Introduction
At Pencil we have always emphasised the importance of having a 'human-in-the-loop'. It's more than a slogan - it's a critical necessity.
To get the best out of Pencil you need to combine the skills and creativity of humans with the power of Pencil's AI with the power of Pencil’s AI capabilities, which automate generation while enabling thoughtful human direction.
In this article we will look at why human involvement remains critical when using generative AI models, and then we will look at how you can work most effectively with Pencil to ensure that your final outputs are not just time-saving and scalable, but also on-brand, creative, and meaningful.
Why Human Involvement Matters
Generative AI models are underpinned by vast datasets and offer speed, variation and novelty. They're great for producing a wide range of outputs, quickly and at scale.
However, these benefits come with constraints:AI models don't understand context the way humans do.
They lack judgement, brand knowledge, and audience insight unless these are explicitly provided.
They can replicate or amplify bias, or drift subtly off-message.
They don't consistently produce results that are free of unwanted flaws.
You Set the Brief: Every Pencil project begins with your creative direction. You bring:
The brief and strategic context
A rich Brand Library that contains, among other things, your brand values, brand vision, tone of voice.
Prompting is a Human Skill: Writing great prompts involves both strategy and craft. Pencil's interface can make it easier - but the human behind the prompt still matters. Skilled prompting brings the framing that steers the output. You judge what's relevant, compelling, or appropriate. You refine and iterate. Prompting is a learnable skill and our Prompting Guide is a great place to start.
You Catch the Errors that AI Can't: LLMs can 'hallucinate', misinterpret, or subtly distort meaning. They can create a range of visual mistakes that can be hard to spot, but you can learn what to look out for. Additionally, you will want to check for alignment with things like tone, message and brand guidelines - catching implicit bias or cultural issues.
Compliance and Brand Consistency Still Rely on You: The quality of your Brand and Asset Libraries are foundational and ensuring that every output meets compliance standards and is recognisably on-brand will always require a human eye. Remember, you can reference your brand guidelines directly in prompts too.
Feed Variation is a powerful tool but requires care - bulk output means bulk responsibility. Copy and creative still need reviewing for things like each audience segment. Translation within Feed Variation must be verified for tone and nuance. Prompting within the Feed Variation tool itself can reduce manual effort, but won't eliminate it entirely.
How To Add Value at Each Stage
Start Strong: Have a clear brief with strategic and creative intent - even if it's for an ideation process. Make your Brand Library as rich as possible and include Brand Guidelines if you have them. Define your metrics for success and your desired outcomes.
Use the right model and settings: Experiment using the same prompt with different models to find the one that interprets your prompt the way you want.
Prompt thoughtfully and descriptively: Familiarise yourself with our Prompting Guide and various other help articles. Iterate and refine prompts as you go, and use Seeds to help with creative flow. Consider using our Bias Breaker and Prompt Enhance tools. Consider prompting as a conversation, not a command.
Review and Curate: Take time to review generated outputs, both for mistakes and flaws as well as tone, messaging and resonance. Use Pencil's editing tools or external retouching tools if necessary.
Learn and Adjust: Note what prompts, models and settings work best for your project/brand and consider saving prompt snippets for future use across your team.
Summary
Generating great creative content and strategic insights with Pencil is not simply about providing some insights and letting the system run. It's about engaging creatively and strategically with the tools available. You are still the brief-setter, creative director, editor and final decision maker.