Marcus Byrne is an Irish-born, Australian-based creative director and AI specialist with twenty years of agency experience across Leo Burnett, VMLY&R and Thinkerbell. He now helps ad agencies, design agencies and production departments to integrate AI into workflows and think differently about the creative process in order to elevate creative ideas.

He comes from four generations of makers. A typesetter grandfather. A paste-up artist uncle. A screen-printing Art Director father. And Marcus, who embraced every new tool without ever losing the craft underneath. Every generation faced a new tool, kept an open mind, and adapted. This one is no different. He has learned that the “expert mind” is a liability; the only way forward is to reclaim a Beginner’s Mind, asking the child’s question, “What could this become?”

He stays curious for a living. Playful by nature, serious about craft. Making things, teaching things, advocating for a smarter, more human transition into what’s next. He’s built viral campaigns, authored four books on AI prompting available on Apple Books, spoken at AGDA, KPMG, RMIT, House of GAI and Cairns Crocodiles, and holds a board seat at AI:OK.

His Tesla spec ad was built from 130 AI-generated images in 18 hours. His Jaguar response film hit 13 million views. His AI generated Gaudi Appliances went viral and was published in the Guardian.

He’s a creative partner to Figma Weave, Leonardo AI, ImagineArt, and Hailuo, building at the frontier of what’s possible. His belief is simple. Tech doesn’t tell stories. Humans do.