The Imagination Economy, with Clay Schouest

Scott and Drago are joined in the studio by Clay Schouest, Chief Strategy Officer for APAC at dentsu — where he leads strategy for one of the world's largest agency networks across the region's most dynamic and diverse markets. His thinking on the future of AI, creativity and brand strategy is set out in a recent thesis he calls The Imagination Economy — a provocation that the biggest question facing marketing right now isn't "how do we adopt AI faster?" but "what should we imagine that doesn't exist yet?" The companies that win the next decade, Clay argues, won't be the fastest or the cheapest — they'll be the ones who imagined the most, and built systems that could imagine on their behalf. We're talking all about how AI is shifting from a tool we prompt to an anticipatory partner that creates on our behalf, and what that means for how brands generate new ideas, protect meaning, and build worlds worth playing in. Too many boardrooms walk into the trap of using AI to do the same things, only faster — mistaking efficiency for strategy. Clay paints a picture of what the alternative looks like, sharing reflections and hard-won thinking on: How three decades in strategy have shaped his view on what AI does — and doesn't — change about the creative process Why the questions dominating AI conversations today are the ones that will make companies irrelevant within five years The four forces shaping the Imagination Economy — anticipatory creation, autonomous agency, personalised abundance, invisible orchestration How to protect against algorithmic sameness, slop, and the erosion of distinctiveness What research on embodied cognition reveals about the limits of automating human values Why creatives become world builders, meaning creators and casting directors — not makers The idea of "unimagining" — and why building the exit into the architecture matters The talent skills that will define the next generation of strategists: taste, cultural fluency, contrarianism Follow Clay on LinkedIn:   / clay-schouest   Subscribe to Potluck via: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15I5xbu...