Microsoft + Andree Ljutica

CASEY director and photographer Andree Ljutica finds human connection through AI, in a holiday spot for Microsoft

The heartwarming film features renowned digital artist Ellie Pritts, inspired by holiday stories from around the world

Director and photographer Andree Ljutica, who is represented by CASEY, captures the power of technology to bring people together in a new holiday campaign for Microsoft. The spot traces a series of interactions between strangers from around the world and renowned digital artist Ellie Pritts, who uses Bing AI to create an impromptu holiday card based on each person’s memories, traditions, and all the little things that make their celebrations unique.

With a documentarian’s sensibility that is behind his personal and commercial work—such as the award-winning short Seven Hundred Fifty-Six, an upcoming feature-length project, and a long photo series made for New York Presbyterian—Ljutica also draws on his own background as a first-generation New Yorker whose holidays were informed by his parents’ vastly different cultures.

He is at home in the melting pot of a Chinatown street corner, where Pritts has set up a station with only a laptop for her artist’s tools. Passersby, intrigued, sit down to share their holiday stories. From a few sure-handed directions, the computer creates images that enchant and delight them. The result is a heartwarming film full of AI magic and yet, more importantly, very genuine human moments.

Shayne Millington, CCO at McCann New York, adds: “The holidays are that special time of year where memories and traditions are created among friends and family. It was incredible to hear the range of stories from people all over the world and see their faces light up when their memories immediately became something tangible.”

The campaign kicks off on Thanksgiving Day and will run worldwide for the end-of-year Holidays.