Prompt: “Can you please write a 250-300 word article about the use of AI in creative campaigns, focusing on how it can spark ideas, but only a human creative can give them meaning.”
Yes, I did say please to AI and as I started writing this article, my first instinct was to ask AI for a starting point, to give me some thought starters.. And what did I get? The usual generic reassurance that AI isn’t here to replace us and won’t be stealing our jobs anytime soon. Comforting, right?
So from my personal experience, here’s the truth. AI is no longer a futuristic concept or buzzword, it’s in our pockets, our emails, and our creative workflows. And yes, it’s impressive with its endless variations of copy, layouts, even crafting entire creative concepts. It has become the ultimate brainstorming buddy. But what we often ignore, AI is built to comfort and stay within a framework of what has already been done. It’s trained to predict the “right” next word, the safest version of a sentence, and the friendliest way to agree with you.
Creativity doesn’t come from comfort. It comes from constraints, arguments, failed attempts, even the awkward silences. That’s how the magic happens. Ask AI to “create a bold, edgy tourism ad,” and you’ll get something technically correct, but will anyone actually care? Will it make someone laugh, pause, or even cringe a bit? Will it understand the nuances of culture, especially in a country as layered as the UAE? Probably not.
That’s where us human creatives come in. We shape ideas, give them a soul, and know which ones will actually create connections, not just please the algorithms. AI can’t argue that the 25th version of your logo is slightly better than the 24th. It can’t sense the tiny cultural details that turn a concept into a story people actually care about, it doesn’t have the human touch (hence why we often train it to write in a more human way…), and it doesn’t fight you, it just nods along.
And that’s the real danger – AI makes us feel productive without ever making us uncomfortable. It’s like that person who only nods along in a brainstorm, helpful, but never the one to challenge or throw out that crazy, awkward idea that makes everyone sit up. And in creativity, those are the moments that matter.
All that said, AI still has its place as a great tool for creatives. It can kickstart the messy first drafts, and help us finally get over our procrastination. It speeds up our work, and helps us focus on what really matters, the human touch and insights. It can give us a starting point, but not the masterplan. If we choose to only rely on AI, we run the risk of drowning in a sea of technically fine and ultimately forgettable content. It will always be our job to take the idea somewhere unexpected.
So, for anyone hoping AI will replace creative teams, not yet I’m afraid. Let it nod along, develop the thought starters, but keep the real chaos and the magic-making to us.
