Written by Kat Arney, Chief Creative Officer. Last updated July 2026.
First Create The Media is an award-winning communications and marketing agency specialising in the life sciences. We help pioneering bioscience companies stand out from the crowd and grab the attention of the people that matter.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly built into the digital tools we all use, from search engines to software. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini can also produce and analyse text, images, audio and other content based on the information they have been trained on or given.
Led by our values of quality, understanding, integrity and respect, we aim to understand what these tools can do, how they work, where they fall short, and how we can use them safely, ethically and transparently to deliver better work and run our agency more effectively.
We are finding that AI tools are helping us explore more possibilities, organise complex information, identify gaps, repurpose existing work, and deliver a more rigorous and consistent service for our clients.
But we also see how they can generate inaccurate information, generic content, and an awful lot of plausible-sounding drivel (we’ve written elsewhere about the coming AI Slopocalypse).
Our goal is always quality and value, not speed.
We’re not in the business of trying to churn out slop faster. Sometimes AI helps us complete a task more quickly. Often it doesn’t, because its outputs still need careful checking, verification, interpretation and editing (or reworking altogether).
As humans, we bring scientific knowledge, discernment, expertise and creativity to our work. We are using technology to support and augment our abilities, not to replace them. And you can be sure that a human will always be responsible for overseeing every piece of work we put out into the world.
Here’s how we currently use AI-enhanced tools at First Create The Media (and what we don’t use them for), as well as the principles we follow.
Our principles for using AI
Confidentiality is paramount.
We treat the privacy and security of our clients’ confidential and personal information with the utmost seriousness. We do not put confidential client information into public AI tools.
Where confidential information is involved, we only use approved systems, accounts and settings that we have reviewed against our contractual, legal, privacy and data-security obligations. You can see our privacy policy here.
Quality and accuracy.
We have concerns around the accuracy, creativity and originality of the text produced by these tools, particularly for scientific topics or original data-led content that is specific to individual clients.
AI tools make mistakes, misinterpret information, invent convincing-looking references or unsubstantiated claims, and create generic, repetitive text. We verify outputs against reliable sources, validate the underlying evidence, and check carefully for coherence, consistency and quality.
Humans remain responsible.
We use AI to assist our research, analysis, strategic thinking and creative processes. Final decisions and judgements are made by our experienced team who understand the science, the communications context and the client.
We do not send AI-generated material to clients or publish it without human review. Every deliverable is checked, edited and approved by a member of our team. We will never use AI to mislead our clients or the public, and we will never knowingly present entirely machine-generated work as our own original thinking.
Transparency and accountability.
We remain accountable for our recommendations, our creative choices, and the quality and accuracy of the work we deliver. We will tell clients if AI has been used to substantially generate written or visual content.
We are always happy to explain or discuss how we have used AI on a particular piece of work. We will also respect any client request not to use generative AI or AI-enabled tools on their project, and discuss alternative solutions.
Research, analysis, strategy and planning
We use tools including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to help us research, organise and structure complex source material, and help us explore a topic from different angles. This includes things like:
- researching organisations, markets and scientific topics
- analysing competitive landscapes
- organising and analysing large amounts of source material
- identifying common themes, inconsistencies or missing information
- planning communications campaigns and content programmes
- critically appraising strategies, narratives and messaging frameworks
- brainstorming and testing ideas
- preparing questions, outlines and workshop materials
- conducting searches for media coverage or other published information
However, these tools do not decide what matters.
Our team assesses the quality, relevance and reliability of the sources based on our own knowledge and expertise, checks the findings, interprets what they mean, and decides what should be recommended. We do not use AI to replace strategic discovery, conversations with clients or our final professional judgement.
We sometimes use AI as a creative sparring partner, exploring new possibilities, testing an idea from different perspectives or helping us get beyond the first, most obvious answer. But we do not outsource our creativity to a machine.
Strong creative work relies on curiosity, experience, cultural and scientific understanding, deep knowledge of our clients, inspiration from unusual places, an eye for what feels distinctive, discernment and taste, and the ability to recognise when something is memorable and distinctive rather than generic or dull.
AI can offer options and ideas. Our team decides whether any of them are worth pursuing, and develops, combines or rejects them from there.
Writing and content creation
AI tools are useful at several stages of the writing process, particularly when there is a substantial body of existing information to work from. We may use them to:
- organise and structure source materials
- summarise interview, meeting or workshop transcripts
- develop potential outlines, structures and rough drafts
- compare a draft against an agreed brief, narrative or messaging framework
- suggest alternative titles or subheadings or ways to improve search visibility
- check for spelling and grammar, and consistency with brand messaging and tone of voice
- highlight gaps, repetition or areas that need clarification
- repurpose existing content into different formats, such as turning a blog into a newsletter or LinkedIn post
We will not use AI to invent facts, data, references, examples or quotations. We will not use it to impersonate clients or other individuals. Any AI-assisted text is checked against the source material and edited by our team before it goes through our normal internal quality-control process.
AI does not bring decades of scientific and communications experience. It does not truly know our clients, understand the subtleties of their work and its context (especially in relation to things that are not in the public domain), recognise what they will and won’t like, or take responsibility for the consequences of getting something wrong.
We believe the value we add as skilled writers and experienced comms professionals is not in churning out low quality, generic copy with AI, but in our strategic understanding of our clients’ goals, preferences, and the work they do.
We bring scientific knowledge, strategic judgement, discernment, taste, creativity and editorial decision-making. We ask questions, understand context, challenge assumptions and make choices about what to include, what to leave out and how best to communicate it.
Images, audio and video
We use online design tools to create images for First Create The Media and our clients, including Canva, ChatGPT and Nano Banana. These platforms increasingly include AI-enabled functions for tasks such as smart editing, removing backgrounds, extending images, adjusting colours, creating composite visuals, or generating images from prompts.
We will always tell clients when an image has been substantially or wholly generated using AI. And we will not create or manipulate an image in a way that is intended to mislead the audience.
We also use AI-enabled tools such as Descript and Adobe software for audio and video production and editing. We may use AI-generated voices as temporary placeholders during early-stage production to test timings and make editorial decisions.
We may also occasionally use a generated voice to correct an inadvertent error where re-recording is impractical, usually for no more than a word or two. We do not create AI-generated versions of a person’s voice or likeness without their knowledge and consent.
We do not currently use AI to autonomously generate original audio or video content for publication. If that changes, we will be transparent about it.
To sum up
AI is a fast-moving field. New tools and capabilities are appearing all the time, and most of the programs and devices we use every day now include some form of AI. It is therefore impossible to give a permanent and comprehensive account of every way AI may touch our work.
What we can give is a clear commitment. At First Create The Media, we use AI to support deeper research, sharper thinking, stronger creative work and a more consistent service. We do not use it as a substitute for scientific understanding, communications expertise, human relationships or professional accountability.
We will continue to assess these tools carefully, protect confidential information, honour our legal and contractual obligations, be open with our clients about how we work, and live up to our values.
Any questions? Drop us a line at info@firstcreatethemedia.com, and we promise that a human will get back to you.