in awe, of what can happen when the right people gather in a room together.
Here’s some of what stayed with us….
Taste isn’t something we’re born with or suddenly discover. It’s something we build, refine, challenge and evolve throughout our lives.
If there was one overarching takeaway from the evening, it was this: your taste is your creative superpower – but only if you’re willing to pay attention to it.
Your taste is shaped by what you don’t like, as much as what you do. Penfold, Visual Artist.
When we think about developing taste, we often focus on collecting inspiration and finding things we love. But Tim Gresham (Penfold) reminded us that our dislikes can be just as valuable.
The things that make us cringe, switch off, feel uncomfortable or leave us cold tell us something important about who we are. They help define our boundaries, values and preferences. Building taste isn’t just about collecting influences, it’s about noticing your reactions and understanding what they reveal.
Pay attention to both. They’re all clues.
A recurring theme throughout the evening was that taste isn’t a destination. Helen Liang described taste not as a fixed identity but as an ever-evolving state of doing. It develops through action, experimentation and curiosity. It changes as we change.
Tim Gresham (Penfold) shared a perfect example. Growing up, he hated the strange abstract artwork hanging around his family home. He thought it was weird. Yet years later, he found himself wanting to make weird, abstract work of his own.
Taste isn’t always conscious. Sometimes the things shaping us are quietly working away in the background for years before they reveal themselves.
There was little talk of waiting for the perfect moment or becoming an overnight expert. Instead, our speakers championed learning through action. Small steps. Consistent practice. Making things regularly.
Illustrator Jess Knights reflected on how taste develops gradually through curiosity, repetition and attention.
The message was clear: creative growth happens through doing, not thinking about doing. Little and often beats waiting for perfect.
Or as Helen reframed it: FAIL = First Attempts In Learning.
Discomfort appeared throughout the evening as a necessary ingredient of creativity. Growth rarely happens when everything feels easy.
Whether it’s trying a new medium, sharing work before you’re ready or exploring unfamiliar ideas, creativity often requires stepping into uncertainty. We were encouraged to stop seeing failure as evidence that we’re not good enough and start seeing it as evidence that we’re learning.
Many of the talks returned to the importance of curiosity. We were encouraged to look at the world as a child might: seeing everything as a phenomenon, approaching experiences with wonder rather than assumptions. What if we stopped trying to categorise everything immediately? What if we simply paid attention?
TJA touched on a transformation she went through in her early twenties during a set at Boomtown festival. A light-bulb moment on stage where she realised this wasn’t for her anymore, she listened to her intuition and forged a new path for herself, led by curiosity. Exploring new sounds from a spectrum of musical influences, shedding the old, birthing a new.
Curiosity opens doors that certainty keeps closed. It allows us to notice connections, patterns and possibilities that others miss. And often, that’s where original ideas begin.
Alongside curiosity came another invitation: play. Playfulness isn’t the opposite of serious creative work. It’s often the route into it.
Experimentation, exploration, making without a clear outcome – these are the moments where unexpected discoveries happen.
Constraints are often viewed as barriers. Limited budgets, limited time, limited resources.
But, instead of asking “what’s stopping me?”, our audience was encouraged us to ask “what becomes possible because of this constraint?”
The most distinctive creative solutions often emerge from limitations. Constraints force us to think differently, find new angles and develop original approaches. Creativity doesn’t survive despite constraints. It often thrives because of them.
Helen shared an anecdote about two pandas (your regular bamboo-eating guy and then the ‘trash panda’ aka raccoon) that perfectly captured the subjectivity of taste.
What one person dismisses, another cherishes. And that’s the point. Taste isn’t about universal approval. It’s about finding and trusting the things that resonate with you.
Fox, COO of Artichoke, referenced a cabinet created in collaboration with artist Grayson Perry, highlighting how deeply personal taste can be. His work isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s exactly what makes it compelling.
As Fox put it, originality is what matters. Not everyone has to like it.
One of the evening’s most memorable exercises came from Jess Knights, who invited people to think about what they were obsessed with as children.
What did you collect?
What couldn’t you stop thinking about?
What drew your attention again and again?
Jess encouraged us to see our lives as a growing collage made up of ticket stubs, textures, clippings, trinkets, photographs, objects and memories.
Taste isn’t formed in isolation. It’s the accumulation of countless experiences, interests and fascinations layered over time.
