We just completed our second year of using AI to make 31 creative experiences in 31 days. Why? Because it’s 2025, and the gap between “wouldn’t it be cool…” and “holy shit, it’s actually real” has narrowed to a sliver.
Yet, too many creatives are still on the sidelines, arms crossed, scowling at AI like it’s a fart in a spacesuit.
We’re not developers. We’re writers and strategists. Yet, we built functional games, complex websites and interactive experiences, 31 of them, in a single month. How?
We just tried. We had an idea, then used AI to help us make it happen. We brought our creativity. AI handled the technical work.
We experimented with all the leading LLMs (GPT, Claude, Gemini and Deepseek), integrated vision and voice, made API calls, built Chrome extensions, made Figma plugins.
We created a tool for teachers that generates report card comments, taught kids about information manipulation, launched a fully AI-generated future internet, quantified the emotional stats of a user’s life and summoned the ghosts of creative greats. And we did it all while having families, kids and “real” jobs.
All it took was curiosity, the willingness to fail, and the patience to ask LLMs to help us fix errors until the thing worked. Having the entire human collective on tap, we’ve never felt more powerful than now.
We want every creative to feel the same freedom and power we do.
So, what did we learn?
- The only thing standing between you and the idea becoming a reality is asking an LLM “How could we build this?”
- Give yourself a tight deadline and you’d be surprised what you can make.
- The hardest part of the process is coming up with the idea, and LLMs are not going to do that for you.
Think about it: When your creative director kills your wild idea or your client doesn’t get it, you don’t have to leave it sitting in eternal Google Slides purgatory. You can build it yourself. In a single afternoon. And maybe you discover your CD was right and it does suck. Or your client still doesn’t get it. You still have a product you can look at and say, “I made that.” And you know that you can make five more ideas in the time it takes to finish a single traditional comp.
We don’t do this because we’re focused on “upskilling” or “staying relevant.” We do it because we can. Because it’s fun. And god, our industry hasn’t been very much fun for a long time, lost in the algorithm-driven chase for efficiency.
Want to have fun too? Just think of an idea that’s been kicking around in your head. Then open ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Deepseek (the last two are free, by the way) and just ask it how to pull it off. At first, it’s going to be a little overwhelming, especially if you’ve never written a line of code before. But if you’re willing to ask questions like “What folder does this go in?” and “Wait, how do I open my terminal?” you’ll move so much quicker than you could ever dream.
So, to all the creatives out there whining about AI like it’s the death knell of your career – this is the playground we’ve all been waiting for. Pick up these tools and start experimenting. If not, we’re at risk of ceding the future to the number crunchers and performance optimizers and hyper-personalized algorithmic slop creators who have turned this industry into the sad shell of itself we all like to complain about. This is a creative industry – let’s keep it that way.
Stop talking about AI. Stop complaining about AI. Stop being afraid of AI. And for the love of all that’s holy, start making things with AI. The future of creativity depends on it.
Below are select examples of the AI-created projects from Nicholson and Hercus, with images linked.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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