Seven pioneering Bristol creative start-ups have joined a programme aimed at helping them unlock opportunities for growth and investment by harnessing the power of AI.
The firms will work with the BBC and Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS) to explore how AI can improve creative operations, content delivery and enrich the audience experience. 
The programme, launched by Digital Catapult, the UK innovation agency for advanced digital technology, also aims to democratise access to the sector and support sustainability in fashion with AI-driven recommendations while also fostering innovative content formats.
Each firm taking part will be awarded £50,000 to develop a prototype using AI to optimise, enhance and augment creative production and address various challenges to help grow the UK’s creative economy.
It build on the success of a previous Digital Catapult accelerator programme delivered in conjunction with chip giant Nvidia and hosted by the University of Bristol’s MyWorld creative innovation hub.
The Bristol participating companies are: 
- Gritty Talent - the impact-driven talent and tech company delivering meaningful representation and inclusion in the UK’s creative, cultural and digital sectors.
- Fictioneers - a product within AKQA’s Potato studio in Bristol, it is cloud-based platform for creative technologists and narrative designers who want to author, collaborate and operate personalised digital experiences that blur the physical and virtual worlds.
- Noods Radio - Bristol’s premiere underground radio station showcasing “the misfits, dancers, collectors and selectors” from across the globe. In addition to daily broadcasts it curates international festival stages, standalone events, innovative projects and plays an essential part in Bristol and the global music culture.
- Octopus Immersive – Previously known as Gentleman Octopus, it launched ‘Introspect’ which focuses on the intersection between the audience and the performance of an XR music show, using AI to facilitate more personal experiences. It will pass sensor data from XR headsets worn by an audience to a classifying AI model in order to create responsive and generative visualisations of audio in real time.
- Force of Habit - an independent games studio that launched IMPRESS, a marketing and PR toolkit to help the independent games industry with all things publishing and audience operations, including influencer monitoring, marketing analytics, press kits and more.
- Weaving Change - established with the aim to reduce overconsumption in the fashion industry, it has developed Swerv, a gamified fashion app. Weaving Change aims to help to change the attitudes people have towards their own clothes and how they shop for new ones.
- Nulight Studios - a leading UK provider of motion picture film scanning, restoration and digital remastering services to the broadcast and film distribution markets.
Fictioneers and Octopus Immersive – along with Edinburgh-based audio design and technology company Black Goblin – will collaborate with the BBC to improve its audio output and audience engagement.
Fictioneers will develop an AI powered creative assistant that will enable teams to augment their development process, using the BBC Archives to explore interactive audio experiences, and address technical and conceptual challenges in production.
By providing a prototyping tool for interactive podcasts, the solution will not only deepen audience engagement but also enable the BBC to explore new audio storytelling formats, enhancing creative content delivery.
Octopus Immersive will create an AI-driven system using data from XR headsets to generate real-time, interactive visualisations of audio for more personalised music show experiences, allowing the BBC to deliver more immersive content to its audience.
AWS will provide guidance to Nulight Studio, Noods Radio, Force of Habit and London firm SuperScout to develop pioneering new production solutions.
Nulight Studio will use generative AI for video and audio production, revolutionising workflows in the film, TV and media sectors by allowing creative professionals to focus more on innovation and creativity.
Noods Radio will look to develop a tool to enrich user engagement features including personalising recommendations for content and introducing an interactive chatbot to automate routine tasks.
Force of Habit’s IMPRESS Insights will provide an AI-enabled tool for video game developers to track and react to player experiences in real-time, will enhance marketing, production, quality assurance, and post-release support.
This will help AWS to meet growing demand for more personalised content services from its customers.
Meanwhile Gritty Talent will develop a solution to improve engagement, retention, and progression of talent in the creative sector and Weaving Changes will develop an outfit recommendation algorithm that uses AI to suggest personalised outfits from users’ existing wardrobes based on style preferences and occasions.
This will also help optimise the outfit selection process, reduce the reliance on fast fashion and foster creativity and sustainability in the fashion industry.
As well as funding, the start-ups in the programme will be able to as access tech support, investment readiness advice and workshops, culminating in showcase in Bristol later this year.
Fictioneers CEO Matthew Hawn said: “Generative AI has the potential to be far more than a tool for generating gigabytes of anodyne content.
“Our prototype demonstrates how AI can become a bicycle for creative minds, helping them explore existing media archives, spark new ideas, and accelerate the development of compelling new formats.
“We’re not replacing storytellers – we’re giving them superpowers.”
BBC lead engineer (audio R&D) Alan Archer-Boyd added: “The BBC relies on a vibrant and innovative creative industry across the UK, and Bristol and the West of England is an important part of the industry.
“This challenge will be of great benefit to the region, and I look forward to working closely with the successful challenge entrants.”
Digital Catapult senior innovation partner Sarah Addezio said the UK’s creative industries were a critical enabler of employment, business growth and entertainment across the country.
“Supporting collaboration through the MyWorld programme between large organisations and start-ups has never been more important, as the sector tests and develops new trustworthy AI solutions,” she added.
“These solutions offer opportunities for businesses to utilise AI to improve operations, transform production processes, and solve inefficiencies, all while ensuring responsible and ethical considerations are taken into account.”
