COMPOUND HUMAN EXPERTISE

A filmmaker with today’s AI tools can potentially do everything (or will be able to soon). They can write the script, generate the storyboard and then create the footage... effectively shooting and lighting the scenes, creating the character performances, editing the footage, composing the score, and even add special effects. All without a single other person involved.

It’s impressive. It’s efficient. And technically, it’s a finished film.

But would it match the emotional depth, visual nuance, or layered storytelling of a production shaped by a team... director, cinematographer, editor, sound designer, costume team, actors and more... all working together to a common goal?

Would people want to watch it? Would they connect with it?

We face a similar challenge in strategy, insights, and innovation today. AI automation can now empower one person to deliver end-to-end work at speed and scale. The temptation is to run with it, because it’s faster, cheaper and sometimes cleaner than traditional workflows. And it can get us to some really interesting places.  

But if we lose the layering of multiple expert perspectives, and how they interact with and build off each other, do we risk losing the richness that makes outcomes truly great?

That’s why at ONE we’ve focussed on building an agency, not just a tool, with a team of industry experts. And it’s why we continue to explore ways of folding in compound human expertise as we automate workflows  

It’s not a limitation of AI, it’s an exciting challenge to navigate for the new future...

WHAT WE LOSE WHEN WE “SOLO” THE WHOLE PROJECT

Compound human expertise isn’t just collaboration, it’s the accumulation of micro-decisions from different domains, each informed by deep specialism. In a film, the cinematographer’s choice of light changes the editor’s options, which shapes the rhythm of the score, which shifts the emotional tone of the actors’ performances. Would Christopher Nolan and just a laptop be a liberation of his creative imagination or a fast track to limiting it?

Similarly in an insight project, the way a strategist frames the opportunity affects how a cultural analyst interprets it, which changes how the creative team brings it to life. When one person does everything, even with AI, will  be consistent and tidy, will it lack the tension, contrast, and serendipity that come from many minds intersecting.

AI MAKES SOLO WORK POSSIBLE (AND TEMPTING)

AI-driven workflows collapse traditional project structures. Tasks that used to require multiple roles can now be completed by one person in hours. That’s a genuine breakthrough: fewer delays, lower costs, and the ability to test, learn, and iterate at a pace we’ve never had before.

But speed and efficiency can quietly strip away diversity of thought. Without deliberate design, the AI-enabled process becomes a straight line from brief to delivery—with fewer moments for cross-pollination, challenge, and creative stretch.

WHY COMPOUND EXPERTISE STILL MATTERS

Every specialised perspective brings its own mental models, blind-spot checks, and creative provocations.

• A data analyst sees patterns others miss.

• A cultural strategist spots the local cultural  signals that pattern modelling can’t.

• A creative thinker reframes the problem entirely.

• A commercial lead grounds the vision in the realities of the market.

These aren’t interchangeable, they multiply each other’s value. The best work comes from their intersection, not from any one perspective alone.

BRINGING IT BACK, WITHOUT LOSING AI’S BENEFITS

We don’t need to go back to traditional manual processes. The challenge is to deliberately build compound expertise back into AI-powered workflows.

There are many ways to do this, particularly if we maintain the agency model. There is the agency team collaborating with the client team (core and stakeholders) across phases of project iteration. We can draw in panels of experts for very specific builds and feedback at key stages. Highly focussed inspiration. Great if this can be face to face, but we can also make it virtual, keeping the pace of project development up and cost down.

STAY FOCUSSED ON THE OUTCOME

Ultimately we need to stay focussed on the true end goal not efficiency

The filmmaker isn’t here to create something that looks like a finished film but is ultimately soulless. They want to tell stories that connect, move and inspire. Stories worth telling.

And as insight specialists and brand strategists we need to stay focussed on outcomes, not process. Solving brand growth challenges, not speeding up the production of data and insight based content.  

That’s where Compound Human Expertise comes in

In theory AI can turn someone into a one-person film crew, or one person into a brand growth problem solver. But that doesn’t unlock the big opportunity. The goal should be to bring more people with rich expertise into the loop. To harness AI automation in a way that increases the compound effects of human expertise, not diminishes it.  

The speed and scale of automation, fused with the richness and resilience of many perspectives, will always beat either on its own.

AI can get you to a finished cut fast. But if you want the kind of work that resonates, travels, and endures, you still need the magic that only comes when multiple brilliant minds bring their own lens to the same story.

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