Meet the Technologists: Ara Kurnit

Ara> It's such an interesting time that we're seeing right now - I don't recall another period when adoption and interest in technology (specifically AI) happened so quickly or so broadly. This is interesting, because although there's this huge rush within organisations to utilise the new tech, there's also a lot of confusion. It's like we're building the plane while we're flying it... I mean, we are building the plane while we're flying. You see that with all the things that are getting worked out around artists' rights, and there are just so many questions about what we can and can't put in advertising right now from an AI perspective. So, I think all of that disruption, for somebody like me, is a really big opportunity.

To answer the question, I always think that so much innovation inevitably comes at the back end of disruption. So, I get excited about my role in particular, because it feels like a great opportunity for me to help guide both ourselves internally as well as our clients through how we adopt these technologies, and what we should be prioritising. Those are the questions that everyone's asking right now.

Ara> I feel really lucky that this role came around, because in many ways, it brings together everything I've done throughout my career. I started in account management and advertising way back, and then I spent 13 years as an innovation consultant, doing a combination of innovation training for various types of clients as well as lots of different innovation projects in various sectors. After that, I ended up going to The New York Times to start up a group as a strategy leader called ‘Story X’. Story X had been created to basically go out and find interesting technology partners which we would then bring into The Times and see how they might benefit or impact journalism. Then we would tell those positive case studies in advertising. 

To bring that to life for you, we ended up doing projects around blockchain, for example, where we were looking at how it might help us determine whether photographs were real, or if they had been doctored. We called it the ‘News Provenance Project’ (we did it with IBM). We would also do executions. For instance, something we did with Facebook (now Meta) was playing with AR - doing a number of AR-enabled news stories on Instagram. The interesting thing about those types of partnerships is they were hugely valuable to these clients because it enabled them to demystify technologies and show The New York Times readers the utility and value of those. And for us, we were able to experiment with those technologies and tell the stories through advertising, so it was really a win-win. 

From there, I moved on to lead a number of teams within the advertising department, including the strategy and product marketing teams, as well as the customer research teams. However, I always loved the idea of coming back to an organisation where I could get my hands really dirty again, establish an innovation practice, and do some of the work that I had done in my early days at The Times, before I got promoted into those new roles. So, I think it all comes together in this role, and I'm really excited to be taking everything I've learned into this new position.

Ara> It's such an interesting role to come into, because Critical Mass has always been this really innovative company. We pride ourselves on the fact that we are so innovative and that we're constantly exploring new technologies to do the best, most elegant work that we can possibly do. But the tricky thing is, the speed technology advances at is giving us all whiplash right now. Not only that, but we are also moving so fast on behalf of our clients that I think my role here is really about prioritising and accelerating opportunities internally. 

To this end, I think of it as 'mapping, method, measurement and mindset'. Major alliteration, I know, but it works. ‘Mapping’ is all about surfacing and prioritising the key opportunities, and creating the innovation agenda for the company. ‘Method’ is all about creating the right conditions to make that work happen and making sure that the team structures are right - that we're able to eliminate barriers to innovation, connect the dots, and share the best of what we do across the business. ‘Measurement’ is all about tracking what's working, understanding where we need to pivot (if we do need to pivot), and then creating the right kind of metrics for measuring success (because measuring the success of innovation is very challenging, and often, you have to not only be very creative about how you look at those metrics, but be realistic about what the KPIs actually are). The last part, and I think this is one of the most important things, is ‘mindset’. Innovation is an everyone job - not just a me job - and in order to make sure people can innovate, we need to not just give them permission, but make them understand it's expected of them in their role, and that we’re giving them the space and the freedom to experiment, as well as also the tools to enable that to happen. So, combining all of those things together is what I see my role as here; to really enable innovation to happen.

Ara> Right now, it's definitely weighted towards the internal as I start to establish our ways of working. That said, I am definitely leaning into client opportunities. I mean, every client that we have right now is asking questions about AI, wanting to understand how it's going to benefit their business, how we can utilise it to create more efficient and effective work, etc. So, I think those are always going to be big opportunities for me - to come in and to help the teams navigate. 

As my role progresses, I imagine I will end up being more client-facing, but right now, I think it's really important that I create clarity, focus, a path to success, the right models for innovation to happen here, and to make sure that we can continue this amazing culture of innovation that we've had for so long, so that we're continuously future proofing our business. To me, that's a big initial priority that I need to focus on.

Ara> I love any tech-enabled purpose work. In fact, having come from The New York Times, I've gotten to a place in my career where I really would struggle to work for a company that I didn't feel was doing meaningful and purposeful work, one way or another. I’ve been spoiled on some level by feeling like I was supporting democracy and that I have to continue doing meaningful work for the world. So, some of the stuff that I get really excited about is where technology can enable really interesting, purposeful discussion and mind-changing of people where we haven't been able to do it before. 

