Insights from the Agency Hackers Conference

You’re at a wedding disco. For a while, not a soul ventures onto the dance floor. Gradually, a few brave souls edge out onto the dance floor and start trying out a few moves and strutting their stuff. Turns out AI is a bit like that.

Our own Danny Austin recently attended the Agency Hackers: The Robots Are Coming conference as part of our own exploration of AI’s potential. As our short interview film shows, rather than fearing the bots, Danny discovered a host of forward thinking marketers are already beginning to pop, lock and drop to the beat of the bots.

Stand-out tools

First things first, let’s talk about one of the stand-out tools that was discussed at the conference, MindNode. No, it’s not a new meditation app for stressed-out account managers. It’s actually a nifty tool that, when combined with Hubspot data and OpenAI, offers powerful data visualisation and analysis capabilities to help agencies refine their databases and gain deeper insights, potentially transforming how we approach data-driven decision making.

The conference also explored the idea of running our own Large Language Models which don’t expose content to the wider world. It’s like having your own personal AI assistant who’s sworn to secrecy. Perfect for agencies dealing with sensitive client information but allowing them to harness the power of AI while maintaining strict data privacy and security. Or simply for clients who think their new logo design should be classified as Area 51.

Agency Champions

Now, before you start planning your agency’s AI takeover, remember: with great power comes great responsibility. As agencies, we must consider how we communicate our AI usage to clients and ensure we’re using these powerful tools ethically and effectively. The conference emphasised the importance of responsible AI use. And no, “I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords” doesn’t count as a policy.

One intriguing idea was having AI specialists on our teams. Picture this: a new colleague who can optimise and manage AI resource use. Someone who can translate between human and machine, decode cryptic client briefs, and maybe even predict when the office coffee machine is about to break down.

As Danny explains: ‘The AI revolution in agencies is here, and it’s less “Terminator” and more “WALL-E” – helpful, a bit quirky, and hopefully not leaving us humans obsolete.” So, let’s embrace our new AI tools, use them responsibly, and remember: in the epic battle of human creativity versus machine efficiency, we’re all on the same team. Even Client Services teams should be reassured that they’re not being replaced by chatbots… yet.

AI curious?

Watch Danny in conversation with Stephen Kenwright about his experiences at the conference.