What We Believe About Generative Artificial Intelligence

At the beginning of 2024, we held an all hands meeting at Trekk. We normally meet quarterly as a company to review our goals, progress, and recent wins, but this particular meeting was outside of our normal cadence because we needed to align as a company on a very important topic: artificial intelligence.

With the rapid evolution of generative AI and the explosion of AI tools and features, including within the software our team was already using, we knew it was a critical time to take a stance as an agency. Our managing group of directors had been investigating AI — as we would any new technology affecting our industry — for some time, and we came to the group with some of our findings and conclusions, including what we perceived to be AI’s opportunities and risks for Trekk.

We presented to the group a draft of an AI policy, a list of dos and don’ts for every Trekkie. Examples:

DO only use AI tools for purposes that have been approved by Trekk and have a clear business case, e.g. to complete industry or competitive research in a way that is more efficient and cost-effective for our clients. 

DON’T upload or input any confidential, proprietary, or sensitive company or client information into any AI tool. 

These dos and don’ts were informed by a set of beliefs we had come to hold about AI after many months of research and experimentation, and we communicated these beliefs as promises. 

• We will put people first. We believe in a human-first approach. AI can be a powerful amplifier of human effort (creativity, efficiency, and ingenuity), but is not a replacement for what our people can do.
• We will protect our clients’ data. Just like all technology we use, we will vet the data security features of any AI tools we use and will not use tools that we determine pose risk to our clients or their data.
• We will never put our clients at risk by representing AI-generated content (e.g. copy, images, video) as our own. We will continue to deliver original work product, the copyright of which can be transferred to our clients.

As part of our rollout of these promises, we also announced the formation of Trekk’s AI Council. Rather than keep the continued evolution of our AI policy and procedures as a top-down effort, we knew that we needed representatives from every discipline at Trekk — creative, content, client services, and technical — to participate. One of the Council’s responsibilities is reviewing AI tools and features for approved use at Trekk, ensuring that any tool used by Trekkies is vetted and meets our data security standards. Another is regularly reviewing our AI policy and suggesting updates as needed.

AI moves fast, but this is not the first time we’ve seen rapid technological evolution and it won’t be the last. At times like this, starting with what you believe and what you value is the best way forward.

For more on our approach to AI as an agency, listen to episode 3 of Sidetrekked, where I sit down with Director of Content Strategy Shayne Terry and Technical Director Sam Basile to answer the question: What are you doing about AI?