I’ve spent years shaping brands, designing campaigns, and working with some of the most talented creatives in the industry. So, when AI started creeping into the creative space, I had the same reaction as many others—equal parts excitement and mild panic. Was this the dawn of a new creative era, or were we about to automate ourselves out of a job?

Over the past year, I’ve been getting my hands dirty with AI in ways I never expected. And here’s the thing—AI isn’t here to take over creativity. It’s here to push, challenge, and supercharge it. When used right, it doesn’t make us redundant; it makes us sharper, faster, and more experimental than ever before.

Embrace the tools, trust your vision, and watch the magic unfold

The shift from fear to possibility

Let’s be real—when AI tools like MidJourney, DALL·E, and ChatGPT blew up, a lot of creatives freaked out. Suddenly, anyone with a keyboard could generate a slick image or a decent chunk of copy in seconds. For those of us who’ve spent years honing our craft, it felt a bit like being punked.

But after actually playing with these tools, I realised something: AI isn’t a creative genius. It’s a glorified assistant. And like any assistant, it’s only as good as the person directing it. In my own projects, AI has become an amazing collaborator. It speeds up the grunt work, giving me more time to focus on the stuff that actually matters—strategy, refinement, and the magic of creative intuition.

AI as an extension of creativity

One of the biggest lightbulb moments for me was using AI to generate concepts at scale. I remember working on a campaign where we needed a strong visual language, and instead of spending days on mood boards and sketches, we fed some broad ideas into AI. Within hours, we had dozens of viable styles to play with.

AI helped me see my ideas faster than I could ever sketch them out. But here’s the catch—it still needed a human touch. AI doesn’t have taste, intuition, or the ability to push beyond the dataset it’s trained on. That’s still our job as creatives.

The power of prompting

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that using AI well is an art form in itself. The way you phrase a prompt can mean the difference between getting something generic and uninspiring versus something that actually sparks excitement.

For example, I once played around with MidJourney to generate branding visuals. A basic prompt like “modern, minimalist logo” gave me the most predictable, soulless designs you could imagine. But when I layered in details—references to Bauhaus, colour psychology, and composition techniques—the results became way more interesting.

It’s just like working with a junior designer. The more guidance you give, the better the outcome. AI isn’t here to replace creative thinking—it thrives when it’s paired with it.

The AI reality check

For all the hype, AI is still far from perfect. It messes up—a lot. I’ve had ChatGPT confidently serve me historical inaccuracies, and I’ve seen AI-generated images with more fingers than a sci-fi horror movie.

That’s why humans are still a critical part of the process. We’re not just curators of AI-generated content; we’re the ones injecting nuance, emotion, and meaning into the work.

Where AI actually shines

From my experience, here’s where AI is genuinely useful:

Idea generation – Brainstorming has never been faster. AI can take a loose idea and spit out dozens of angles, helping break through creative blocks.
Rapid prototyping – Testing multiple design concepts quickly before settling on the best one.
Writing assistance – Great for refining messaging, structuring ideas, or breaking through writer’s block (but it still needs a human editor to add personality and polish).

But where AI falls flat is in true originality. It can remix existing ideas, but it doesn’t innovate on its own. That’s why creatives are more important than ever.

The future of creativity with AI

So, where do we go from here?

I believe we’re entering an era where creativity is more about direction, taste, and vision than ever before. AI will keep evolving, and the creatives who embrace it—rather than fight it—will be the ones leading the charge.

This isn’t the death of creativity. It’s an evolution. And as someone who’s spent years pushing pixels, refining typography, and telling stories through design, I can confidently say—this is one of the most exciting times to be a creative.

The best creatives won’t fight AI, they’ll master it