A CHALLENGE PARTNER FOR THE PROMPT ECONOMY
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The Creative Sector is fast becoming a ‘Prompt Economy’, where the right questions are key to effective policy and strategies. Rethink Creative is designed as a Challenge Partner for a changing world, where a questioning mindset is essential.
The Creative Economy is now a Knowledge Economy, where Big Data is power. It is an asymmetrical economy dominated by industrial giants. They are sustained by access to – and exploitation of – vast stores of consumer data, refined through algorithms.
Independent producers, public service broadcasters and public funders have all fallen behind. And policy has generally lacked focus on these unprecedented challenges.
Part of the problem is the lack of access to the vast stores of data gathered by the tech giants.
But a Knowledge Economy is not just a matter of volume: it is also a question of mindset.
A fast-changing Creative Sector environment requires a reappraisal of old ways of working and thinking.
The rapid rise of AI has provided a useful vocabulary to describe the way that policy and strategy requires to thrive: ‘prompt engineering.’
The value of ‘generative’ artificial intelligence machine learning at the heart of the AI revolution is dependent on ‘prompts.’
CHALLENGE PARTNER
Most consultancy works within well-established parameters. They do not challenge existing thinking and miss systemic issues. Rethink Creative opens up discussions, challenging assumptions and encouraging clients to consider alternative perspectives. Prompt Economy thinking opens up opportunities but it can also provide strong and increasingly necessary validation for current practice.
And the value of prompts for policy, business strategy and competitive advantage is based on broad context, a culture of curiosity and the questioning of assumptions.
That is where a Challenge Partner (see right) is such a useful resource.
Why do we need to rethink? Rethink Creative’s work has centered on a set of systemic challenges:
- A project-to-project, short-termist and narrow focus.
- Industries overwhelmingly comprising small and medium-sized businesses in weakly connected value chains, created for another era.
- A policy imbalance and significant industrial disconnection between production and audience.
- Weak data and data systems outside the major industrial players.
- An ‘echo chamber’ culture.
- A narrow – and narrowing – social base of producers, and often of audiences.
Most are long-established issues for policy and practice in the Creative Sector. But the evolution of the creative ecosystem means they must now be addressed.
Too often, the creative sector feels like it is in a comfort zone. But this is a moment where robustly challenging our own thinking is essential.
Rethink Creative has developed a three-stage approach to its mission.
CHALLENGE
What are the underlying assumptions behind policy and business practice? Are they rooted in anachronistic established practice? Do attitudes reveal signs of bias, often sustained by rarely challenged echo chambers?
CONTEXT
Are we too tied to our narrow industrial concerns and thinking project to project, production to production? Do we understand the broader influences on our decision-making? Are we over-reliant on established industry norms? Do we have sufficient data to support decisions? Is the balance of production and consumption right in formulating policy? Are we missing opportunities?
CONSEQUENCES
Have we fully investigated the potential long-term effects of short-term gains? What benefits might a shift in mindset deliver? Is our measurement of objectives and outcomes relevant or sufficient to deliver results?
These questions are inescapable if the industry wants deep and sustainable gains from AI. They are central to the Prompt Economy.
As the Harvard Business Review points out: “When every company uses the same AI models, context becomes a competitive advantage.”
It is not just an issue for AI. The dramatic acceleration of social media, corporate media algorithms, economic and social polarisation has narrowed the context in which decisions our made. It has become harder to recognise our own biases, or the echo chambers, in which we operate.
These are the areas where Rethink Creative adds value. We have drawn on a wide range of influences, including behavioural science, cognitive pyschology and social economics to create a Design-Thinking approach, which will help clients understand the context, scope, business culture and key skills to succeed in the Prompt Economy.
