OK COOL’s Liz Stone: the doom narrative is raising a generation of defeatists

It’s a tough time for people starting out in the creative industry right now. Together with Creative Lives in Progress we asked 27 people to predict what starting a creative career will look like over the next three years.

Words: It's Nice That
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Date: 9 November 2026
Tags: Career Predictions

Starting a creative career has rarely felt harder. Junior roles are disappearing, budgets are tightening and AI is taking over much of the work that new starters once learned on. So we asked studio founders, recruiters, educators, organisations and emerging creatives themselves to predict what they think starting a creative career will look like over the next three years. What skills will matter most? How will the pipeline work? And what can people do to take advantage of new opportunities? Their answers will help shape how Creative Lives in Progress can best support emerging talent through this period and beyond.

Contributor specific paragraph.

Liz Stone, Co-founder and Global Chief Creative Officer at OK COOL

My prediction for the next three years is that starting a creative career will require as much attention to your mindset as your skill set.

Young creatives are being told that the industry they want to join might have no place for them. AI is coming for your job. The opportunities are disappearing. Why bother?

The media and algorithms reward fear and negativity. My worry is that this constant stream of doom risks raising a generation of defeatists, convinced their future is hopeless before they’ve even started. If you believe there’s no future worth working towards, why would you feel motivated to try?

This has to stop. Over the next three years, I think recognising and challenging that narrative will become increasingly important. Starting out will mean learning new tools while also understanding when the stories you’re consuming are working against you.

There’s a concept in psychology called “cognitive reappraisal”: changing how you interpret a situation can change how you feel about it. Here, that means asking: what opportunities am I missing because I’m only looking for the threat?

“Starting out could increasingly involve creating your own opportunities before someone offers you one.”
Liz Stone, Co-founder and Global Chief Creative Officer at OK COOL

When computer animation arrived at Disney, there was resistance from artists who worried it would strip the soul from the hand-drawn work. But animators found ways to preserve that human touch while expanding what they could create. The technology gave them more ways to bring their imagination to life. That’s the possibility I’d encourage young creatives to explore with AI.

I expect young creatives to use AI to attempt things that previously required budgets, teams or technical training they couldn’t access. Some will build careers we don’t have names for yet. Starting out could increasingly involve creating your own opportunities before someone offers you one.

So alongside learning your craft, practise shifting that frame. “What could I do now that I couldn’t do before?” Hell, ask AI to help you brainstorm the answer. Then bring your taste, judgement and perspective to it.

You can be concerned and still be curious. Your mindset won’t remove every obstacle, but it will influence whether you try. Don’t let someone else’s doom narrative convince you to give up before you’ve started.

This series has been put together in collaboration with It's Nice That's sister company Creative Lives in Progress; a creative careers resource, on a mission to transform the way emerging talent access, understand and connect with the industry. Find out more at creativelivesinprogress.com