Conversations about artificial intelligence often focus on speed, automation, and efficiency. But for BWB, a creative agency based in upstate New York, the conversation begins with values.
“We’re always looking to come up with strategies that clients can implement that are in alignment with their values, but also save them time in the long run,” says partner and lead strategist Caitlin Fitzpatrick.
BWB’s mission is to offer a branding approach that unpacks and applies feminist principles in business. Their work is guided by three core values: social equity, radical creativity, and transformative growth.
That lens shapes everything the team does, from brand identity development to AI experimentation and autonomous marketing.
For BWB, it’s about thoughtfully deploying AI without losing what makes them BWB. It’s about freeing their team and clients from busywork so they can focus on strategy and creativity.
“Autonomous marketing is when the business or the entrepreneur does not need to constantly be feeding the machine, but rather can come up with ways to automate some of their brand building in a way that would be the most efficient for their growth,” she says.
Keep reading to learn how to embrace AI at your agency while remaining authentic to your brand and values.
“Autonomous marketing is when the business or the entrepreneur does not need to constantly be feeding the machine, but rather can come up with ways to automate some of their brand building in a way that would be the most efficient for their growth."
BWB’s values-based approach to AI
Fitzpatrick says she and her team approach AI with curiosity, but also with discernment.
“Whenever there’s any new tool or science that can impact my work for the better, I want to know about it,” she says. “We’re exploring different uses of AI and AI tools as we learn about them. We are adopters of technology. We want to be on the forefront of any new data impacting our work.”
At the same time, she adds, “We are exploring new technologies with a grain of salt and an open mind, always through the lens of upholding our values and our beliefs. The goal with AI is not to remove the expert, the artist, the people. It’s about helping us have more thought partnership and more idea generation, not about replacing anything.”
Those values—social equity, radical creativity, and transformative growth—act as guideposts:
- Social equity: BWB centers accessibility in its work by designing with diverse audiences in mind. Tools like AI become valuable only if they expand, rather than limit, access.
- Radical creativity: Rather than using AI to standardize content, the team embraces it as a spark for bold ideas, moodboards, and unexpected directions.
- Transformative growth: BWB measures every AI experiment against whether it helps clients grow in ways that are sustainable, empowering, and anti-oppressive.
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Imagining with AI: Ideation using Canva’s AI Image Generator
This is an imagine workflow. Learn more about the high-performance marketing Triad here.
BWB’s branding process includes a holistic brand assessment, where clients answer questions like, “What’s the single most compelling idea or feeling that you want your brand to convey?”
That discovery work feeds into moodboards and design directions. Increasingly, Fitzpatrick and her team are using Canva’s AI-powered image generation to help clients explore creative possibilities.
“You can even put in prompts like, ‘show me a mixture of collage and clouds and tones of blue and Starry Night,’” she explains. “Canva’s AI tool will then generate a couple of different images. Those can be used as starting places to test with a client.”
The prompt BWB used
Canva AI’s output, which the BWB workshopped with their client
The tool is particularly useful when clients aren’t sure what they want.
“Somebody might say, I’m not really sure what colors I like. I’ve never really paid attention to that,” Fitzpatrick says. “We may test out different color palettes so I can say, here are three options, A, B, and C. Which of these do you like and why?”
The real-time collaboration often happens during client meetings.
“We might pull up Canva’s AI image generator and actually, with the client, put different prompts in so that together we’re exploring and learning,” Fitzpatrick explains. “I’m hearing their reactions and seeing their facial expressions and their body language on Zoom, to hear and see what types of things get them excited.”
For BWB, this process represents radical creativity in action: using technology to co-create rather than dictate.
“Any time that a client is feeling heard, the outcome is going to be better,” Fitzpatrick says. “AI as a tool in our arsenal is helping us get to the result quicker and can help people make decisions in a smarter way, and make the overall process smoother.”
Activating with AI: Leveraging Google’s AI Overviews to manage brand reputation
This is an activate workflow. Learn more about the high-performance marketing Triad here.
Another use case came from a healthcare agency client with significant local competition. During a digital footprint audit, BWB noticed a major gap: competitors had few Google reviews.
“When someone is searching for the kinds of services they offer, they likely will do a Google search,” Fitzpatrick explains. “If one business has two Google reviews and another one has 500, it’s more likely that their potential client is going to go to the business that has 500.”
Google’s AI Overviews now pull from review data to create summaries, making reviews even more influential. BWB developed a strategy to solicit more reviews for the client, including automated monthly emails and SMS messages.
BWB took the research from Google and news articles and then used Claude to check that their AI Overview guidance was sound based on best practices. For example, checking for the right approach for a service-providing business that operates within a specific geographic area.
A snippet of the AI prompt BWB used.
The Google review framework, developed by BWB.
The results have been dramatic.
“They had nine reviews when we first started with them,” Fitzpatrick says. “Now they have 62. Since we started sending out these more frequent requests, they’ve gotten six or seven new reviews in a month, which is pretty good compared to what they’d seen before.”
This project demonstrates BWB’s value of transformative growth.
By leveraging AI, the client wasn’t just generating numbers; they were building community trust, strengthening their reputation, and setting the stage for long-term growth.
“We find that the most successful clients are the ones that are open to experimenting, that are curious and willing to try something new,” Fitzpatrick says.
From 9 reviews to 62 with one automated workflow.
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A values-driven future
BWB’s third and final value, social equity, doesn’t necessarily apply to a specific workflow; it touches nearly every decision they make.
“For example, we may use AI tools to help iterate design directions or streamline research, but when it comes to the lived experiences of communities we serve, we prioritize listening and human-led storytelling,” she says. “We’ve said no to using AI-generated images of people in campaigns because representation matters, such as real faces and voices carry the authenticity that stock or AI can’t replicate.”
BWB’s AI use isn’t about jumping on a trend. It’s about serving clients better while staying true to BWB’s mission.
“If you think about it, how we’re using AI today is not going to be how we’re using AI in 10 years, or even one year,” she says. “The development and investment in these tools is constantly shifting. And as a result of that, we’re going to try to shift with it and grow with it.”
"How we’re using AI today is not going to be how we’re using AI in 10 years, or even one year. The development and investment in these tools is constantly shifting. And as a result of that, we’re going to try to shift with it and grow with it."
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