‘So why not go down the rabbit hole, become obsessed with something. Dive deep into a subject matter that interests you, follow curiosity wherever it leads..’ Seb Alexander, Director, Photographer & Videographer
The internet often encourages breadth over depth, but meaningful taste frequently develops through immersion. Spending time with a subject. Exploring its nuances. Understanding its context.
In other words: go down the rabbit hole.
Sarah O’Connell delivered perhaps the most direct challenge of the evening:
Comfort kills. Get weird or get forgot.
She argued that creativity needs more courage, more whimsy and more unconventional perspectives. More radical accessibility. More queer perspectives. More working-class joy. More magic. More hope.
The work that stands out isn’t usually the safest.
It’s the work brave enough to be itself.
Rene Katiisa shared a powerful reflection about storytelling and identity. Life rarely follows the script we imagined. Careers change. Plans unravel. New opportunities emerge. But every twist, challenge and experience contributes to our perspective.
Our taste is shaped by our story.
And because nobody else has lived our story, nobody else can offer exactly the same perspective.
Rene also highlighted the importance of creative community. While taste is deeply personal, it doesn’t develop in isolation. It grows through conversation, collaboration and exposure to different ways of seeing the world.
Many minds, means different perspectives and better ideas. Brand aficionado Ross Hawkins shared stories of brand transformations, with a new, fresh voice at the centre. He delved into the development of a Brompton campaign working with ex-pro cyclist and tastemaker David Millar. He ended up being the key ingredient in creating a campaign that stood out from previous releases.
Expand your network and collaborate to keep things fresh.
The evening drew to close on a sentiment that will stay with us far beyond the coming weeks. An important note that taste is your unique human superpower. It’s your way of understanding and showing the world who you are. In this era of change, it’s important now more than ever that we wear our weirdness with honour, because there’s no one like you.
If you missed this epic event, be sure to sign up to our newsletter to be the first to get an invite to the next one.
Or if you are looking for an event space to hire, email our events manager for more info on [email protected]
Interested in becoming a member? Join our community in June 2026 you get your first month free.
Book a tour, we’d love to meet you!
Most AI-generated brand messaging reads like marketing copy trained on even more marketing copy. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Here’s how the best marketing and creative teams are using AI to develop pin-sharp positioning and whip-smart brand lines.
Confidence gap
Many of us now use AI in some form. Blog content, social copy, summaries, captions and campaign variations can be created quickly, often with surprisingly competent results. So far, so good. But when the stakes rise – positioning, campaign messaging, brand voice or strategic narrative comes into play – confidence in AI tends to disappear. And we all know why. AI-generated messaging often sounds polished but generic. Strategically thin. The kind of copy that ticks boxes while saying very little. For organisations that care deeply about reputation and positioning (i.e. the global success stories), that’s a problem. Obviously.
The assumption is that AI simply can’t produce high-level brand language. Strategic messaging still belongs entirely to human writers. But increasingly, that assumption feels shaky. Because the real shift is not that AI is replacing writing. It is that writing itself is changing.
The problem with most AI prompts
Most teams are still using AI as an output machine. A prompt goes in, some copy comes back out and everyone hopes for the best. Which is usually how you end up with campaign lines that sound like they were assembled in a corporate escape room. The problem is not the technology itself. It’s the lack of context, direction and strategic thinking surrounding it. Today, a typical AI prompt for a campaign line or a piece of brand messaging might look something like this (and, to be fair, most of us are now using more detailed prompts, but let’s use the following for illustrative purposes):“Write a catchy slogan for a leadership programme. Make it inspiring, memorable and engaging. Keep it short and dynamic. See attached our brand voice guidelines for guidance on tone. Use wordplay if appropriate.”
Good luck with that.
Strong strategic messaging has never worked like this. Before AI, nobody expected a creative agency to develop distinctive positioning from a two-line brief and a vague adjective like “dynamic”. The same principle applies here. Better inputs create better thinking. The marketing teams getting real value from AI are feeding it considerably more context. Brand background. Audience insight. Internal tensions. Tone of voice examples. Competitive positioning. Personas. Even references to sentence rhythm, pacing and emotional tone. The strongest prompts increasingly resemble strategic creative briefs rather than instructions. Because that’s where things start getting genuinely good.
Writing using AI
The most effective teams are not using AI to write for them. They are writing using AI. And it’s an important point to note.
