It’s time to Autotrader in new campaign
Made By Humans and director Guy Soulsby reimagine craft in the age of AI.
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Autotrader’s latest campaign by Made By Humans spotlights how real human truths can make a commercial, regardless of execution, stand out in a crowd.
The creative agency IMA won the Autotrader account earlier this year and has since launched their first film in partnership with Made By Humans. “It’s time to Autotrader” is a bold piece of work that came as a result of an effortless collaborative process. “Emily Huyton played a pivotal role in managing our brand partners through an unfamiliar AI-driven process, and the results were fantastic above all else, it was an incredible partnership where we figured everything out together.” says Toby Walsham, CEO of Made By Humans.
The film, directed by Made By Humans Creative Director Guy Soulsby, used AI to scale our assets at speed - while pairing it with a clear insight and line to match. “It’s time for Auto-trader” involved a meticulously crafted process and technical mastery, storytelling intuition and those finer touches that only humans could truly know.
“This campaign was about showing how creativity can evolve, not dissolve, through technology,” said Soulsby. “AI gave us the ability to explore scenarios and styles in seconds, but it still demanded hours of human refinement, intuition, and emotional calibration. It’s a new kind of craft.”
The creative concept explores the thrill of discovery, and the yearning that comes with knowing its time switch. Using AI as both medium and muse, Soulsby and the team built a four-piece series, accompanied by six stills which highlighted some of the most human pain points, and brought it to life with AI.
“The magic of this project wasn’t in pressing a button,” said Walsham.
“It was in the hundreds of small creative decisions that made every frame feel intentional, cinematic, and real. This is what we mean by craft in AI.”
Blink and you may mistake this piece for non-AI work, emphasizing the strides AI production has made in the last year alone. From concept art to final grade, the process fused traditional filmmaking discipline with new-generation AI workflows. Each shot was iterated, refined, and composed with the same precision as a live-action production.
“This project is a celebration of what happens when creative bravery meets new technology,” added Walsham. “Guy’s direction brought a tactile, human sensibility to a digital process, a balance that defines the future of filmmaking.”
Soulsby added “Every frame was treated like a piece of cinematography. We approached AI with the same discipline as a live shoot, lighting, composition, performance, only the tools changed…and it is very much a team effort of talented creative humans."
Deliverables include a hero film and supporting cutdowns tailored for digital and social platforms, each designed to flex across formats while maintaining a unified visual identity.
