CreateFuture

It was great to see BIMA NextGen launch earlier this month, with our own Dave Ward and Gareth Anderson helping bring the first programme to life. 👏 BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) Creative Council launched NextGen to help bridge the gap between university learning and the skills digital agencies are looking for. Students from the University of Greenwich, Brunel University of London, Goldsmiths, University of London and The Manchester Metropolitan University joined the programme, where they spent the week responding to a live brief on digital identity and ending with final pitches to a panel of industry judges. Amazing to see so many people come together to make the programme happen, especially Dave Dunlop, Jamie Doran, Lucy Ward and Matt Sullivan, alongside Four Agency Worldwide, the BIMA Creative Council, the mentors and judges, and the universities involved. And of course, congratulations to all the students who took part. The ideas, energy and creativity on display made for a brilliant first programme. 🙌

Excited to announce that we've been recognised as one of the UK’s Best Workplaces for Development™ 2026 by Great Place To Work UK. 🙌 Being recognised on this list is especially meaningful because it reflects feedback from our people and the experiences they have across the business every day. Creating an environment where people feel supported to learn, develop, and progress in their careers continues to be a huge focus for us. A big thank you to our incredible team for helping shape the culture we’re so proud of! We’re growing our team, come and be part of it 👉 https://lnkd.in/e8USYidH #UKBestWorkplaces #GreatPlaceToWork #Hiring

AI is creating a new engineering risk: teams that can ship systems they don’t fully understand. In iGaming, where supplier quirks, replay behaviour, and settlement logic matter, that risk gets expensive fast. Drawing from his experience building and scaling iGaming platforms, Tom Morley-Johnson, Principal Engineer, shares why deep system understanding still matters in AI-native teams 👇

How are FS leaders really thinking about AI? We brought together UK financial services leaders to discuss where AI is actually heading across the industry. No pitches. No panels. No AI hype. Just honest discussion about what’s working, what isn’t and where the biggest risks are emerging. Dive deeper into the 7 priorities → https://lnkd.in/eNsFthe9 #FinancialServices #AI

How much AI knowledge is sitting in Slack threads, docs and people’s heads? 😬 With AI moving as fast as it is, every part of every business is changing. And a lot of that learning just disappears. 💡 We built an AI-native methodology hub to stop that happening. A living, self-serve space where real project experience and practical guidance go somewhere useful and evolve as we do. Milly Henderson, Product Manager, shared: "Someone solves a problem, realises it could help others and adds it back into the hub. That's exactly the culture we wanted to create." Here's how we built it and what we've learned so far 👉 https://bit.ly/4dtQErb

What does it take to lead in the age of AI? Last night, we brought together tech leaders from Skyscanner, M&G, Charles River Laboratories and CreateFuture to discuss what it really takes. Here’s our 5 key takeaways 👇 → 88% of organisations are using AI but only 7% have reached scale. The gap isn't the technology, it's the operating model. → AI has made building easy. Now the hard part is judgement: knowing what's good, what's valuable and what to ship. → The models are the same for everyone, so your data is the real differentiator. → Most ‘autonomous AI agents’ are glorified chatbots. Organisations are underestimating what it actually takes to build the real thing. → The real leadership test isn't which AI tools you chose. It's whether you had the courage to redesign how you work before choosing them. 👏 Huge thanks to everyone who joined us, our host Darren Dalrymple and to the brilliant panellists Lindsay Ratcliffe, Paul Gillespie, Patty O'Callaghan and Stuart Bell for an honest look at AI in action. Stay tuned for the next Tech Leaders Forum. 👀

AI in financial advice is maturing fast. The focus has shifted from experimentation to execution, but many firms are still being held back by legacy systems, siloed data and unclear strategy. In this Q&A, Gareth Anderson explores: → Why data hygiene is still one of the biggest blockers → Where AI is driving the most value today → Why firms need to move beyond “shiny bolt-ons” → What an AI-native operating model actually looks like Watch the full video or read the Q&A 👉 https://lnkd.in/eXFWsGZd #AI #FinancialServices

Brilliant day at last week's DIGIT.FYI FS Technology Summit. ⚡️ The feeling in the room was different to previous years. The industry has moved past experimentation. Now it's grappling with the harder stuff. Governance, risk, tech debt, legacy modernisation - none of it new, but all of it different in the age of AI. 🎙️ Simon Hull joined Peter Crouch (Lloyds Banking Group) and Prakriti Karthauser (Legal & General) for refreshingly honest talks on innovation, infrastructure and AI-first engineering. The Q&A sparked debate on whether the industry is moving fast enough and if governance can keep up. The will is there, but safe, meaningful implementation still has a long way to go. Proud to be headline sponsor and great to have Phillip O'Neill, Andrew Shutt, Rachel Brown, Simon Hull and Sarah Lyons representing us on the day. 🙌 A special mention to our CreateFuture chocolate that just about survived the surprise April heat ☀️ #FSTechSummit #ScotlandTech #FinancialServices

Today is a milestone moment for CreateFuture. We are proud to share that CreateFuture has been acquired by Version 1, creating one of the most exciting digital and AI consultancies in the market. 16 years ago, CreateFuture started with a small team and a belief that consulting could be done differently. Closer to clients. Focused on quality and agility. Built around the people doing the work. Today we're 550 people strong, with offices across the UK, and in Sofia, and clients we're proud to call partners across iGaming, financial services, public sector and many more industries. To every Creatr, past and present, who has helped build this: thank you. This moment belongs to all of you. Joining Version 1 takes us further faster. Combined we'll be a €500m business with around 4,250 people across Ireland, the UK, Europe and North America. Their depth in data, transformation and managed service complements our strengths in strategy, design, and AI-native delivery. It accelerates the ambition we set out under our Elevate28 strategy by years. CreateFuture will continue to operate independently over the coming years. Our leadership team continues. Our culture and the way we work with clients all stay. What changes is the scale of what we can take on together. To our clients: nothing changes for the work we're doing with you. The same teams, the same commitments. Just more we can bring as your needs grow. To Roop Singh and the Version 1 team: we're delighted to be joining you. Here's to what we build together. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eejSTpEV

Your legacy system is your biggest liability. Yet the data buried inside it is your greatest strategic asset. Only 7% of firms have scaled AI enterprise-wide but most still haven't made the connection. Swipe to learn more 👉 📆 Going to the FS Tech Summit in Edinburgh tomorrow? Catch Simon Hull live as he dives into why legacy modernisation keeps failing, how AI is changing the game, and what it looks like in practice. #FSTechSummit