Using AI to write usually produces generic work because the model defaults towards probability. It selects the most statistically likely phrasing, which is why so much AI-generated marketing language converges around the same structures, clichés and predictable turns of phrase. The result is polished, technically competent copy that sounds just like everything else. Writing using AI is different. It becomes a collaborative process built around refinement, challenge and iteration. Ideas are tested. Routes are pushed further. Language is tightened. And messaging evolves through a conversation rather than appearing fully formed after a single prompt.
It’s worth bearing in mind that, the strongest results rarely emerge in the first couple of hours. They develop gradually as teams refine the thinking, sharpen the tone and articulate what feels right – and what doesn’t. That process requires more human judgement, not less.
Why feedback quality matters
One of the biggest shifts AI introduces to the writing process is the importance of articulate feedback. The organisations seeing the strongest messaging results are often the ones capable of explaining nuance clearly. Not: “This doesn’t work. Try again.” But: “The tone here feels abrupt and slightly curt. It needs to have pace, but with warmer, more approachable language.” Or: “The sentiment here is fine, but we need to add some flair to the language. Try some repetition. Use the power of three in a sentence to add impact and tone.” This kind of feedback gives the model something it can work with.
In practice, the process starts to feel far more like a creative conversation than a transaction. A campaign line will probably be tested, rejected, rewritten and refined 50 times. Messaging becomes something that’s shaped collaboratively in real time. Which means that strategic brand messaging still depends heavily on craft. AI can process language at warp speed, but it still struggles with judgement, subtlety and implication. The writer’s sensitivity to tone, nuance and audience psychology remains hugely important. (Arguably, more important than before.)
Why most brand voice guidelines fail in AI
Brand voice is where many organisations start running into problems. And, to be honest, we’re also yet to learn how to stop AI from going off-piste with brand voice, but a big part of the problem is caused by feeding conventional tone of voice guidelines into the LLM. Most existing tone of voice guidelines were written for humans. And human writers are good at interpreting nuance. Give an experienced copywriter a handful of brand traits – confident, intelligent, approachable, authoritative – and they understand how to balance those qualities.
AI tends to interpret them much more literally/weirdly. The language often becomes an awkward blend of stated characteristics rather than a genuinely coherent voice. The organisations getting this right use AI-specific brand voice guidelines. (And the smartest organisations ask SIM7 to create this for them, by the way.) These will include detailed, extensive examples of the brand voice in action, which are far more helpful for an LLM.
It’s still about craft
There is a temptation to frame AI as either a creative revolution or a creative disaster. But the reality? It’s somewhere in the middle. AI is exceptionally good at accelerating parts of the writing process. It can help teams explore more routes, test more language and develop messaging frameworks more efficiently than before. But strategic brand messaging still requires judgement, restraint and clarity of thinking. Human thinking.
The marketing teams getting the most value from AI are not using it to avoid the work. They are using it to go deeper into it. Which means staying ‘inside the conversation’, refining continuously, challenging the language harder. And giving much, much richer feedback.
Basically, they use AI to sharpen strategic thinking rather than shortcut it. And that’s probably the most important shift of all. In future, the advantage will not belong to the organisations producing the most content. It will belong to the organisations that know how to shape language with greater clarity, precision and intent.
Because strategic messaging was never just about output.
It was always about craft.
SIM7 is a creative consultancy that builds standout brands from the words up. We shape voices, sharpen messages, and design brands and campaigns that your team can confidently take forward. Award-winning, human-led creative – with AI woven into the process.
Following the initial announcement in the government’s creative industries sector plan published in June 2025, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport will soon appoint a creative freelance champion to advocate for the sector’s creative freelancers within government.
We asked freelance and small business members of Bristol Creative Industries to share what they think the freelance champion should focus on.
“After 40 years as a professional voice actor, I’ve never known a threat to our industry as serious as unregulated AI. My own voice was recently cloned without permission, and the process for reporting or removing it was opaque and ineffective. A freelance champion must push for clear legal protections, mandatory consent, and enforceable penalties for misuse. AI has its place, but only when creators’ rights are respected. Freelancers deserve a framework that safeguards our livelihoods, our identities, and the integrity of the creative industries.”
