Dave Meeker, who previously led innovation at Isobar and Dentsu, has just been announced as Monks’ new head of AI. In his first interview in the post, he tells Gordon Young what it will entail and why the emergence of AI is the most profound innovation he’s encountered yet.
Dave Meeker talks all things AI at Monks
We’ve heard plenty about a new industrial revolution – but Dave Meeker suggests it might be even bigger than that. And he should know.
He’s just taken over as head of AI at Monks, an agency known for its digital production roots but now setting its sights on how AI can shake up not just its own operations, but its clients’ businesses too. We caught up at CES, where hype around artificial intelligence seems to swallow everything in its path. If Meeker’s correct, we’re all about to feel a massive shift.
“One thing I’m surprised that not more people are aware of is Eureka Park,” he says. “If you want to know what trends are going to hit in three years, yeah, go walk around.”
That’s where the true innovations lurk – well away from the corporate booths. Instead of flashy demos and big names, Meeker points to startups and scrappy innovators trying to make AI do something genuinely new.
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There’s more to it than a fancy job title. “I think success will look like our clients successfully leveraging AI in a safe, effective way that moves the business needle,” Meeker explains. “We can achieve impossible ideas because we now have agentic capabilities that empower ideas where five years ago just wouldn’t have been possible. Now we can create impossible things.”
In other words, he’s here to help Monks build AI into the agency’s core – and help clients figure out how to do the same. “It’s not just about making content faster and cheaper,” he says. “It’s about creating new types of experiences that generate new types of data, which then create new opportunities for AI.”
Meeker’s enthusiasm for Monks is rooted in its willingness to experiment. “There was a 2,200-person group of AI enthusiasts who have active conversations,” he says. “Employees have access to all of these different models to do what they do.”
Instead of endless mission statements, Monks simply gives staff the tools and space to test, fail and test again. “If you talk about reinvention or you can act upon reinvention, those are two very different things,” Meeker says. “Monks is doing something about it, and they’re not afraid of change.”
That energy, he hopes, will carry over to client work too. “Without clients, you don’t have a business,” he notes. “I want them to see AI not as a cost-saver or an add-on, but as a gateway to entirely new realms of possibility.”
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Meeker sees CES as a sneak peek of how AI will filter into regular life, whether it’s wearables, voice-driven gadgets or the next generation of data-driven tools. And if you think the main show floor is all glitz, his tip is to head for the smaller stands.
“It’s fascinating,” he says. “If you want to see the next three years, that’s where you go.”
Ultimately, he hopes AI might even bring us a little closer to being human again: “The technology can finally free us from reliance,” he says. “It might provide us a renewed sense of humanity.”
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So is this truly bigger than the Industrial Revolution? Meeker thinks it could be. And with the speed of AI evolution on display at CES, it’s fair to say we’re in for a wild ride. The trick, in his eyes, is sticking to what he calls “responsible innovation,” which means harnessing the technology for something more than box-ticking or superficial gains.
“We now have agentic capabilities,” he says. “And I think that we will look back and see this as the first year of the future.”
If Meeker has his way, AI will be so ingrained in everyday life that we barely think about it – but see the benefits at every turn. And judging by CES, that day might be sooner than we expect.
Whether or not it eclipses the Industrial Revolution, one thing’s clear: AI isn’t a side project. And David Meeker’s role is to make sure it delivers on its promise – for Monks, its clients and everyone else along the way.