Springboards launches Flint AI model for marketers

Springboards has launched Flint, an AI model for marketers and creative teams, alongside a relaunch of its platform.

Flint is designed to produce a wider range of responses than conventional large language models, which Springboards argues often converge on similar answers even when prompts are open-ended. The model is intended for early-stage idea generation in advertising, strategy and other creative work.

Springboards says Flint scored 7 out of 10 on the independent NoveltyBench measure for distinct outputs, compared with an average score of 2.88 across leading large language models.

The launch marks a shift for the Sydney-based business, which says it has spent the past three years building tools for advertising and marketing teams in the US, UK and Australia. Its customer base includes agency and in-house teams such as TRG and BMF.

Pip Bingemann, co-founder and chief executive officer of Springboards, said the company built the model after noticing a pattern in the development of leading AI systems.

Bingemann said, "We never set out to become a model company, we set out to help people have better ideas. But after three years building Springboards one thing became impossible to ignore: frontier models were getting smarter, faster, and more polished, while their outputs were getting eerily similar and more repetitive.

"For a lawyer or an accountant, convergence can be a feature, but for a strategist, writer, marketer, comedian or creative team, it's a bug. So we built Flint, the model we needed for ourselves."

Model Focus

Flint is based on a lightweight open-source foundation model and has been tuned to favour variation and iteration. Springboards says this approach differs from that of many larger AI models, which are often optimised for accuracy and consistency.

Kieran Browne, chief technology officer of Springboards, said Flint was built to prioritise novelty.

Browne said, "Flint is a tiny but mighty model that is significantly outperforming the world's largest LLMs on the one metric that actually matters for the future of the creative industries: novelty. The reality is that frontier models are prioritising accuracy and correctness over originality and entropy.

"Flint is built on the belief that human taste and creativity must be at the core of good creative work; we are optimising for variation rather than automation. And what's particularly exciting is that we have been able to achieve all of this without degrading the base model's general capabilities, proving that you can train a model to range more widely without gutting what it already knows."

Alongside the model launch, Springboards has redesigned its platform interface and introduced a broader range of self-serve plans, including free and paid tiers. The new structure is aimed at freelancers, small teams, boutique agencies and larger organisations.

Amy Tucker, co-founder of Springboards, said the broader platform update was intended to widen access to the company's tools.

"Since day one, our customers have been at the centre of our innovation. Our goal has always been to build tools that enable advertisers and marketers to do their best work, and this new platform is the culmination of that. We're so excited to finally open this up to everyone, from solo freelancers to global agency teams. Whether you're a strategist, a creative or marketer, you can now use our platform and model to explore your best ideas with expert support at every stage of the creative process."

Market View

Springboards' positioning reflects a wider debate in the AI market over whether general-purpose models are well suited to specialist creative tasks. Some developers are increasingly building smaller models for specific use cases rather than relying on a single system for every task.

Thomas Humphrey, investments partner at Blackbird, said the trend was becoming clearer.

"We're seeing a clear shift in the market from generalised AI and 'one model to rule them all' to models purpose-built in scale, cost, and design for specific capabilities - and creativity is one of the hardest specialties to crack.

"Springboards understands the alchemy of a great idea from the inside - they're agency veterans who built the thing they wished existed. Flint isn't AI as decoration - it's the engine the whole software product is built around. That's the kind of conviction we back."

Client companies also described the product as a tool for ideation and strategic exploration.

Christopher Owens, head of brand strategy at TRG, said: "What if your imaginary strategy friend didn't have to be imaginary? Springboards gets you to more curious places faster and helps sharpen your sense of what good, better, best looks like. Surrender to it."

Anna Bollinger, executive planning director at BMF, commented: "Springboards is an incredible ideation platform and creative strategy partner. It surfaces ideas and insights that other models ignore and, in doing so, takes you down the most unexpected and refreshing creative paths."