“People will always need to trust the human behind any decision-making”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

“How can I make my role and skills seem relevant when my company is constantly pushing the speed and power of AI?

My company is heavily pushing AI, everyone in the company is using it and everyone thinks they are now creatives (with poor results). It’s diminishing my role and confidence, as we’re being reminded daily that AI is coming to replace our design roles. Are we now seen as slow compared to AI?”

Kat Wong, founder of career change platform Oh Yeah:

The heart of this issue is not AI itself, but the fact that tech is changing faster than some companies can keep up. As a subject, AI is complex, going beyond the simplistic ‘good vs bad’ camp. AI adoption in the workplace is actually about a culture shift which can be presented brilliantly (e.g here’s how you can save time on admin to be more creative). Or it can go pretty badly when leaders are misinformed and panicking teams. Being reminded daily that AI is coming to replace your design roles is 100 per cent in that latter camp. It feels threatening and undermines the value of the team. In short – bloody awful messaging, and sadly, not uncommon.

The truth is, many leaders haven’t figured out how to create the right, safe culture to roll out AI adoption – let alone know the outcomes for the shift. And from a compassionate standpoint, why would they? The speed of change is unprecedented, so maybe it’s being handled so clumsily because of fear and/or due to lack of time, where they are forgetting what the organisation actually values, feeling pressure ‘to do something fast with AI’.

And that’s how you can influence their thinking. Where human skill and experience are just as relevant for a company which also values speed and power.

Here’s an approach to help frame this to your bosses.

Firstly – some facts. AI presents a huge opportunity for creatives to be more organised and productive (e.g. AI tools to streamline workflows, automatically organise files, work collaboratively with real-time updates), so teams can spend more time creating and less time faffing, searching, chasing the latest feedback. This is the most agonising pain point for any creative team (and leaders managing those teams – trust me on that one). That’s where AI can play a major effective role in the organisation – getting rid of inefficiencies that drain creative energy, which costs time, money and impacts client relationships. The kinda talk which will make your bosses sit up.

Tactics: Huddle together with those who have already adopted useful AI tools that have begun to support good workflows. There are always early adopters who love championing and experimenting. Suggest a core working group that can support your bosses to understand its impact and feedback on how teams can experiment and adapt with an agreed outcome. This will also give managers clarity, helping them to shift the internal messaging that values team collaboration. Don’t second-guess how they’ll react to a core working group, you may be surprised by their relief for help. 

Secondly, the narrative is changing where ‘big name’ organisations are now pushing for the power of human creativity, and the continued love of craft, connection and feeling. One source to help you with this reality check is Rob Alderson’s brilliantly useful blog Undo with a mission to untangle how AI is really changing design and cutting out all the slop and noise.

The infinite truth is, people will always need to trust the human behind any decision-making at work. And whatever creative industry you’re in, people will always want to create and build for the love of craft and storytelling. History has shown that.

But maybe we simply need to remind each other to do what’s right, rather than what technology is capable of.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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