In the late 1950s, advertising visionary Bill Bernbach had a stroke of genius that reshaped the landscape of ad agencies for more than 60 years. His radical idea? Pair the wordsmiths with the visual maestros—the copywriters with the art directors.

This simple yet revolutionary concept ignited what is perhaps the longest-lasting marriage in advertising: the seamless partnership between the art director and the copywriter. This dynamic duo, working in tandem, revolutionized the creative process.

Before Bernbach’s innovation, copywriters would craft their concepts in isolation, then pass them on to art directors who would visually interpret these ideas—efficient but disconnected. Bernbach’s true genius lay in recognizing that uniting these talents could ignite a creative revolution.

For more than 60 years, this partnership has been a cornerstone of the industry and a testament to the power of collaboration. But as with all long-standing relationships, change is inevitable. Bernbach’s golden couple is about to become a throuple. Enter the new kid on the block: generative AI.

Should our beloved duo brace themselves for a disruptive third wheel? Perhaps not. I think this is the start of something extraordinary.

Let’s face it—generative AI is like a toddler, full of promise, brimming with curiosity but still learning how to color inside the lines. Like any toddler, generative AI needs guidance to reach its full potential. Left to its own devices, it can make a mess (as any parent who has given their kid a paintbrush knows), but when nurtured and directed, it’s capable of creating something remarkable.

Creatives play a vital role here, serving as mentors to the technology and guiding it while allowing space for exploration. That balance—between autonomy and oversight—is key to making generative AI a trusted partner rather than an unpredictable disruptor.

So, how do you make the technology a trusted partner for creatives? In short, it is about knowing when to use it. Creatives can maximize this partnership by:

Use it for time-consuming tasks

Use generative AI to streamline repetitive elements, such as generating initial drafts, resizing images or creating multiple versions of copy. This frees up creatives to focus on higher-level, strategic thinking.

Co-create with it in the early stages

Let generative AI take on the heavy lifting during ideation. Use it to generate a variety of starting points—this opens up time for human intuition and expertise to shape, filter and polish the best ideas.

Set boundaries

Recognize when the technology should lead and when the human touch is essential. Generative AI is efficient in processing and scaling ideas, but intuition, cultural sensitivity and emotional insight are uniquely human skills.

Experiment

For the technology to fully integrate into the creative process, there needs to be room for experimentation—a generative AI playground where teams can explore GenAI’s capabilities without the pressure of immediate deliverables. Here, creatives can experiment freely, test boundaries and embrace failure as a vital step toward innovation.

Establish AI sandboxes within your team—creating environments where creatives can experiment and test ideas without business pressures. This experimentation will allow generative AI to reveal its full potential in collaboration with human creativity.

As the demand for personalized marketing grows, the ability to scale tailored messaging is crucial. Generative AI excels at this, delivering content tailored to multiple audience segments in a fraction of the time it would take a traditional team. But while the technology can handle the mechanics of personalization, the heart of it must still be human.

Creatives can use generative AI to scale messaging quickly, but the strategic insights—understanding what motivates different segments and how to speak to them authentically—still require human creativity. So, while generative AI optimizes the technical delivery, it’s the human touch that ensures content feels fresh and authentic.

The success of the new throuple hinges on balance. The technology should enhance, not eclipse, the roles of creatives. Integrating AI into the creative process requires a nuanced approach, carefully considering where, how and when to leverage its capabilities with human intuition and expertise steering the ship.

If we strike the right balance, this relationship could thrive for decades, just as Bernbach’s golden duo has done. The future of creativity isn’t about replacing the old with the new. It’s about evolving together, hand in hand, into a new era of limitless possibility.