The Two Faces of AI
AI is the smartest person you’ve ever worked with, AND the dumbest intern you’ve ever hired. At the same time. (GAMUT, 2026)
If you’ve spent even a minute playing around with AI, the above statement is probably the truest description of where we are at. Especially in the creative fields. Forget the miracles promised by the AI “thought leaders;” ignore the fear mongering by anyone chasing ad revenue. There are two faces to AI. And yes, this should serve as a friendly reminder to any company blindly throwing money at building or buying AI platforms. (Yes, holding companies, I mean you.)
The prevailing wisdom is we are all just prompting away our livelihoods, training our in-the-cloud successors—if we even have that chance.
And let’s face it, for some people that is absolutely true. Because it’s always been true. If you spend your days regurgitating information, or are in assembly line-type professions, AI is going to impact your profession. It won’t be in a straight line as feared. More so, in erratic, one and a half steps forward, a step back, 2 steps forward, and onwards-type-way.
This has happened with every technology, including the rise of the commercial internet— which was less than 25 years ago (post 2002 crash.)
The obvious vocations like travel agent, publisher, retail salesperson, and journalist were decimated but also plenty of white collar professions that handled now automated work like solo attorney, stock trader and traditional bookkeeper. That said, many of these professional categories have seen continued job growth as tech has created new sectors, an increase demand for specialization / personalization, and a quality arms race for those in established practices. Ditto for creative professionals.
An art director may not be laying out many newspaper ads, but until AI came along, there is/was no shortage of digital ads, social media / brand content and website pages to be produced. And thank goodness for those end of days as I’ve yet to hear a single talented AD say they can’t wait to design more banner ads.If you are surviving on that low hanging fruit, it’s time to climb the ladder. And if you do take the time to learn the tools, you will find abundance.
The ones who are producing compelling brand work with AI, like Santa Quits or Push.Past.Possible, are not depending on AI. They’re leveraging AI.
In the case of these commercial filmmakers, they are learning the multitude of tools—from the pedestrian to the highly specialized (many of which are not making headlines)—to create compelling work. This has been the way since 14th century, though admittedly apprenticeships have been replaced by YouTube and self-initiative has superseded the Statute of Artificers.
Similar to those garzoni, artists who are successfully using AI today started with at least a demonstrable aptitude for storytelling and great taste.
Today they are in-demand copywriters, art directors, creative directors and live action and/or animation directors, realizing now they don’t have to give up the rest of their life to be on a set 14 hours a day, directing.
They are using AI to enhance their existing skill sets and expand the type of work they can deliver. If that means constantly learning how to “cast” different AI platforms; to parse out what the many strengths and limitations of the tools are—sometimes changing daily–it’s a worthy trade-off.
Will this mean some traditional crafts—including directing—need to evolve? Absolutely.
AND, this might mean the average lifespan of a commercial director will come to exceed five years—the average now. It also means clients and agencies can expand what brand content is.
How will your client stand out now that so much of the process has been democratized?
How will a legacy brand compete with the upstart that can produce Super Bowl level content for nickels on the dollar?
With this new-found palette, there is an even greater need to climb that ladder and stop relying on the low hanging fruit.
There are fewer shadows to hide in and much brighter spotlights to step into. But like always, you need to know and use the tools to excel.