You’ve heard the fear-mongering about AI coming for creative jobs. That take ignores that creative professionals are essential to the equation and often the best equipped to mine the benefits of generative AI.
In the latest episode of The Disruption Is Now podcast, host Greg Matusky and Shane Santiago, President and Chief Experience Officer at Bravely, discuss how AI can enhance human ingenuity and creativity rather than replacing it.
They explore unconventional ways generative AI can augment the creative process, from brainstorming new angles to finding unexpected connections that spark fresh thinking. Even AI’s so-called “hallucinations” can be sources of inspiration in the right hands. It’s about finding ways for human and artificial intelligence to become creative partners that elevate each other’s capabilities.
Watch now:
Key takeaways:
AI augments, not replaces, human creativity
Shane and Greg stress that while generative AI can produce ideas rapidly, the real value comes from the human ability to sort through, evaluate, and refine those AI outputs.
Shane notes it’s all about the context in how a communicator takes an idea from the AI and puts it into the proper framing for the audience and situation. Greg highlights how he may get 10 ideas from AI, but it’s up to human judgment to identify which one idea out of those 10 has real potential to build upon.
Embrace hallucinations as opportunities
What may seem like an AI going completely off the rails can elicit valuable new perspectives and ideas for the human creator.
AI outputs can create unexpected new connections even when they’re not accurate. Creative ideas can emerge from novel combinations of words or concepts that humans might never have arrived at on their own. The speakers encourage taking a more open mindset to hallucinations and seeing them as possibilities instead of just mistakes.
AI is the new creative partner
The conversation emphasizes that while AI will not replace the core fundamentals of good communication such as voice and resonance with your audience, it can be a powerful complementary tool when blended with human skills.
Shane equates it to AI being an improv partner that allows the human to build on AI outputs by adding emotional intelligence and context. The AI accelerates ideation and production that augments the human’s overall vision.
It’s still early innings for AI
Generative AI’s latest breakthroughs fill headlines nearly every day, but we’ve only seen the start of its creative impact. An open, early-adopter mindset allows creatives to stay ahead of technology that’s as transformative as the internet or smartphones.
Getting experience with AI tools now will be critical for communicators and marketers, as AI’s role in the creative process will only grow moving forward. The professionals who will succeed with AI are the ones who are exploring new technologies, adapting their workflows, and finding ways for AI to elevate their output as a partnership between human and machine.
Key moments:
● How Shane’s digital marketing background set him up as an early adopter of AI (2:16)
● AI’s impact on design workflows (6:35)
● Shane’s process of idea generation with AI (8:04)
● The value of AI hallucinations (9:16)
● The importance of intent in AI interactions (12:42)
● AI as improv partner (16:52)
● The importance of curating AI output and breaking expectation (19:36)
● Obvious AI ideas can still provide value (21:29)
● Consulting different perspectives when evaluating AI output (26:37)
● The human side of the bargain with AI (28:07)
● Why creatives are best equipped to find value in generative AI (28:58)
