Imagine you’re a creative in advertising. You sit down at your desk, pull out your drawing pad or ideation notebook and begin your “flow” to create the perfect script with your team. You laugh, you cry, you struggle and finally experience that rush of excitement when you all come up with that one great idea. From the pitches to the coffee runs to the people you get to collaborate with on production sets, your team now gets to enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done, memories made, and proof that you’re not just weirdos with drawing pads and Google Docs—you’re creatives. At the end of it all, you get to look back on the entire process from inspiration to creation and say “Wow, I can’t believe we actually made this thing.”

Now, imagine you’re a creative in advertising. This process above is no longer necessary because your department is now reduced to an Ai production team of 2 or 3 people who specialize in SEO.

So the question to ponder is not “Is Ai good or bad?” A more holistic way to approach this could be to ask ourselves, “Will Ai take the place of Creatives in the near future?”

Let’s begin by defining creativity:

Creativity is the process by which we problem-solve and identify opportunities, pulling from inspiration or original thought. You might think Ai does exactly this, but it’s important to know the difference between ‘creative behaviors’ and ‘creativity.’ Min Sun, Chief Ai Scientist at Appier, elaborates on these differences by explaining how Ai can only take parts of the human creative process and exhibit these behaviors while humans have the ability to create original ideas and concepts. Ai cannot exist without human touch and experience, therefore, humans are essential in the creative process.

But we get it, Ai can be helpful in some ways. If creatives are willing, Ai can be a useful tool, so let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of integrating Ai into the creative process.

Advantages:

• Ai is useful when it comes to organizing and optimizing large data sets to develop algorithms based on human abilities.
• Ai can help to improve search and content surfacing algorithms to pull inspiration.
• Ai can help to streamline tedious tasks like image searching for creatives to focus more on their craft, saving time and money.
• Ai helps us to proofread with auto-correct programs like Grammarly.

Disadvantages:

• Ai gives unfair advantages to those who don’t possess the actual skills and abilities to do honest, creative work.
• Ai could make us creatively lazy while at the same time, speeding up the harmful effects of capitalism and fast-paced societies.
• Ai relies on algorithms (an aggregation of collective data) to produce its work, so if it’s pulling data from groups that prescribe to certain standards of beauty or ideologies, the reliance on Ai data could erase the representation of disenfranchised communities and lead to widespread censorship (Rahul Raj, Rolling Stone, 2023).
• Ai could diminish job opportunities for creatives and the quality of work as a result of corporations wanting to replace or downsize departments to “save” time and money.

If we view Ai as a tool to be used in the creative process rather than the creator itself, Creatives do not run the risk of their talents, passions, livelihoods, and personal identity being reduced to a system. Jessica Carson, a contributor to the National Youth Council of Ireland, describes human creativity like this:

Creativity enables alternative ways of thinking.

It unblocks old patterns or habits of thinking. It allows for non-linear thinking.

Creativity enables empathy.

It opens our hearts and doors to our mind. It brings us to hidden parts of ourselves. It allows recognition of uniqueness and identity. It can help draw out what is already there within – hidden talents and inner capacities can emerge. It connects us with our passions.

Creativity connects us to ourselves.

To create is to be human. There is nothing artificial that can replace that part of ourselves.