Transforming thoughts into a tangible experience is the basis of creativity. The manner in which this transformation is executed is about to change due to evolving technology. One such technology is artificial intelligence.

In fact, AI is already integrated into the creative processes of numerous developers of textual and graphic content, design, and brainstorming. However, what impact does this new instrument have on our ideas about creativity beyond the creation of products for their realization?

Turning Idea into Creation, Faster than Ever

The speed of AI is one of its best assets. In the past, it would take hours upon hours (maybe even up to a few days) of researching, writing, designing, editing, and many other processes before an idea could be turned into a piece of creative content.

It can be used to:

• Brainstorm
• Write
• Develop visual ideas
• Create images
• Summarise
• Develop variations
• Edit

So instead of decreasing the workload, there’s an increase in opportunities for creators to focus on other areas of their process.

AI is a Creative Assistant

AI can be best utilized as a creative assistant, where it is seen as something that is supporting, assisting, and helping the creator, instead of diminishing their effect.

For instance, an idea for which an AI could be utilized is a digital marketer coming up with ideas, researching possible headlines or concepts, and generating a few options for a social media post. Once more, it is the creator which chooses which idea to further develop, rather than the AI itself.

The personal touch that a creator can bring to a piece of content is essential

Making Content More Personalised

Content creation is no longer just making something and showing that to a certain audience. The importance of personalisation and relevance is growing, with audiences wanting more individually targeted information.

AI can help marketers and other content creators get to know the audiences which they’re targeting better. Show different versions of material which will give a more relevant experience for individual customers.

This approach can be implemented in:

• Custom recommendations
• Personalised advertisements
• Variations of content
• Audience-targeted material
• More targeted customer experiences

Doing this right can help brands and companies to communicate in a way which connects with their audiences.

The Rise of AI-Generated Visuals

In the field of digital communication and marketing, the importance of visual content is growing constantly. Several AI apps have been developed expressly to produce images from concepts. This implies that in addition to receiving an image from a prompt, artists can experiment and create pieces that suit their own requirements and methods.

This allows the creative to choose which aspects of the design they want to play with, eliminating the need to spend hours developing a picture.

This offers marketers a variety of opportunities, including:

• Social media graphics
• Advertisement concepts
• Campaign visuals
• Product mock-ups
• Presentations
• Creative experiments

The technology allowing this to happen and making it faster, is becoming a necessity for a lot of creators but the direction and the content is still being dictated by people. After all, it’s one thing to know how to create, and another to know why we should exist beyond just being useful or not interesting enough to customers.

AI Is Changing the Approach of the Creator

The increasing number of repetitive elements of the creative process being automated allows the responsibilities of creators to grow and change at the same time.

Rather than spend hours focused on a piece of content design, these individuals are able to spend more time thinking through:

• The strategies
• Ideas
• Stories
• Their brand
• Audience
• Creative direction

And ways to solve problems.

The ability to think creatively now also includes the need for knowledge in the use of creative tools.

Creativity Still Needs a Human Touch

One of the biggest questions which need to be asked regarding this increase in AI related creativity is

What use are humans if AI is capable of producing content?

In order to ensure that the values, experience, and personality are represented, it is becoming more and more important for humans to decide how to approach content.

While AI can create an image, it is unable to understand what a personal experience has been like to ensure that the piece of work is effectively communicated.

In order to produce content that not only looks attractive but also has value for a client, reader, or spectator, a creative idea’s personal component is crucial.

Human creativity encompasses a variety of elements that are unique to the individual, including experiences, emotions, cultural allusions, viewpoints, and context awareness.

The Importance of Human Judgement

Even though AI-generated content isn’t always of the highest caliber, accuracy, or relevancy, it’s crucial to include some human judgment in the process to make sure the content being shared, promoted, or displayed is something that people will find appealing.

While AI may be able to create pieces of text, if it is irrelevant and repeating itself, it is not a valuable piece of work to the creators. It is the human judgement which can assure that this material hits the standards that a brand or person may desire to put out there.

A creator needs to be able to identify if a piece of text or design is effective, relevant and worth promoting to one’s audiences. While AI can be helpful in this area, it comes with errors as well as inaccuracies, so it is the people who should be taking charge of their own creative projects.

A New Creative Workflow

AI has also changed the expectations that can be placed on the creative process

In the past, a working process may have been:

Idea → Research → Creation → Editing → PublishingBut with the inclusion of AI, this process can be seen as:
Idea → AI-assisted brainstorming → Experimentation → Refining → Human Judgement → Publishing

Technology that is present today can offer a new aspect on the process that is not necessarily replacing the creativity involved but a chance for the creator to have more options for their designs. This could benefit those who are seeking to expand their creative abilities at an early stage of their career.

The Challenge of Keeping Content Original

With the growing number of people turning to artificial intelligence to create content, originality is rapidly becoming an important factor in being able to differentiate one’s work from others. If everyone is going to be using the same prompts and tools, brands and people have to find ways of being different and standing out from one another.

The way that brands can achieve this is through having a distinctive approach.

A strong brand is characterised by its:

• Voice
• Ideas
• Design
• Stories
• Values
• Creative direction

And it is these aspects which are able to make the difference to how its content compares to that of others. The role of the creator remains to produce valuable pieces of work which support their brand, and AI can assist in this process.

The Future: Humans and AI Working Together

AI is not undermining the role of creativity, but rather the tools that we have at our disposal are being changed.

The people who will be the most successful in this arena are the ones that know how to marry their creativity with that of the computer.

The future will not be decided on whether we decide to embrace artificial intelligence or not or even if we have human created products over AI created products. It will be dictated by our comprehension on how to combine both human and AI efforts to create superior work.

The possible benefits that AI can bring are:

• It can help us to move faster
• Explore more ideas
• Experiment and innovate

But there remains the creator that decides how a piece of content should be shaped and delivered.

Creativity Is Still Human

Technology will transform the way that we create, but it will transform the tools we use to create. It will not transform what we want to do, that is communicate our ideas to others, solving problems, telling stories, expressing ideas, building connections, conveying values and so much more.

While AI can help us, the act of creating something valuable relies upon human imagination, judgement and emotion.