Creative Industries Embrace New Tools While Protecting Human Skills

Creative workers worldwide are facing a major shift in how they do their jobs as artificial intelligence becomes more common in 2026. According to industry experts interviewed by Creative Bloq magazine on January 15, 2026, creative professionals are not abandoning their skills but instead are learning how to work better with AI systems. This is happening across many different creative fields, from graphic design and architecture to advertising and brand creation.

What Skills Matter Most Now?

The most important skill that creative workers need to develop in 2026 is editing and curation, which means choosing the best ideas from many options. Jessica Walsh, who runs a creative design company called &Walsh, explains that AI can make unlimited numbers of designs and ideas, but it cannot decide which ones are actually good. She says that "AI can generate infinite options. What it can't do is decide what's good, what's wrong, what's culturally off, or what will age badly." This means that creative professionals are becoming more like judges and less like makers.

Another important skill is critical thinking, according to Harry Ead, head of creative at a design firm called DixonBaxi. Critical thinking means asking good questions, challenging your first ideas, and being patient with the creative process. Ead warns that when creative tools get too fast, people might accept the first idea and move on without thinking deeply. He believes that the creative process itself - through writing, sketching, and talking - is what makes ideas original and interesting.

Storytelling and Emotional Connection

Creatives are also focusing more on storytelling and emotional connection, which are areas where human minds are much better than machines. Léa Berger, a creative lead at a design studio called Morrama, explains that "setting up the scene and telling the story of a product is something that's part of the creative process and builds the foundations for a successful design." She says this involves talking about feelings in ways that machines cannot do.

Architect Marina Bonet points out that even when AI tools create images that look real, they still "don't look human enough." She says "You'll always be able to see that the machine language is stronger than the human feeling you would like to communicate." This is why some designers are going back to making their own 3D designs instead of using AI image generators.

Research Shows AI Helps the Already Talented

Scientists at the University of Connecticut in the United States have discovered something important: AI does not help everyone equally. James C. Kaufman, a professor who studies creativity, explains that when researchers tested people doing creative storytelling tasks with and without AI help, the people who were already creative before still did better with AI. "Participants who were more creative without AI also tended to perform better when collaborating with AI," he says.

Kaufman's research shows that creativity requires more than just making ideas - it requires judging and choosing ideas too. He explains that "AI is much better at generating ideas than it is at evaluating them. Deciding what makes sense, what is original, and what is worth pursuing still requires human judgment." This is why students and workers who rely too much on AI might not develop their own skills.

Concerns About Fairness and Access

Professors worry that AI could create new unfairness in creative jobs. Because the best AI tools cost money, only wealthy companies and people will have access to them. Meanwhile, entry-level creative jobs like drawing digital art or writing captions are already disappearing, which means young creative workers have fewer ways to learn and start their careers.

Brands Taking Stands Against AI

In advertising, some major brands are starting to reject AI-generated content and market themselves as authentic alternatives. Companies including Equinox and Almond Breeze have created ads that directly call out "AI slop" and fake-looking products. This shows that some brands believe consumers want real, human-created content instead of AI-generated material.

The Debate Over AI Performers

The entertainment industry is also grappling with how to talk about AI-created characters. The World Economic Forum warned on January 16, 2026, that calling an AI-generated character an "actor" is confusing and dangerous. When people hear the word "actor," they think of a real human being who makes choices and can be held responsible for their work. AI systems cannot do this, so using the word "actor" hides who is really responsible and misleads the public.