Ever since its Under Armour “Forever Is Made Now” spot last spring put it at the epicenter of the ad industry’s AI debate, Tool of North America has been working to determine the best use of AI in the production process.

Its latest project, a spec ad for Land Rover (above), which it’s been screening for folks around the industry, proposes a hybrid approach, at least for now—where AI is employed for certain photo-real images, and live action used for footage of humans and other imagery AI hasn’t mastered yet.

The 45-second spot, co-directed by Erich Joiner and Ben Tricklebank, imagines if a Land Rover Defender, upon being parked for the night by an office worker who seemingly doesn’t get out much, dreams of a wilder existence—evidence of which is apparent the next morning when the driver heads off to work.

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The shoot took one day, rather than the several days it would have taken if everything were shot traditionally. It’s a fun if somewhat well-worn story, and the use of AI for the dream sequences allowed Tool to feature a larger range of location and weather conditions that didn’t require travel or extensive visual effects.

A page on Tool’s website goes into extensive detail on the creative and production process.

“We want to show the community that we can deliver on story, we can deliver on craft, we can deliver on human performance. But let’s use the right tools,” Dustin Callif, president of Tool, told Ad Age. “Live action is amazing at capturing human performance. Live action is great at capturing a product moving. And I can tell you, AI is not good at human performance, and AI is not close to being ready for consistency of a product moving over the course of a video. So let’s blend the two of them together.” 

He added: “We didn’t want to use stock footage because we wanted to be more particular with the visuals. And it has a story that I would say could go up against most ads. Ben and Eric are very particular with their eye, and the car looks great. It matches what a legal team is going to approve for a car.”

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