Building a new workflow—and dealing with limitations

Adopting AI for this project pushed R/GA to develop a new internal system for collaboration. The agency built an app called Shot Flow—built with Google’s AI assistant, Gemini—which served as “a shared workspace where we could deconstruct every element of a scene,” said Pringle.

As team members prompted their versions of Veo from different offices, Shopflow helped streamline global collaboration and deliver more consistent results, he added.

Despite these rapid advancements, AI tools still have notable limitations for creatives. 

Pringle pointed to character consistency as the biggest challenge. He noted that in R/GA’s Moncler ad, characters subtly shift in appearance from scene to scene. Visual glitches like the distorted tent zipper also persist. Tech giants like Google have yet to fully solve these issues.

Legal concerns pose another hurdle. 

“There’s a big limitation around the legal framework of using AI commercially,” Pringle said, noting that brands and agencies are still learning how to avoid copyright risks.

Humans + machines

Veo may have accelerated R/GA’s creative process, but it’s no replacement for human creativity, said Pringle. 

While the video was AI-generated, the score was not, composed by musician Tom Gallo. And the script, prompts, and visual direction came from creatives, who brought their taste, experience, and storytelling instincts to the project.

“The combination of all those things made it feel like the vision of people, not just a machine,” Pringle said. “There’s a tool that enables us to create, but it requires human ingenuity, taste, tactical prompting, and understanding how to leverage that technology.”

For creatives hesitant to explore AI, Pringle advised: “Get into these tools and start playing around with them, no matter how idly. Just try and make your first thing.”