A good example of this is our ‘Driving While Black' campaign that we did with the Courageous Conversation Global Foundation. I think that was incredibly interesting work which really highlighted the issue Black drivers face when they're pulled over by police, and how completely crazy what they have to deal with and worry about is. We did that via technology, by creating this AR execution that people could interact with and the digital CAD model version of that. I love that kind of work! 

We also did a really interesting, similar project with Google while at The New York Times. We were working on a campaign that was called 'Picture Progress' and it highlighted Google's new technology in its Pixel phones, which basically allows it to show a more equitable and nuanced version of skin tones. What most people don't realise is that historically, this has been a big issue. Every photograph we've taken from the beginning of photography has been modelled off of white skin. So, the work that we did brought attention to that issue, and we were able to highlight the feature through Google technology. 

Ara> In a few different ways! Right now, we are experimenting with it across the entire business. We're doing a lot of internal projects, as well as some small external projects for clients. What most people are focused on, however (and what we're mostly focused on, for that matter) is the internal effectiveness and efficiency that AI can bring, because obviously there are many, many challenges with going out into the world with AI executions. Presently, we don't have the ability to do that, just given the rules and regulations around it in the industry. 

However, what’s interesting is that this makes it a really good time for us to be establishing the rules. And not just the rules of what is going to work from an AI perspective for our businesses and how we should utilise the tools, but also, how shouldn't we be using it. I just did a talk with our chief creative officer, Valerie Carlson, and artist and futurist, Nova Lorraine, on AI and artists' rights, which I think is such an interesting topic that we all should be leaning into. Critical Mass has a long history of advocating for artists' rights - making sure they're being treated equitably and that they're getting compensated properly for the work that they do. So, with SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild strikes, our attention has now been given to the fact that we have to make sure AI is going to allow for proper compensation of the artists whose work inevitably we end up using. And so, we’re trying to bring attention to that for brands too. After all, in order for our industry to do right by artists, brands are going to have to take a stand, and we think it's really important to get ahead of that as much as possible. 

To this end, seeing the companies that are starting to lean into this a little bit more is super exciting. If you look at the Getty launch for example, it’s ensuring proper compensation for image usage - a big part of what it's doing and its positioning. I think you're going to see a lot more of that across the board, given that there's a big focus on it. But until that time, I think we all need to establish our own guidelines for what we should and shouldn't be doing.

Ara> It's not the easiest question to answer. Obviously, there are times where a certain type of technology is what everyone is focused on (AI now, metaverse before that). And looking specifically at when everyone was focused on the metaverse, the interesting thing was that people found it challenging to create a really meaningful execution there. A lot of it was gimmicky. So for me, I think it's important that if we're going to use a technology, we're going to do so in a way that is meaningful, breakthrough, really interesting, and shows the value of working in that tool, medium or space. We have to keep an eye on everything that's emerging, and we have to monitor trends all the time, but I think if we can come up with something that feels meaningful, meaty and utilises technology, then I think it's the right time.

Ara> It's so hard. There's so much to read, and there's no way one person can keep track of everything. So, what I do is I have a number of Google alerts set up so that I get the latest news on emerging technology, innovation, AI, etc. I try to read the interesting stuff that I'm getting in my inbox daily. I also listen to a number of podcasts (‘The Vergecast’, ‘Pivot’, ‘Hard Fork’), because I love hearing people talk about and break down technology. I think it makes it so much more real and human. We also have an innovation community at Omnicom that is really valuable for sharing information across agencies, so that's been a resource for me that I really enjoy. 

But I have to say, coming from the world of innovation consulting where we spent a tonne of time in the market interviewing consumers, I'm a researcher at heart, and I just love talking to people… and we have a wealth of knowledge internally here. There are people that just spend all of their free time playing with new technologies because they love them so much. And you get some of the best information from those people, just hearing what they're liking, what they think is interesting, etc. So, while I try to do everything, undoubtedly, my favourite source is the human.

Ara> I love food and cooking. We actually make maple syrup! It's become sort of a weird tradition in our home neighbourhood. We get a whole bunch of our neighbours to tap their trees and we make maple syrup together at the beginning of spring, and everyone comes together and hangs out outside. It's a great excuse to get together, and also, it's exciting!

 

But also… I have a tonne of food allergies in my family, so I have to get really creative when it comes to cooking. So that's definitely been something I’ve focused on in the past. My favourite kind of cooking is more experimental, fun, interesting recipe cooking, but honestly, what I have to do most of the time is just be creative with the base.