Where we use AI at Maitland. And where we don't.

By Doug Dinwiddie, Founder, Maitland

Published 2026-09-29

Doug on where AI is helping our clients and where we keep it out of the work entirely.

Executive summary

We use AI for research, transcription, boilerplate code, rough sketches and summarising long reports. We keep it out of strategy, client calls, final creative and the numbers we're chasing. Everything you see finished from us has passed through a human.

Every agency in the country is using AI now. Some are proud of it. Most are quiet about it. That's a problem, because clients paying agency rates deserve to know what they're paying for.

Jimmy wrote a piece a few weeks ago on how to spot whether an agency's AI use is helping or hurting your work. This one is the flip side. Here's what we actually do at Maitland, laid out plainly.

Where we use it

The honest list, in the order it saves us the most time.

• Research. New sector, new client, new market. AI gives us a first-draft picture in an hour instead of a day. Our people spend that time thinking, not reading.
• Transcription. Every client call and internal workshop gets transcribed and summarised automatically. Three hours of notes is now ten minutes of review.
• Boilerplate code and QA. Our developers use it to write repetitive code faster and to spot bugs in seconds. Same craft, less grind.
• Rough concept sketches. Very early stage, always thrown away. Sometimes we need a placeholder image while we're pitching a concept internally. AI gets us there in a minute. Never client-facing.
• Summarising long reports. Analytics dumps, competitor decks, industry reports. AI does the reading. Our team does the acting.

Where we don't

The important half.

• Strategy. Every GROW plan starts on a whiteboard with a real person in the room. AI is a research tool, not a strategist.
• Client calls. No AI on the line. Ever. Real people, real conversations.
• Final creative. Every campaign that leaves the studio has passed through human hands and human judgement. If you've seen a finished piece of our work, a person made it.
• The number we're chasing. That's for the client and us to agree, defend and answer to. Not an algorithm's call.

Why we draw the line where we do

The parts of the job clients pay us for are the parts AI can't do. Strategy that fits your specific business. Creative that makes someone stop scrolling. A relationship you can call at 8am on a Tuesday.

Everything AI can do faster is a thing that used to eat our team's time. So we let it. Everything AI can't do responsibly, we don't hand over.

If your current agency won't tell you where AI is showing up in your work, that's a conversation worth having.