Not another time-hungry meeting. Pointless preamble, tense to and fro, forced diplomacy, soooo long…could have been an email. Visit Iceland is offering something else instead, AI Knittakers. “Not Artificial Intelligence—real Authentic Icelandic knitters who attend your ‘could’ve been an email’ meetings for you, skilfully knitting one important takeaway (if there was one), and free you up for something better,” Visit Iceland noted.

M+C Saatchi Group and Icelandic agency, Peel, have dreamed up the easy alternative to the annoying meeting. Office workers can outsource their online meetings to actual Icelanders, who will listen to the conversation and knit one-word summaries of what transpired. That Icelandic knitting is a traditional craft built around lopi wool from Icelandic sheep enriches the tourism campaign.

The campaign comes from research by Visit Iceland with 4,000 office workers in the US and UK in which respondents reported spending nearly eight hours a month in meetings they considered unnecessary or avoidable. 63% agreed that many meetings could have been emails.

The AI Knittaker service is free. People can book a real Icelandic knitter to join a Google Meet call on their behalf. 330 one-hour appointments are available through AIKnittaker.com until November 20. The knitters will appear on camera from locations across Iceland (showing off what users could be enjoying while they’re not in a meeting). The knitters listen to the discussion, interpret the mood and decide which single word best sums up the meeting.

They are also encouraged to pay attention to the subtleties of human interaction, including awkward silences, disagreements and reactions that might not make it into a conventional meeting transcript or summary. After each meeting, the user receives a photograph of the knitter holding the finished word, along with information about them and the Icelandic location where they joined the call. Participants in the US and Europe can also request the physical knitted summary (subject to availability).

The full campaign includes a hero film, day-in-the-life videos, social and creator-led content documenting real meetings and reactions, and digital OOH advertising at Penn Station in New York and Waterloo Station in London.