R/GA appoints Ben Cooper to lead global AI products team

R/GA has appointed Ben Cooper as global executive director of its AI Products team. The new role follows a period of collaboration between Cooper and R/GA, including work on AI strategy and product development.

Cooper, a creative technologist best known for award-winning work such as Optus’ Clever Buoy and NRMA’s Fireblanket, joins R/GA at a time when many agencies are tightening headcount. R/GA is adding roles to build its AI capability.

Ben Cooper

“We’ve created new headcount for the AI Products team,” said Michael Titshall, R/GA’s Global Head of AI Products. “If you can train people and people can adapt, then I think there’s opportunities.”

Cooper was formerly at M&C Saatchi and The Monkeys. He also led The D&AD AI & Creativity Report 2025, a landmark global study examining how artificial intelligence is reshaping the creative industry, which he presented at AI conference humAIn last month.

“We fullheartedly believe that AI is opening up new possibilities for creativity and impact. It’s not just about the efficiency of doing the same stuff, cheaper and quicker. You always need to find efficiencies in every single business. But any CMO who’s worth their weight knows that they need to find new customers. They need to grow, share and spend with their existing customers. And so I think … the CMOS who are performing really well, are really leaning into that,” Titshall said.

“The efficiency play, it’s important, but it’s going to bottom out pretty quickly. Because every organisation needs growth, and it’s not helping you grow, it’s helping you become more efficient. And so that’s where we think there’s more opportunity for our clients’ businesses, but also for our industry to grow as well.”

Cooper described the timing as critical: “This wave is crashing across the whole world… you don’t want to sit by the sidelines. You want to get fully involved.”

R/GA’s AI Products team is supported by a $50 million Innovation Fund and aims to develop bespoke platforms and tools for brands navigating the new technology.

Cooper said: “Whilst it can give you answers, it can also guide you. And I think, importantly, that as a metaphor reflects the fact that we’re looking to build products that elevate us as a business, but also our clients.”

Cooper said the shift also demands a mindset change: “Let’s not write a pitch deck. Let’s build a prototype. You can turn an idea into something you can play with instantly.”

The nature of the work is changing how R/GA charges for services.

“These engines, models, blueprints, tools that we’re creating… we are investing in those to make sure they’re reusable, but also make sure they’re flexible,” said Titshall. “That does change the model — in terms of an AI fee or subscription model for the product, and then an additional service project fee or hourly fee for the customisation.”

“We’ve got this core that’s reusable, but then we customise that for a client, and that’s theirs, and that doesn’t get shared with anybody else.”

Titshall said R/GA’s investment approach is shaped by its position outside the holding company structure. R/GA left IPG earlier this year with a deal between a private equity firm and leadership investment to return the agency to indie status after 23 years as part of a holding company.

“We’re not stuck in a holding group cycle of month to month, or at most, quarter to quarter commercial performance,” he said. “We are looking at a three to five year growth horizon, and then investing accordingly to innovate our model. I couldn’t see how we could launch the AI products team in a holding group structure.”