The creative industry is in the grip of an existential crisis, with fears that AI is killing jobs and creativity itself. But what if, instead of the end, this is the start of a new way to see creativity, asks ECD, Jellyfish, Jo Wallace. 

The creative industry is having an existential crisis. From many quarters you'll hear the same refrain: AI is coming for our jobs. Creativity is dead.

But, what if there’s another way to look at this?

Maybe, rather than making human creativity obsolete, AI will thrust it back into the spotlight, for the first time since we became obsessed with data points and conversion metrics in the late 90s.

After all, video didn’t kill the radio star, photography wasn’t the death of painters, and the web didn't murder books; so maybe it’s a little too early to start preparing for our own funeral.

Don’t get me wrong. AI is without a doubt the most transformative force our industry has seen since the internet. But there is a world where AI won't destroy creative thinking but instead amplify its importance.

For one thing, the creatives are key players in this revolution. The platforms developing the best and latest tools are co-creating with creatives, actively engaging their expertise to test and develop. New tools and updates are always shared from a creator's perspective, using the language of creativity to surprise, delight, engage and resonate.

Take Google DeepMind’s Genie 3, which allows you to go beyond video into dynamic worlds that you can generate and navigate in real time. This undoubtedly came from a creative asking if it was possible, and then not accepting no for an answer. Opening the door to even more potential creativity. (Just imagine the innovative, immersive experiences we can now create for brands.)

Here, I’d like to take a moment to spare a thought for the many great ideas that have been lost in translation over the years, because a unique idea wasn’t conveyed to a client in a way that did it justice. Ideas shouldn’t have to die like that. Now, in the right hands, Gen AI allows us to visualize something which hasn’t been done before. A unique idea can be brought to life far more powerfully than a sketch or a cobbled together mock-up.

The global creative community at Jellyfish are fluent and fluid in AI and Gen AI. We use it to bring unique ideas to life for client presentations, even if the idea itself isn’t AI-centric; such as the Grand-Clio-winning work we originated for the Netflix show, Lupin, and the Cannes-Lions-winning campaign we created to launch Severance S2 for Apple TV+.

Be it a physical activation, a social platform idea or a specific script; we present living, breathing, moving ideas. Because when creative talent is so well-versed in the latest tools, it makes sense to use it to help a client see the impact of our vision. So the idea can live, rather than die.

And that’s where creative excellence comes in. Whether we’re using Gen AI for reference or full production, it’s the team's creative experience and associated taste levels that sets great apart. Because when anyone and everyone can generate a logo, write copy, or produce imagery or a video with a few prompts, it raises a question. A question I’ve been discussing with various people for a very long time:

What’s the differentiator?

Creative excellence. Same as it ever was. Ability, experience and taste. It’s no coincidence that, more often than not, the best Gen AI directors are or were IRL directors. They’ve honed skills and taste levels when it comes to camera angles, lenses, performance, editing choices that show in the quality of their output.

Nobody wants to drown in ‘AI slop’. That beige, idea-free, taste-free gruel served 24/7 that no-one ever ordered because (to keep the food analogy going) it has no nutritional value for the audience. It’s bad for a brand's health too; too much AI slop ultimately makes a brand entirely unappealing to consume.

Sidenote: It’s worth admitting, before we clutch our collective industry pearls too hard over AI Slop, that slop isn’t only produced by AI. Plenty of terrible ads were created during the pre-AI years at the hands of humans, albeit often under-duress.

Rather than destroying creativity, AI amplifies its importance because, when creative excellence is missing, it shows. We have to continue to aim high, which still takes skill and craft because ‘There is no magic button.’

As Tom Roach, my Jellyfish colleague, recently wrote:
“GenAI does not result in instant creative ideas that magically appear without a brief, a strategy, time, any budget, or most bizarrely of all, without creative people. . .  anyone that’s still selling it to you as some sort of magic is selling you snake oil.”

Ironically, the technology that everyone fears will kill creativity might actually be what saves it from the efficiency obsession that's been slowly strangling it for decades. Let’s be real, much of the erosion of creativity in this industry has already happened, for various reasons.

Perhaps the biggest threat to creativity is large parts of the creativity community electing to shun the possibilities that AI brings. We can’t go back, AI is here to stay, but what we can do is build the next creative era. It’s simple and it’s democratic: those creatives who choose to embrace AI will have a huge competitive advantage. Fact.

Using AI to enhance your creativity doesn’t make you some kind of fraud, it makes you future-facing. Being familiar with Gen AI tools doesn’t rob you of your creative essence or your craft skills, but it could certainly enhance them. Rather than seeing AI as a lowest common denominator, turning all creativity into beige slop, we could instead see it as a creative vision multiplier. Enhancing what makes your personal creative vision unique. Giving your edge an edge.

As AI handles more and more routine tasks, creative and strategic thinking will become more valuable, not less. Leaders at OpenAI, Google, and Meta consistently emphasize they are building tools that augment human creativity rather than replace it.

Yes, it’s easy to be cynical but what might seem like the end, could actually be just the beginning. We’re yet to see the full extent of what creative minds can produce when they push these tools beyond their obvious applications; new forms of storytelling, unprecedented experiences, novel ways of connecting. This is our chance to step up and imagine a different future. A future where transformative creativity can genuinely drive positive change through the use of AI.

Ari Kuschnir, a Storyteller/Creative/Artist who ‘makes viral AI experiments imagining a different world is possible’, recently spoke at the Scandinavian Creative AI Summit and delivered a simple message that wraps this up perfectly:

“Another world is possible. It’s not going to come from the top down. The different world starts in our hearts and our imaginations. Anyone who’s in the creative world… has that opportunity, that vision to make a change.”

There’s no denying AI is changing everything. But rather than mourning the end of an era, maybe it's time to celebrate the beginning of a new one.