Brands are investing in creator commerce teams, partnerships, and services that translate attention into measurable purchases—creating jobs not only for creators but also for adjacent specialists such as analytics, creator operations, records management, legal compliance, and IP management.
By Hadi Khatib
The World Economic Forum (WEF) survey found that around 41 percent of companies worldwide expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years due to GenAI’s and virtual agents’ meteoric rise. Companies such as Oracle, CNN, Dropbox, Amazon, and Block have previously announced job cuts related to AI.
At the same time, the WEF estimates that tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030. These layoffs disproportionately impact platforms that rely on advertising, leaving creators looking for opportunities in the growing creator economy itself.
The Transition to AI
AI adoption in creator-facing parts of tech is accelerating rapidly in 2025. Salesforce’s Marc Benioff claimed it is already handling up to 50 percent of the company’s workload, CNBC reported. Recent estimates from Goldman Sachs show 6 percent to 7 percent of US workers could lose their jobs because of AI adoption.
What Job Cuts? Creators Add GenAI to Their Toolkit
AI is wreaking havoc across most tech sectors—except the creator economy.
“Students preparing for media and communication careers recognize that technical fluency is now essential,” Dr. Roma Raina, Head of Corporate Partnership and Alliances at Manipal Academy of Higher Education – Dubai campus, told Communicate. “We see them pivoting toward hybrid roles that combine content creation, data analysis, and community management. Adoption of automation among creators is rising quickly.”
A September 2025 Artlist survey reveals that 87 percent of creators already use AI-driven tools, and more than 40 percent use them daily, Dr. Raina shared.
“These trends highlight the importance of teaching digital fluency, and our role as educators is to foster adaptability so graduates can navigate a labor market that is shrinking in some areas while expanding in others.”
Infrastructure, Scale, and Automation
A 2025 McKinsey report on tech trends said that large cloud and platform providers are making heavy AI infrastructure bets, including specialized chips and inference at the edge—running AI models directly on devices or servers near the data source rather than distant cloud data centers. This reduces latency and lowers bandwidth costs, making it ideal for autonomous vehicles, smart factories, and medical devices.
In creator workflows, AI features include auto-editing, generative assets, and automated ad creation, dramatically scaling output.
A recent Reuters report said that a series of tech layoffs and reorganizations in 2025—explicitly tied to AI efficiency and cost management—signals a shift from experimentation to scaled deployment.
“What will disappear are creators who rely on repetitive, low-effort content (like dances and pranks and talking to the camera!). What will grow are creators who use AI to scale their creativity: faster storytelling and richer visuals,” Al Horani told Communicate.
Hired! AI on 24-Hour Duty
The 2025 WEF report states that GenAI models can produce images, short videos, music, and text that compete with some creator output. However, AI is primarily a force for augmentation, enabling creators to leverage AI for ideation, scale, and personalization—becoming more productive and diversifying income streams.
According to another Reuters report, the industry implemented practical solutions in 2025 related to creator provenance, verifying human contribution and participation in AI-driven monetization. Talent agencies and creator platforms are increasingly adopting transparent licensing and compensation practices to prevent value capture that bypasses human creators.
Jeff Sampson, Managing Partner at Dread Pirate Group, told Communicate:
“The problem creators are facing doesn’t come from AI. It comes from the social media algorithms and channels that control their ability to monetize. Agentic media solves the problem with on-demand engagement and perpetual monetization. Producing more content faster with AI only equals more noise, not more money.”
Job Creation in the Creator Economy
This is not to say AI is never replacing creators.
“The transition is happening much faster than most people expected,” Al Horani said. “In the film and media world, the shift started subtly with budget cuts and smaller teams shrinking first. Once AI tools matured, the change accelerated dramatically. What used to require full teams can now be done by one skilled creator who understands AI workflows.”
According to BCG Global, new roles emerging in 2025 include:
Creator–brand strategy integrating AI output with human storytelling
Product curation and fulfillment tied to creator IP
Licensing and rights management
Brands are investing in creator commerce teams, partnerships, and services that translate attention into measurable purchases—creating jobs not only for creators but also for adjacent specialists such as analytics, creator operations, records management, legal compliance, and IP management.
Industry white papers also forecast demand for:
Prompt engineers for creative systems
AI asset curators
Content quality auditors
Product roles designing monetization features for human creators
“There is also heightened demand for motion graphics specialists, video editors, and social video producers as creators raise content quality,” Dr. Raina added. “Regionally, investments in AI education—particularly in the UAE and Saudi Arabia—have stimulated job growth.”
Al Horani added:
“New jobs are emerging that didn’t exist a year ago: Virtual Talent Managers, AI personas and digital influencers, micro-production studios, and AI Film and Creative Directors guiding vision and storytelling.”
Brands continue backing human ambassadors where authenticity and trust drive conversion, while increasingly funding AI-enabled creator partnerships that blend scale with human storytelling.