Tanya Rich, voiceover artist
“Fable & Verse is an agency built on a freelance network model – senior marketers across the South West & South Wales, delivering strategic work without the overhead of a traditional agency. The freelance champion has a real opportunity to open up public sector work to networks like ours. Current procurement processes – framework agreements, insurance & turnover thresholds, lengthy pre-qualification stages – are designed around larger suppliers, which shuts out the experienced freelance talent that regional creative economies are built on. Making government contracts genuinely accessible to freelance-led businesses would strengthen the sector well beyond London.”
Georgia Mizen, Fable & Verse
“The freelance champion has the opportunity to turn years of conversation into real, practical change for creatives and freelancers across the UK. Too many talented people are still navigating inconsistent income, late payments, lack of protections and limited access to long-term support, despite being essential to the success of creative industries.
“The role must focus on listening directly to freelancers, improving financial and policy infrastructure, and ensuring freelancers are represented in wider government decision-making. There’s also a huge opportunity to champion sustainable creative careers regionally, helping independent creatives and small businesses grow with confidence, stability and clearer pathways to opportunity.”
Mustafa (Mo) Mirreh, Tell ’em Mo
“Recently the government stalled on its plans to allow AI to use creative work for learning promising further discussion around what the legislation should be. There needs to be urgent legislation around AI. How it’s used creatively but more importantly which sources are being used to train AI engines. It’s not enough for the government to remain undecided. Undecided is the same as saying AI can take our work and use it for learning. Undecided is leaving freelancers and recent graduates out of work, and increasing economic pressures. Undecided is not enough.
“In a market where freelance is growing amid increasing economic pressures, we need greater legal protections. Some of that comes from an organisational point of view. Companies dictate payment terms, ignore contracts, treat freelancers like they previously treated zero-hour contractors. There needs to be greater accountability for companies choosing freelancers and transparency over what they should be paying them and when. An awareness over how freelance rates include statutory benefits and what minimum rates should look like. Alongside awareness, there needs to be a standardised bank of resources on the government website aimed at employers explaining their responsibilities to freelancers.”
Gemma Tordoff, fractional marketer
“At MUTI Live we support a range of creative professionals from entry to leadership level with skills development. Over the past year we have supported nearly 200 freelancers through our Government funded Skills Bootcamp programmes.
“From my perspective the freelance champion should face three ways: They should directly engage with freelancers, and bodies supporting freelancers to hear exactly what is needed from the horses mouth with regards to career development. They should work closely with the creative sector, helping businesses that rely on freelance skills & expertise to understand that it is in their best interest to play an active role in initiatives for freelancers, including providing space and opportunity for career development & upskilling. They should make it clear to government that it is imperative to design well funded, consistent and innovative models for skills development to underpin sustainable careers.
“In some parts of the creative industries over 70% of the workforce are freelance. Without a robust approach to ensuring that they are able to enter and progress through their careers many will leave, taking not only the labour but the expertise with them. This would be catastrophic.”
Nick Young-Wolfe, MUTI LIVE
“It will be fantastic for the freelance community to have a strong voice in discussions around AI legislation. A lack of proper regulation is having a huge impact on freelance voice artists, in particular. Several of our voices have been illegally cloned using AI, then used commercially without our knowledge or permission. It is currently really difficult to take action against the perpetrators and/or have content removed because AI technology has outpaced our legislative ability to control it. The moral and ethical issues around AI cloning are ripe for debate but we urgently need clearer, more robust legal defences against this kind of practice. With our case studies and support, our champion could make a real case for laws to be updated so that they are clear, appropriate and properly enforceable.”
David Sheppard, broadcaster and voiceover artist
“The freelance champion should be given legal powers, like some sort of Tzar to put pressure on large (corporate) clients who drag their heels in paying little freelancers invoices on time, not adhering to 28/30 days effectively sitting on their money. As small-scale solo-preneurs etc. we don’t really have any clout to enforce the Late Payments of Commercial Debit (Interest) Act 1998! I’d like to see someone once and for all resolve this!”
Ralph Mann, Purple Heron
“The freelance champion should focus on fostering a new creative professional engagement paradigm that is rooted in existing UK intellectual property law. In the creative industries, there are those who contract with IP at the core of their business, and those who do not. People who do not deprive creators of income and make creative work unpredictable, unsafe and open to legal dispute. IP is the foundation of a functional industry and setting robust standards in the face of AI, which represents legalised IP infringement on a global scale, is vital for the future of all creators and all industries.”
