A New Direction’s Oliver Benjamin: be kind, make stuff, learn the tools

Oliver Benjamin, Director of Employment and Skills, A New Direction

Agencies and employers are moving at pace to adopt new AI tools, often on a weekly basis, as they keep in touch with latest advancements. While this continual adaptation sounds stress inducing, it reflects the competitive realities of industry. If productivity can be increased and outputs compressed, organisations will continue to double down. At the same time, AI is enabling people to work in entirely new ways. Tim Malbon, CEO of Made by Many recently writes: ‘Last week two of our strategists, neither of them an engineer, started building a tool on our CRM’s API in a shared codebase, and within a day they were working the way engineers work. That is the change we care about.’

This way of working highlights the changing nature of work. Increasingly, we are expected to adapt quickly, take on new responsibilities, and develop skills that may never have appeared in a traditional job description. What is common play within specialist digital agencies is very likely to spread across many sectors over the coming years.

To gain work, I encourage those starting out to focus on some or all of the following:

1. Basics: Be kind, thoughtful, listen, and curious. I can’t see a world where such skills are not valued.
2. Make stuff - both digitally as well as in analog ways. We learn by doing, so make stuff and use the process to understand what you’re good at and where you can improve. Bring in analytical thinking, learn to describe process and embrace getting things wrong gracefully.
3. Learn AI tools. Find a way to get subscriptions and learn how to make content and products. Use local models (as well as the LLMs) and think about the impact on environment. It’s OK to be conflicted about how evil some of these AI companies are, but change often comes from the inside so we need to not be simple consumers.
4. Finally invest in wellbeing: Be healthy, play sport, learn how to cook (with ingredients that are processed to f***), listen to music and absorb interesting content. By doing these things we gravitate towards like-minded people. As we know, one's network is important in so very many ways.

In 2027, A New Direction, in partnership with UAL’s Creative Computing Institute, will support 120 young Londoners aged 18–24 through a programme designed to build practical AI skills. Funded by DSIT and Innovate UK, the initiative will help participants integrate AI into industry workflows while developing a critical understanding of its ethical and environmental impacts. Interested in partnering on the programme or joining as a participant? Follow @create_jobs for updates.