What would Don Draper do with AI?

He’d probably use it to give himself more time to think.

His real talent wasn’t producing the work. It was seeing what other people didn’t. He understood people, found the emotion underneath a product and could reduce a complicated problem to a simple, powerful thought.

That feels particularly relevant for founders today.

AI is raising the bar and speeding up the process. It gives everyone access to more information, more ideas and greater executional capability.

But access to the same technology doesn’t create the same outcomes. Talent will still rise to the top.

Great advertising has never just been about execution. It starts with understanding people — the consumer insight, emotional intelligence and judgment that allow you to see something others don’t.

What AI changes is what happens around that thinking.

This is where we should really lean into AI.

Let it interrogate data, synthesise research, prepare reports, build first drafts, stress-test thinking and automate repetitive processes.

Use it to create executional efficiency around human intelligence.

And this is where Don Draper becomes interesting again.

Imagine combining the speed and capability of AI with his ability to read a room, understand a consumer and recognise the emotional truth hiding inside a brief.

AI speed combined with human acumen is a potent combination.

For founders, that means using AI to carry more of the operational load and create space for the work that really matters: time with clients, asking better questions, understanding consumers and spotting the opportunity others have missed.

Because advertising is ultimately a business about people. We sell feelings, emotions, aspirations and ideas.

The opportunity isn’t human intelligence or artificial intelligence.

It’s combining human insight with executional efficiency — and using the time you gain to think better.

AI can raise the bar and accelerate the work.

Talent still determines where you take it.