Unmistakably Human: Creative Leadership in the Age of AI

A conversation with Sylvie Lamont, SJC’s Chief Creative Officer

Today’s marketers have more technology at their fingertips than ever before. AI is reshaping how brands create, personalize and scale content across channels.

At SJC Content, AI is integrated into how we help clients do more with their content, expanding creative possibilities while improving workflow efficiency and production scale. Technology enables speed and precision, but it is guided by experienced, human creative leadership.

We spoke with SJC Chief Creative Officer Sylvie Lamont about how her team is leveraging AI in practical, strategic ways while keeping human judgment and creative integrity at the centre.

‍You work closely with some of Canada's biggest brands and retailers. When clients ask about AI in marketing today, what are they most curious about?
They want to know how they can leverage AI to be more efficient and cut costs.

How is AI-generated content being perceived by brand audiences today?
‍From my vantage point, I'm starting to see signals that audiences are becoming more sensitive to AI-generated creative. When AI first hit the market, the possibilities were new and exciting, but then hallucinations and fakes became very prominent, creating a sense of distrust within the marketplace. Authenticity is increasingly essential. 

How do you define authenticity in creative?
Authenticity in creative right now means human-driven critical thinking. Whether it's through traditional craft or creative prompts, developing unique concepts and content with AI tools, creative must be human-driven and true.

How do audience expectations of AI shift between brand-building campaigns and performance or e-commerce creative?
‍AI can be used differently in advertising versus marketing execution. We see expectations change between a brand campaign and e-commerce or performance content. When it comes to volume in e-commerce, AI has made it possible to personalize and get intimate with people's preferences, wants or needs. Customer data is driving AI, and communication no longer needs to be generic. Versioning and geographic or seasonal customization become effortless. For brand campaigns, we see AI tools helping with the planning, but the human emotion is what breaks through, and this is what drives the connectivity and the engagement.

Can you share an example where AI helped a brand scale or adapt creative while still preserving a sense of realism?
‍AI can help adapt creative while still preserving a sense of realism. A while back, we shot a back-to-school campaign. The concept was to capture students in their element at a stadium and outdoor running track. To pull the emotion out of the cast of students, we needed to capture them in a real environment. We also needed to brand the stadium and track in the retailer’s brand colours. We had a long shot list and no locations that suited the ask, so we rented a couple of rows of stadium seating and leveraged our AI tools to create a stadium environment in our back parking lot. We preserved that sense of realism without extending the budget of a large scale production. The shoot was a success.

With so many possible AI integrations today, how do you decide where AI adds value and where human judgment still needs to lead?
‍To decide where AI adds value and where human judgment still needs to lead, we always start with the ask: what is the deliverable? Can AI help with strategy, planning, research, storyboarding, or even the concepts? This applies to motion, still and audio. The key is to understand the end use and purpose, what level of emotion and authenticity is required to connect with the audience. And if you use AI integrations for final art, you need to understand the usage rights and ensure the work is truly unique.

Based on the brand work you're seeing now, what do you think will distinguish creative that audiences respond to from where they quickly tune out?
‍It's work that feels unmistakably human.

From your perspective, what's the biggest opportunity for marketers to leverage AI right now without compromising authenticity?
‍The biggest opportunity is to use AI for personalization and scale.. AI tools leverage brand and consumer data to customize content and create true intimacy with brands, allowing consumers to fully engage and connect.

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Sylvie Lamont is Chief Creative Officer at SJC, where she leads creative strategy and integrated campaigns across the Communications Group. She has partnered with leading Canadian retailers including Walmart Canada, Canadian Tire and The Brick, and has also served as a faculty member at OCAD University.

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At SJC, creative teams integrate AI applications through AI Worx, a suite of services spanning custom environments, digital personas and enhanced motion & animationt. Human oversight remains central at every stage.

Behind the scenes, SJC’s proprietary Content Factori™ platform powers workflow automation and scalable production models, enabling efficient versioning and seamless execution across channels.

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