AI, disruption, and the death of sameness: Rony Skaf on TBWA\RAAD’s creative code

By India Fizer

From copyright landmines to the pitfalls of sameness, AI brings new challenges and opportunities for creative agencies. Rony Skaf, Head of Digital and Innovation at TBWA\RAAD, talks to AdForum about how the agency uses AI not just for speed, but for strategic differentiation and creative leadership.

How is your agency approaching internal guidelines around AI use?

We actually work with two sets of guidelines.

The first comes from Omnicom. It’s the non-negotiable layer: protect client data, safeguard assets, stay clear of copyright landmines. Without that, we’re all playing with fire and that’s not how you build trust.

The second is what makes TBWA different. It’s our own lens, rooted in Disruption®. For us, AI isn’t valuable if it just makes us faster. It has to make us different. If the output doesn’t break a pattern, spark a new way of thinking, or take us somewhere we couldn’t have reached alone, it doesn’t make it out of the room.

How are you navigating the topic of transparency with clients when it comes to AI-generated content?

From the start, we’ve been upfront: AI is in our toolbox. We don’t believe in hiding it or dressing it up as some “secret sauce.” The moment you downplay it, you lose trust.

Transparency, for us, isn’t a footnote, it’s a conversation. We show clients how AI fits into the process, always framed by two things: Omnicom’s guardrails for protection and TBWA’s Disruption® filter for originality. That reassures them that we’re not experimenting recklessly, and we’re not using AI to just churn out content faster.

What role should agencies play in advising clients on AI-related brand safety and reputational risk?

Honestly, a much bigger role than before. Too many treat brand safety like a checklist: no deepfakes, no copyright issues, no PR disasters. That matters, but it’s only the basics.

The real risk is dullness. If AI is used purely for efficiency, every brand will look and sound alike. That sameness forces brands to spend more just to get noticed. We’ve all seen those full-AI ads that launch with fanfare and die in 24 hours because they have no story, no emotion. That’s the danger of mistaking novelty for originality.

In this AI era, agencies need to push clients to lead, not copy. AI’s creative power is opening doors to countless possibilities, but not all of them are ethical. Chasing gimmicks, whether it’s stealing an artist’s style or riding the latest viral filter, may deliver quick engagement, but it undermines years of creative craft and often crosses ethical lines.

The “Ghibli style” trend is a perfect example. Even if brands can get away with it, the long-term cost is far greater than the short-term gain. True leadership means standing for originality and meaningful creativity, not chasing trends for clicks.

Where do you see AI’s strengths moving forward?

Most people will say personalization, insights, content generation. That’s true, but it’s table stakes.

The real strength lies in two areas.

First, intelligence augmentation. AI isn’t here to replace human thinking, it’s here to amplify it. When human expertise and creative instinct set the direction, AI can stretch, sharpen, and accelerate the work in ways we couldn’t do alone. Ask AI to start from scratch and you’ll get average output that anyone can get. Use it to supercharge human input, and you’ll get a great output.

Second, tailored intelligence. Off-the-shelf AI gives you off-the-shelf ideas. The real opportunity is building AI that reflects a brand’s DNA, its guidelines, its tone, methodology, and voice. Imagine a telco where the AI speaks in the brand’s playful tone, or a bank where the AI reflects its trusted advisory role. Suddenly, the output feels like something only that brand could produce. That’s where originality lives.

So if you ask me, yes the tech is moving so fast and it is mindblowing what we can achieve day by day with AI. But the real strength isn’t in doing what everyone else is doing, faster. It’s in helping humans and brands do what no one else can.