THE HUMAN EDGE: CREATIVITY IN THE AGE OF AI
AI has dramatically expanded the creative toolkit available to agencies and brands. It can generate ideas at speed, iterate endlessly and produce competent executions across almost any format. The risk is not that AI replaces creativity, but that it normalises it. When everything is possible, differentiation becomes harder, not easier.
A useful thought experiment is emerging within Creative Departments. Some leaders now sense-check briefs or early ideas against generative AI outputs. If a concept can be replicated easily by a machine, it raises a legitimate question about whether the work is distinctive enough. This is not an argument for avoiding AI, but for using it as a benchmark. AI can show us what is obvious. Human creativity must move beyond that.
At its best, creativity has always been rooted in human insight: lived experience, emotional tension, cultural nuance, and an understanding of what really matters to people. These are not efficiencies to be optimised. They are judgments, shaped by instinct, empathy and context. While AI can generate form, it cannot originate meaning in the same way.
This tension came into sharp focus with Coca-Cola’s recent AI-assisted reworking of its iconic Holidays Are Coming Christmas campaign. Initial reaction within the creative community was sceptical. Yet consumer response told a different story, with testing indicating exceptionally strong emotional resonance. That gap between professional discomfort and public approval is telling.
On closer inspection, the campaign’s effectiveness did not stem from AI originality. The core idea, emotional cues and cultural memory were all established decades earlier. The insight that made the campaign powerful was human, not synthetic. The generative technology reinterpreted an existing asset rather than inventing a new one. In that sense, AI acted as an amplifier of a deeply embedded human idea, not a replacement for it.
This distinction is critical as we look ahead. AI’s greatest strength lies in iteration: accelerating production, visualising possibilities, refining executions and stress-testing ideas. These are valuable capabilities and will become standard within creative workflows. But the strategic and cultural judgments that underpin strong creative work remain human responsibilities.
As creative departments adapt to new tools and technologies, the challenge is not choosing between human creativity and artificial intelligence. It is understanding where each adds value. Culture does not exist in data sets alone. Subcultures cannot be fully understood through pattern recognition. Emotional truth cannot be reverse engineered at scale.
As we move into 2026, the human edge in creativity will not be defined by resisting AI, but by using it intelligently while protecting what has always mattered most: original thinking, cultural relevance and ideas that resonate because they are grounded in real human experience.