Chas Rowe, voiceover artist
“Licensing of creative work for AI training should be right at the top of the new champion’s to-do list. Large publishers are already litigating and negotiating their way to licensing deals – but individual freelancers are not in a position do the same. Writers, illustrators, composers and voice artists are watching their work train the systems that now compete with them, for nothing. A freelance champion worth the title should be using their influence to secure collective licensing arrangements so freelancers actually get paid.”
Mark McGuinness, creative coach
“Companies creating content in UK need to start taking into account the emergence of Interactive content technology that TV sets are beginning to have. Foreign content producers are already working together with foreign TV platform owners to bring the next TV era. UK content creators are getting left behind. The freelance champion should raise awareness in the freelance community that they need to be aware of these new interactive content types and the opportunities they represent.”
Trevor Neal, RedSquid AI-TV
“The appointment of a freelance champion is long overdue and an important step in recognising the reality of how the creative industries operate today. Freelancers aren’t a side part of the sector – they are the sector for many creative businesses.
“The role now needs to focus on the real pressures freelancers face day to day: late payments, inconsistent income, lack of protections, and the growing impact of AI on creative work. Just as importantly, freelancers need a stronger voice in policy decisions that directly affect their livelihoods. If this role is given real influence, it has the potential to create meaningful change for thousands working across the creative industries.”
Matt Allen, It Starts With a Podcast
A few weeks ago An Dara Saol a nabbed the Short Form award at the RTS West of England Awards!
Apart from feeling royally chuffed, it’s just such a relief to have some recognition for our hard work.
This project was years in the making. Hundreds of conversations, endless script drafts and a graveyard of brilliant ideas. We also had plenty of impossible ideas that somebody, somehow, figured out how to pull off. (🤫 that’s us!)
The absolute best part about this whole project was working with our client.
The team at Saol Media trusted us enough to give us the creative keys early. They didn’t just slide a finished script across the table and say, “Hey, make this look pretty.” We actually got in the trenches together. Wrestling with the story, ripping things apart (physically and metaphorically), simplifying and rebuilding, and then doing it all over again.
What birthed out of that turmoil was a beautiful 5 part series that tackles some mature and heavy questions for teens without feeling boring. It’s honest, accessible and hopefully a lot of fun to watch.
We never just want to make things look cool. We want to help people figure out what they’re actually trying to say. Lots of people have wonderful ideas but getting those ideas to connect, resonate and getting people to actually care… that’s the hard part that we’re interested in.
Working on An Dara Saol was a reminder that the best productions are bit like conducting an orchestra, it only works when everyone is working as one.
A huge shoutout to everyone involved, especially the team at An Tobar Nua for having the guts to back a bold idea and stick with it to the very end. And a big thanks to RTS West of England for the kudos!
Now we’re off to find somewhere to put the award where it looks impressive on video calls.
We are delighted to announce the return of an amazing benefit for Bristol Creative Industries members this summer. You can enjoy free access to the brilliant Origin Workspace in Berkeley Square, Bristol.
Here are all the details direct from Origin:
Origin Workspace invites members of Bristol Creative Industries to enjoy a complimentary, inspiring, and productive workspace in the heart of the city, on Fridays between 26 June and 28 August,
Whether you’re a designer, writer, artist, or innovator, this is more than just a free desk – it’s a chance to thrive with no strings attached. Our lounge and lobby provide the ideal setting to focus, connect, and create, with unlimited coffee, reliable Wi-Fi, and a welcoming atmosphere designed to support your productivity and wellbeing.
We know many creatives are navigating the challenges of securing consistent work. That’s why we’re offering more than just space, we’re a community, offering solidarity, and creating a space where local talent can connect and collaborate.
Surrounded by like-minded professionals, you’ll have the chance to be part of a vibrant network that values support and shared success. As a proudly independent Bristol business, nurturing our Bristol ecosystem is at the heart of what we do. Whether you’re looking for a change of scenery, a spark of inspiration, or simply a place to get things done, Creative Fridays is your opportunity to be part of something bigger.
Spaces are limited, so send an email to register your interest and make Fridays your most creative day of the week. We can’t wait to welcome you to the space. Terms and conditions apply.
Not a Bristol Creative Industries member and want to take advantage of this brilliant offer? Join today.
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