AI Gives a 17-Person Agency More Time for Creative Work

Stream Creative, the marketing agency I co-founded in 2006, helps manufacturing and service companies grow. Our clients have a wide range of goals and needs — so we do everything from comprehensive marketing campaigns, to graphic design, websites, digital ads, press releases, social media content, and even billboards and catalogs. 

Today, my 17-person firm uses AI to do all those things better and faster, allowing us to deliver more value to clients than we could even a few years ago. We use HubSpot’s AI-powered Content Remix tool, for instance, to turn blogs into compelling social media posts — allowing us to easily amplify key messaging points. Similarly, an AI video editing tool called Descript lets us quickly find and clip the best moments from clients’ podcasts. That helps us quickly generate engaging sound bites we can promote through different online channels. 

AI tools help us more efficiently generate all kinds of marketing content for clients. As a simple example, we used to spend hours ensuring blog-post images were optimized for load time and search engine visibility. Using Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, I built a custom tool that automates the image-optimization process. That’s freed up countless hours my team can spend on more creative and strategic work. We also use Google’s AI tools to generate images that pair with text. The images are much more compelling than the stock photos we would have used in the past, and we don’t have to spend hours searching for them. 

AI tools do much more than improve efficiency: Often, they allow us to create better content than we could in the past. If I want to create a high-quality video showing a product from different angles, for example, Google’s Veo 3 tool can do it within minutes. A year or two ago, I might have spent all day on something like that — and it still wouldn’t look as natural as it does now. 

I know there’s concern about what AI might mean not only for jobs, but for human creativity. Those are absolutely worthy concerns. But in my case, AI has meant more time to think creatively, use my imagination, and build and try out new things. The end result is better, faster, smarter deliverables for clients — helping them, and us, grow. 

AI isn’t a hypothetical. It’s here — and it’s integrated into operations and processes that allow small businesses like mine to generate real value for the companies we serve. As lawmakers think about regulating AI, I’d ask that they strive for balance. I agree that AI needs rules — but if regulations are too restrictive, we risk making the U.S. less competitive or hurting people who want to use AI the right way: to make amazing new products and services that foster growth, innovation, and success.