AI-powered creative at scale

At Jellyfish, AI adoption isn't a future aspiration – it's fully embedded in daily operations.

“There's no role in the whole of Jellyfish that can't talk about AI processes now,” says Natalie Winford, who oversees a creative team of approximately 400 practitioners globally. 

What began as an integration of eleven companies in 2020 has evolved into a showcase for AI-enabled creativity, with proprietary technology at its core.

Pencil: the integration hub

Pencil acts as the creative operating system across Jellyfish. “It houses all of the different AI models,” Natalie says. “We’ll generate ideas, visualise, then run them back through our Share-of-Model tool to see how they score against brand metrics, then test and refine.”

“Every single practitioner across creative – all 400 – use Pencil," Natalie explains, referencing their proprietary AI platform that powers everything from content ideation to production. 

This universal adoption wasn't accidental. After restructuring in 2021-2022, Jellyfish was acquired by Brand Tech Group in 2023. “2024 was about implementation... and 2025 has been about forward adoption,” she says.

It’s not a separate conversation anymore – 

it’s just how we work.

The technology ecosystem at Jellyfish extends beyond Pencil – they use an AI platform called BWX for language transcreation and have dedicated AI Labs teams led by Matt Thomas who build agentic AI processes and tools that enhance their client offerings. 

Yet for Natalie, the real transformation isn’t just the technology itself – it’s what it’s done to creative roles, mindsets, and expectations.

Evolution, not revolution

Despite the advanced technology, Natalie emphasises this isn't about replacing human skills. Instead, roles have evolved. Traditional positions like strategists and conceptual creatives remain, now joined by specialised roles like ‘Pencil strategists’ who build instructions for designers, and ‘AI Transformation Leads’ who guide clients through adoption.

When we hire, we’re looking for people who are platform-curious. They don’t need to know Pencil on day one, but they need to want to.

The most significant change has been in mindset. “Gone are the days where you might have a client lunch on a Monday and check in with them again in three weeks' time,” Natalie notes. “This is constant, always on.”

Natalie leads teams spread across the US, EMEA, and APAC. “We’ve just launched an India hub,” she notes. “It’s changed how we collaborate – we can run a social agent overnight in one region and have the results ready for the next team by morning.”

The new creative essentials

When asked which skills matter most now, Natalie doesn't hesitate: “It's pure communication and curiosity.”

We’re not replacing creatives with data people – we’re asking creatives to become more data-fluent.

Natalie notes that certain types of talent adapts really well to AI tools: “From a designer point of view, I would move to somebody who is more of a front-end Dev rather than a brand designer.” She explains that designers with technical backgrounds often understand tool interfaces better and can more easily translate their creative vision through technology.

“But if you can express yourself in the room and you can make someone feel something, then you can express yourself through AI. The canvas has changed, but the intent hasn't. It's still about connection, meaning, beauty, relevance.” 

“You’ll always have a few people who want to write a white paper about why ChatGPT shouldn’t be used,” she laughs. “My answer is: come back in three weeks 

– it’ll be better by then.”

Client readiness

Not all clients are equally ready for AI-powered workflows. “You’ve got to have a level of commitment,” she says. “Some clients just aren’t structurally ready – they don’t have the internal systems to move at our pace, and we have to choose carefully.” 

This selectivity works both ways. Google, one of Jellyfish's largest clients delivering about £13 million in annual revenue, has been “massively supportive of Pencil,” making implementation smoother.

The future creative team

Natalie's ideal future agency team would include “a mishmash of cinematographers, conceptual thinkers, brilliant storyteller writers... platform-native content people” alongside strategists and producers. 

A new addition would be innovation and technology specialists. “I think we've probably gone as far as we can with pushing it in on everybody's individual agenda,” she reflects. The next frontier is having dedicated innovation roles alongside the creative core – “crazy thinkers” who can keep everyone evolving alongside the technology. “I want them to feel like they are living and breathing alongside the tech, not that the robots are taking over.” 

AI doesn’t replace people, It makes brilliant people even better.

Natalie is equally focused on the next generation: “We’ve brought in juniors and apprentices – and I’d love to do that more,” she says. “They remind us that curiosity is the real skill.”

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