AI and Content Creation? It’s Complicated.

By Ingrid Bakewell. Founder and Chief Content Strategist, That Tracks Content

Ask anyone about AI, and you’re bound to get a strong reaction. Some people outright hate it, fearing it's destroying jobs—or even humanity. Others have fully embraced it in their personal and professional lives, likening it to having a secret weapon. Then there are those who use it but hide it like a dirty secret, ashamed to admit that, yes, their most recent CV or presentation got a little help.

In our world, the relationship with AI is…complicated. It’s simultaneously revolutionizing and ruining content.

Take two recent examples:

A client hired us to help launch a new clothing line in Canada. They needed it all: product photos that said luxury, hero images, etc. So, off to work we went, activating our network of freelance creators, and gathering quotes from professional photographers we trusted. 

Andrea and Ingrid at That Tracks Content

But like many new brands, budget constraints started to force tough compromises—ones that weren’t ‘tracking’ with the client’s brand identity.

Enter AI.

“AI is about breaking through the boundaries of your own imagination,” says Blair Vermette, founder of Rabbithole, a Toronto studio fully embracing artificial intelligence.

Blair should know. His spec ad for Adidas—a floral apparel line that doesn’t exist—blew up last year. Created entirely using AI, it had everyone, including us, doing a double take.

Rabbithole’s Adidas spec ad

“The reaction was insane. Suddenly, my email is blowing up with messages from big agencies and brands that wouldn’t talk to me before,” Blair explains.

So, what could Blair do for our client? Turns out, a lot. Using the magic of AI and detailed product photos, we created stunningly lifelike brand characters and dressed them in our clients’ clothing. Are they real people? No. Can you tell? No. Is it real clothing? Yes.

From a cost perspective, it was far more affordable than using the whole rigmarole of a product photographer, two models, a makeup artist, and a product stylist – all pretty standard in the industry.  

But more importantly, it levelled the playing field for this startup. They didn’t have to compromise on quality and were able to achieve a premium look that rivals big brands with big budgets.

But sometimes, AI gets it wrong—and when it does, only a human can fix it. 

The same week we wrapped our AI ‘photoshoot,’ a new client reached out with a very different AI experience.

“It destroyed the voice of my brand,” explains Aspen Peggs, founder of Northern Primrose, a London, Ontario company specializing in virtual assistants.

Aspen and her team at Northern Primrose

The web team Aspen out-sourced may have leaned into AI a little hard when writing the website. The result was a lot of SEO-friendly words that said very little about their brand’s identity.

“AI ran away with the message. Suddenly, I couldn’t even see myself in the writing,” describes Aspen.  

Only by talking to Aspen and understanding her company and passion were we able to unravel the AI-created mess and rewrite her website to reflect her and the Northern Primrose brand.

At That Tracks Content, we embrace innovation—especially when it can help elevate a client’s brand or achieve their strategic objectives. We’re only just beginning to understand AI's full potential for content creation. We love how it levels the playing field for startups, and helps them achieve a look and feel that big brands spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on. 

But like any new technology, AI is just a tool—a prompt, an inspiration—not a replacement for human ideas and creativity.

What do you think?