How Agencies Can Harness AI to Unlock New Business Opportunities and Boost Productivity

Contributed by Grammatik Agency, Managing Director, Glenn Matchett

ChatGPT might suggest that this sentence isn’t the best for opening this article. I would disagree. So here we are. With Pandora's box firmly wedged open, the debate for those running agencies is not if but how they adopt AI into their workflows and the day-to-day cut and thrust of their daily grind.

The crux of things, as I see it, is AI should be used as a tool for augmenting and supporting business rather than replacing critical thinking or becoming a default funnel for work to be waved through without question. Hence I would nix ChatGPT’s steer on how to start an article about using AI to open up new business opportunities.

At Grammatik, we run the rule for our clients across all aspects of marketing and PR in the B2B tech space. There are countless opportunities to plug in AI to help with what we do. At a basic level we use Supernormal to assist during fast-paced calls, supplementing our work and gaining fast and accurate note-taking without human intervention. This helps our team concentrate on other elements of our meetings – focussing on building relationships with clients and positive human interaction. Other tools like Grammarly use GenAI to help finetune writing skills, saving time and energy for seeking out new business leads and building new client relationships.

But how can AI be used to open up new business opportunities? One thing it shouldn't be for is blagging or winging it. AI is not a replacement for knowledge and expertise in a particular area. A foundational understanding of the businesses an agency works with is an essential requirement. For us especially, a deep knowledge of our clients' industry and technology is required. Shoving a few queries into ChatGPT and parroting what comes out the other end is not an option and that will quickly unravel if it's a route that’s followed.

In practical terms we have found AI to be a godsend on some of our production projects. Not only in terms of the capability it brings to the table, but also because of the speed and accuracy of the service it delivers.

When we were approached to film and edit a video case study for a major client, we had the task of translating Dutch interviews into English subtitles with a lead time that would have made even Billy Whizz wince. Without AI, this may have been an impossible task, with our editor being an English speaker who found Dutch to be, well, double Dutch. However, we were able to deliver high-quality, accurate work while overcoming the language barrier, even without the human skills on tap to do it.

The first step in the post-production process was to use Adobe Premiere Pro’s speech-to-text feature to transcribe the unedited audio clips to create Dutch subtitles. Although AI-generated subtitles may not always be 100% accurate, they provide a clear baseline for the dialogue that helped our editor identify the video's key points, which we could also refine given our knowledge of the subject being discussed – correcting names of software packages and core principles, for example. An SRT file was then exported and uploaded to DeepL for translation into English. The resulting SRT was then brought back into Premiere Pro and placed above the original Dutch track, matching timing perfectly.

Using tools like Speech to Text and DeepL was key in expanding Grammatik’s business opportunities and enabling us to take on this job. However, to finalize the work, we drafted in a human translator to deliver a completely accurate translation for the resulting video, but also for trimmed versions of the interviews which enabled us to write an additional PDF then to accompany the film. Work that previously would have taken several days was done and dusted within a couple of hours.

The tech giants are betting big on AI. And with good reason. Google is going hard on upselling their Gemini Suite plug-in for Workspace to oil the wheels on everything from summarizing emails, to generating sales pitches, campaign briefs, and project plans. New AI tools can really help empower agencies, especially in production and new business. They can help streamline creative processes, enhance output, and create new opportunities. Firefly, a suite of generative AI models, allows creators to generate and edit high-quality visuals directly in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Firefly’s text-to-image and text effects can produce a flurry of marketing assets, including banner ads, social media graphics, and promotional visuals tailored to campaigns. This enables agencies to experiment with diverse visuals and messaging that resonate with targeted audiences. By speeding up content creation, rapidly iterating on visuals and enabling faster client turnaround. Faster turnaround means happier clients and more time for new business.

In Premiere Pro tools like scene edit detection, auto reframe, and Speech to Text automate repetitive editing tasks. A recurring theme among AI tools is the eradication of mundane tasks which does enable agency teams to focus on the human elements of life, especially nurturing relationships with current and prospective clients.

For production projects, ideation is fair game. Creating a canvas of ideas to help nurture thinking within a team is perfectly acceptable. Tools like OpenAI’s GPT models can help generate ideas, suggest dialogue, or create variations of plot points, allowing writers to explore new creative directions and refine their scripts. Broadening out ideas that you already have or complementing them with AI-generated ones can be the difference between winning and losing a pitch.

For pitches themselves, tools like Adobe Express enable agencies to quickly create mock-ups, decks, and sample assets to showcase to potential clients. By offering a visual preview of project possibilities, agencies can improve their chances of landing new contracts.

I’ve only scratched the surface here with how AI can open up new business opportunities. The key takeaway is that AI doesn’t have to be a tidal wave that eradicates jobs, it’s a buffet from which you can pick and choose how and what you bring in to augment what you already have to offer. The co-pilot on tasks can range from the mundane to the creative and complex. But as long as there is human oversight, the addition of select AI tools to your toolbox can only be a good thing. And by doing so you can open up new business opportunities and stay competitive in an increasingly sharp-elbowed playing field.