Transformer, not Terminator: AI is Redefining Roles, Not Removing Them
Let me just preface, I’m a huge sci-fi geek. Especially dark, dystopian stories. Movies like The Terminator, The Matrix, Blade Runner, I Robot, Ex Machina - I love them all. But when it comes to really thinking about AI and its impact on society, I’m 10,000x more optimistic than my taste in movies would suggest.
In the past few years, AI has gone from future fantasy to a key part of daily life. Yet even since it was just a terrifying premise in a sci-fi movie, a shadow has loomed: fear that AI will replace human creativity. But I disagree. After working intensively with AI and creative professionals, I strongly believe the opposite is true.
It’s man AND machine, not man VS. machine:
Click-bait headlines and high-drama sci-fi narratives present the rise of AI as a binary struggle between human and machine—the John Henry moment for knowledge workers, if not society at large. But the reality is far less dramatic and far more collaborative. AI has the ability to enhance and accelerate human creativity, but it’s light-years away from being able to replace that spark.
It’s the digital equivalent of an apprentice, taking on time-consuming tasks like research analysis, finding patterns, connecting dots, exploring new contexts, and helping us get past the blank page. This frees up the human for the higher-level work that requires a heart and soul. In fact, most of the creative people I’ve worked with greatly enjoy getting lost in a world of discovery and learning, working with AI to condense years of study into exciting moments of exploration.
Take ChatGPT, for example. It's far from capable of crafting the next great novel or designing a breakthrough marketing campaign on its own. Yet when prompted by a savvy human who knows how to work the system to get results, it can help educate, create empathy, unpack concepts, and enable people in one discipline to quickly become fluent in another. It’s like a well of ideas and inspiration, that a human can tap and turn into something meaningful: a creative concept, a business plan, a breakthrough new product, a personal brand.
When well-prompted, AI can be a catalyst for human creativity. Struggling with writer's block? Overwhelmed with possibilities? AI is excellent at getting past the blank page and helping people make choices. But it can’t do it on its own.
AI will democratize the creative process.
For all the rest of us who weren’t professionally-trained as innovators or creatives, AI is a democratizing force. It helps us ideate, refine, select, and compose our thoughts. It helps introverts, analyticals and neurodivergents give voice to the countless ideas they’ve learned to keep to themselves over the years. Tools like ChatGPT make creativity and innovation more accessible for the lay-person, expanding the innovation pipeline 1,000-fold.
AI is forcing a paradigm shift (a much-needed one in my view). The pace of market disruption is only getting faster and faster…and companies need a boost to keep up. The old models aren’t working…too slow, too costly. The small group of people responsible for inventing blue-sky ideas are overloaded and burned out. It’s time for a sea-change in how we think about creativity, and where we think about it coming from.
Combine our strengths, accelerate and multiply
The key is to harness AI’s strengths: processing power, pattern recognition, data analysis, vast knowledge of diverse subject matter. Then combine those strengths with our own: intuition, feeling, storytelling, cultural context.
As we look to the future, AI will be a force multiplier in creative pursuits. Those who recognize AI as an ally in democratizing and scaling creative processes will thrive, while traditionalists will continue to suffer the pains of a slow, costly centralized model. For my part, I’m truly excited for where AI will take us, when we embrace it as a creative partner.
The Navigator Collective is changing the game with AI-powered innovation and human-centric creativity. Book a free demo today!
