Creativity & AI: What we get to keep

I don’t think the important stuff is going to be replaced by AI.

Sure, loads of jobs are already shifting (just look at the Anthropic Economic Index), and many more probably will. But while automation might streamline a lot of tasks, I don’t believe the most important parts of being human are going anywhere.

In fact, I think this might be a moment for us to reclaim something we’ve let slip: our creativity.

Yes, AI can make slick movie clips, beautiful illustrations, and eye-catching compositions. But it’s just generating.  It’s output. It’s patterns. It’s remix. And while that can be beautiful, the creative work that moves me always carries a perspective, something unexpected or deeply human, something that feels like a signal cutting through the noise.

The magic part is the human who initiated the prompt. When I think about the makers and creators who really move me, they’re not just producing content. They’re sharing a perspective. Something surprising, something that makes me feel a little more connected. That’s what art is, isn’t it? One human reaching out to another.

When I consider the challenges in front of us, from climate collapse to cultural fragmentation, it’s not more efficiency we need. It’s more imagination. More connection. More people using their creativity not to entertain or distract, but to illuminate, provoke, comfort, and rebuild.

That’s the bit I don’t think machines can replicate: connection.

AI can (and probably should) take care of a lot of the boring, repetitive stuff. But maybe that opens up space for the rest of us to create more freely, to elevate creativity again. Not as a side hustle or “nice to have,” but as something genuinely valuable.

I’ve never believed that AI can truly make art. For me, art is a person’s take on the world. It’s perspective. It’s thoughtfulness. It’s what happens when you manage to touch someone else’s brain or heart with your own.

So while AI might be able to write the emails or draft the slides, maybe we can finally give ourselves permission to dive deeper into the kinds of creativity that matter. Not performative productivity, but real, reflective, sometimes messy work that helps us stay human.

Creativity has never been heroed the way STEM has. Governments have slashed arts funding while pouring resources into engineering and tech. For years, creative work has been seen as “nice to have,” not mission-critical.

But that’s starting to shift. The World Economic Forum ranks creative thinking as one of the most vital skills for the future of work. The creator economy has exploded: 165 million new creators emerged in just two years. In a world where machines can automate the logical steps, it’s our imagination, our stories, and our ability to make meaning that matter most (Harvard Business Review: AI Can’t Replace Human Creativity)

Because when the machines can do almost everything else, what’s left becomes sacred.

This is made with AI but I can feel the human presence - enjoy: