Stop Chasing Speed. Start Building Intelligence.

Written by Chloe Lowe for Creative Spark

We’ve built a narrative around output, not understanding.

In the rush to embrace Artificial Intelligence, speed has become the headline metric — how quickly we can produce, automate, deliver, or get there first. But what’s being missed is the second half of the phrase: intelligence.

AI isn’t improving productivity. It’s increasing our collective IQ.

The speed trap

When AI hit the mainstream, many saw it as a race. Tools promised faster turnaround times, lighter workloads, and endless productivity hacks. And while those benefits are real, the obsession with speed is quietly eroding value in other places.

A recent Major Players report found that 39% of businesses still measure the impact of AI by increased output; a telling sign of how speed continues to dominate the conversation.

Of course, that also means the majority don’t, which shows progress. Many companies are starting to look beyond productivity to the quality, accuracy, and creativity that AI can unlock.

But the focus on output speed remains a risk. When ‘faster’ is the measure of success, it encourages shallow adoption, chasing volume instead of value, and leaving the deeper strategic benefits of intelligence untapped.

It encourages ‘bring your own AI’ behaviour. Teams use tools without clear policies or frameworks, creating compliance and confidentiality risks.

It skips the groundwork. Without proper foundations such as AI governance and staff training, businesses can’t scale or sustain responsible use.

It devalues expertise. If we reduce AI’s role to ‘doing more, faster’, we risk turning intelligence into a commodity.

In service businesses, this last point is critical. Many agencies and consultancies still base their value on time. Faster outputs can look like lower value. But the real value isn’t in the hours saved (which isn’t always instant), it’s in the intelligence gained.

The real shift: Intelligence, not automation

What’s truly transformative about AI is that it’s expanding our collective intelligence.

Until recently, the ability to access deep insights belonged to those with the biggest budgets: global consultancies, enterprise agencies, and specialist data teams. They had the paid tools and the analysts.

Now, with AI, that monopoly has ended.

Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others are democratising insight. Anyone can analyse markets, understand audiences, or stress-test strategies in minutes. The playing field has levelled, not because we’ve sped up, but because our IQ as a collective has increased.

We are, quite literally, becoming more intelligent as a working society.

That’s a profound shift. For the first time in history, access to intelligence isn’t limited by education, resources, or geography. It’s available to anyone curious enough to ask the right questions and take the time to learn the tools properly and responsibly.

The impact of that shouldn’t be understated. It could become one of the greatest equalisers of our time.

Intelligence beyond our own

AI isn’t replacing human intelligence; it’s expanding it.

We can now:

• Generate and validate ideas faster, and with stronger logic and evidence.
• Identify risks, from bias to tone to factual accuracy, earlier in the process
• Cross-analyse audiences, competitors, and market trends with depth that would have taken teams weeks before.
• Simulate outcomes and test creative hypotheses with unprecedented accuracy.

This isn’t automation. It’s augmentation.

And it’s changing what intelligence looks like in business. The best teams are using AI to think deeper and create more freely, not just to act faster.

They’re investing in understanding, in policies, in training, in systems that help people think better, not just move quicker.

Rethinking value

This is where agencies and service businesses need to evolve.

If your value proposition still sits around efficiency, you’re already behind. The next differentiator won’t be who can deliver fastest; it’ll be who can think with the most intelligence.

Intelligence can’t be copied.

It can’t be templated or automated.

It sits at the intersection of data, interpretation, and human judgment, and that’s where AI becomes most powerful.

For clients, this is where the opportunity lies, too. The brands that will lead in the AI era aren’t the ones who adopt first, but the ones who understand best.

Those who embed AI as a thinking partner, not just a productivity tool.

The new competitive edge

We’re entering an era of IQ equity, where access to intelligence is no longer a privilege of scale. The challenge now is what we do with it.

Speed will always have a place. But intelligence will define the winners.

Because when everyone’s racing to go faster, the real advantage belongs to the ones who go deeper, who understand more, see more, and make smarter decisions.

AI is giving us the chance to raise our collective IQ. The question is: are we ready to use it wisely?