SocialChain parent Brave Bison has promoted Matt Garbutt to director of AI & creative, a role designed to supercharge the company’s existing leadership in AI by expediting the development of AI-powered tools and innovations at scale.
Garbutt’s appointment follows Brave Bison founders Oli and Theo Green’s recent £5m investment in a new specialist AI division at Newcastle digital consultancy Tangent, and marks a significant step forward for Brave Bison as it continues to harness the power of AI to unlock greater performance and value for its clients.
Brave Bison started its generative AI journey early—building proprietary tooling, integrating techniques into workflows and augmenting service propositions in line with client needs. Ultimately, BB built its own internal suite of strategy and delivery-focused GPTs for clients such as Scribe, which creates SEO optimised product landing page copy at scale, several months before Chat GPT rose to popularity in November 2022.
Garbutt, who spearheaded much of this innovation, joined Brave Bison in 2017 to lead creative for its performance business unit with a focus on UX/UI, design and technical development. Garbutt’s journey into performance creative sparked his deep interest in AI and its potential to revolutionise audience and data science. Under his leadership, the company has achieved several award wins and shortlists for creative application of technology.
In his new role, Garbutt will be responsible for building a comprehensive suite of AI and creative tools aimed at maximising client performance. He will report to Hannah Kimuyu, managing director, performance, and will play a pivotal role in defining and delivering Brave Bison’s AI roadmap across the entire company. In addition to these new responsibilities, Garbutt will continue to oversee performance creative, ensuring the seamless integration of AI advancements into creative strategies.
Kimuyu said: “Huge congratulations to Matt, who has been leading our AI vision since 2020. Promoting Matt to Director of AI & Creative felt like the necessary next step and is well-deserved recognition for his leadership in AI so far. We’re excited to see the incredible innovations and creativity he’ll bring to this new role.”
Garbutt added: “I’ve experienced a lot of change in my career but the incoming age of AI is by far the biggest. To now be in a position to create and build with this revolutionary technology is a real privilege. A big thank you to my fellow AI-curious teammates and the company for giving me the space to follow my curiosity over the last few years. Adventure awaits!”
