Culture meets capability

For creative and strategy agency, Not Actual Size, success in the AI era is built on both developing their existing team and recruiting people with the right mindset. 

Business Director Laura Jackson prioritises attitude over technical proficiency when hiring. In talking to candidates, she explains, “It’s not about hiring for specific technical skills. We're looking for values around curiosity and openness to technology and new ideas. The kind of people who’ll figure it out as they go.”

This emphasis reflects a broader philosophy at Not Actual Size, recognising that adaptable thinking and creative judgement will remain valuable long after tool-specific AI 

skills become outdated.

Nurturing a tech-positive culture

While Not Actual Size isn't recruiting specifically for AI skills, they are cultivating new kinds of capability internally.

“In the past, we haven't been particularly tech-forward as a creative agency. We're more about editorial and storytelling,” says Laura. “What we are trying to nurture now is more of a tech-positive mindset in our creative team – helping people explore the opportunities AI presents,” says Laura. 

Laura describes the shift as collective learning rather than top-down change. “We’re all figuring it out together,”she says. This openness has built trust within the team and made it easier to talk honestly about what works and what doesn’t.

It’s less about telling people what to do and more about giving them the confidence that there is a direction. That’s reassuring. It stops people feeling behind.

Recent economic uncertainty has shifted how Not Actual Size balances internal capabilities with external expertise.“We've been in less of a growth mode this year than other years because of a lot of change in the industry, which is partially driven by AI,” notes Laura. 

This has led to a strategic division of labour: their core team develops the creative vision and strategy, informed by their growing tech awareness, while specialised technical execution is handled through freelancers or agency partners with established expertise.

Evolving the copywriter's role

The most immediate impact of AI at Not Actual Size has been felt by their copywriting team. “There's been a lot of noise and heat around copywriting specifically, which we've had to really deal with in our team,” Laura explains.

Their approach has been twofold: helping copywriters feel empowered through better understanding of AI, while supporting them in developing broader creative skills. “There are a lot of personal emotions mixed into it all and we're still figuring out where people ethically stand on this matter. We’ve spent time in open sessions just letting people talk through what this means for them,” she adds. “It’s helped take the fear out of it.”

Before, everyone was experimenting on their own – one person would be trying ChatGPT, another Midjourney, another something else. It felt exciting but a bit chaotic. Having a plan – even a light one – suddenly made it feel manageable. People knew what was expected and what was okay to try.

A recent partnership with a long-term client illustrates a shift in practice. Not Actual Size worked with them to develop a proprietary AI copywriting tool for product content. “We actually probably know more about their tone of voice than they do,” she explains. This deep knowledge positioned them perfectly to help implement the AI solution, transitioning their role from writers to editors.

This project aligns with broader agency ambitions. “It’s partly spurred on by AI but also by our ambition as an agency to move more upstream, and to be delivering more creative ideas-based work and less of the executional work.”

The reality so far, however, hasn't quite matched expectations. “The tool has a long way to go to be a fully effective solution,” Laura reveals. “We're still doing a lot of the editing... it hasn't changed the day-to-day all that much.”

The future agency

Looking ahead, Laura envisions teams built more around ‘taste and judgement’ – with strategists and conceptual thinkers working in partnership with clients.

When it comes to hiring new talent, she explains, “Part of the interview process now is asking, how do you feel about AI? You can tell a lot from that conversation.” 

Laura is keen to emphasise that junior talent remains vital. “I want to be clear,” she stresses, “this doesn’t mean we no longer hire junior team members."

Juniors are vital – they bring fresh ideas and new thinking.

The key to future-proofing may lie in building stronger human relationships. 

As Laura puts it, “That’s the thing we can really put value on – the human connection – if everything else could eventually be done for us.”

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