“Do I have AI Anxiety?” Here’s what 200+ creatives told us

Introduction

As we navigate the crossroads of technology, innovation, and artistic expression, we surveyed the thoughts of those working in creative industries, on the role of AI in the creative industry. 

Through reviewing over 200 responses, it’s clear that generative AI is stirring up a mix of excitement, curiosity, and a bit of apprehension too.

We surveyed a diverse set of creatives and the results were enlightening. Two-thirds have already dabbled in generative AI in a personal context, and over 40% have experimented with it in a professional context. It’s clear that AI is becoming an everyday device in our creative toolkits. 

Half of respondents voiced a level of concern about its impact on their industry or profession. The emergence of AI is undoubtedly disruptive and we must navigate this new terrain with strong ethical foundations, which is one of Empower’s core concerns.

A strong 77% of respondents believe it’s important that creatives should at least dip their toes into understanding generative AI. The creative process isn’t getting replaced – it’s evolving, and a clear majority seem ready to evolve too.

What about the opportunities with AI-assisted creativity? The most resonating benefits seem to be time-saving and efficiency, with many of our respondents excited about the prospect of automating mundane tasks and focusing more on the creative essence of their work. 

Respondents also see potential for AI in boosting creativity and ideation, overcoming the dreaded creative block, and even helping to trim costs. Upskilling and new role creation in this AI era were also themes, as was the enhanced speed and volume of output.

For example, we used AI tools to help us write this article – it gave us an initial review to build on. From there, our team copy edited and added further insights and analysis. Even an AI detector found that this article has been written by humans!

We must acknowledge that there’s no unanimous group singing AI praises. Some respondents expressed scepticism, concern, or even resistance. The discourse is far from settled, and that’s a good thing.

Looking ahead, 81% are considering including AI in their creative process. In the midst of all the excitement, a clear consensus emerged around ethical implementation. Transparency and accountability topped the list of most crucial factors.

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in this survey. Your insights are helping to shape the conversation about the role of AI in our creative journeys, and it’s a conversation we’re excited to continue.

To take the survey and give your views on AI, head to empower.agency/ai-anxiety

This research project is the first that the AI Comms Lab team at Empower has undertaken. To keep updated on future projects and updates from the AI Comms Lab, and to hear about our upcoming webinar discussing the key issues raised in this report, subscribe to our email newsletter here.

Download the report

A summary of the report is below, but to download a full PDF version of the report with additional insight for later reading, please download the full AI Anxiety report here.

A word from our co-founder

Engaging with the human impacts and ethical groundwork to AI is central to the approach we are taking at Empower.

We’ve heard from our team, clients, freelancers and the wider industry that AI is a major source of anxiety, with a whole range of detail within the broad term of “anxiety” that affects different people in different ways, but overall brings a pervasive sense of unease to all levels of creative professionals. 

While some companies and individuals are taking the initiative to understand how AI tools will affect them, these need to be grounded in an ethical framework to ensure that there is more confidence and reassurance that whatever the future of AI and the creative industries holds, we will be able to navigate it with confidence. 

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in this survey. Your insights are helping to shape the conversation about the role of AI in our creative journeys, and it’s a conversation we’re excited to continue.

Ben Matthews, Co-Founder

Empower’s approach to AI

Empower’s findings demonstrate a clear need for a measured, ethical and human-first approach to generative AI.

There are undoubtedly enormous opportunities opening up in this space – especially for resource stretched organisations – but this must be met with respect for human labour and creativity, all while navigating the larger pitfalls around privacy, copyright and the potential for bias.

Cautious optimism seems to be the best approach in order to harness the benefits and minimise the risks of AI.

Jed Chapman, Report Lead

Summary of results

• 66% of respondents have used some form of generative AI personally.
• 41% reported having experimented with it in a professional capacity. 
• 48% of respondents were either moderately or very concerned about the impact of generative AI on their industry or profession. 
• 77% of respondents felt it was moderately or very important that creatives have at least a basic understanding of generative AI.
• 81% are considering including AI in their creative process.

Perceived opportunities of AI

Responses fed into GPT-4 and thematically grouped in order of most common response.

The most common perceived opportunities that generative AI may bring to the creative industry, based on the responses, are:

1. Time-Saving and Efficiency: Many respondents highlight that generative AI can automate tedious, repetitive tasks, thus saving time and enabling higher productivity. This includes tasks such as writing emails, generating basic drafts, summarising meetings, creating reports, and conducting speedy research.
2. Support with Creativity and Ideation: Some responses highlight the role of AI in sparking creativity and overcoming writer’s or creator’s block. AI can generate first drafts or ideas, providing a starting point for creatives to build upon. This feature can also help fight the “blank page” effect and streamline planning.
3. Cost Reduction: AI’s automation capabilities can significantly reduce the cost of certain tasks, making it an attractive tool for companies and agencies looking to optimise their budgets.
4. Upskilling and New Roles: The use of AI tools may lead to new skills being developed in the creative industries, like learning how to manipulate AI and work alongside it, allowing professionals to shift towards more strategic roles.
5. Enhanced Speed and Volume of Output: AI can generate work quickly, enabling rapid testing of ideas at a low cost. It may also allow creatives to produce a higher volume of work, such as marketing copy, press releases, and customer query responses.

Please note that while these themes summarise the most common responses, they do not represent the views of all respondents. There are differing views on the impact of generative AI on the creative industry, with some people expressing scepticism, concern, or outright opposition to its use.

In-depth results

How familiar are you with the concept of generative AI and recent developments in this space?

“I’m not concerned about generative AI replacing human creativity because I don’t think it’s at a stage where it truly can (yet) – I do believe it can complement human creativity.”

Have you ever used generative AI tools, either professionally or personally?

“We write both short and long form copy for our website, newsletters and socials. Getting a writing AI programme to write a first draft helps you craft a structure and narrative to then be worked on by a person who can apply normal considerations around purpose, audience, user journey, SEO etc. It just helps get the bulky, time consuming bit done.”

If yes, which of the following generative AI applications have you used before?

“AI will allow creatives to move beyond the day to day and be more strategic, focus on higher thinking. Human emotion will never be replaced, but for practical needs like ad & SEO copywriting AI presents huge opportunities for efficiency so humans can focus on creativity. Also allows for rapid testing of ideas, at low cost, so we can do work that drives better results, to be more engaging & create more powerful change much faster & much cheaper. The potential for this for low income/volunteer run campaigns is immense.”

How concerned are you about the impacts of generative AI on your specific industry/profession?

“AI will disproportionately affect entry-level workers, and we need to think through the dynamics of on-boarding new professionals into the comms industry when management says AI can do it quicker and cheaper.

How concerned are you about generative AI replacing human creativity in the creative industries?

“Ultimately I feel that AI can’t do one thing that art (in all its forms) does – transmit the inner feelings of a human being to other human beings. It can never be me. This is more relevant to creative arts than to the professional copywriting I do within my day job, where I suppose one could argue that I’m more of a conduit for getting factual information from my organisation to our readership. But in my free time I am an illustrator/graphic novel creator, and at the moment it feels that this relies far more on human communication.”

How important do you think it is for creatives to have a basic understanding of generative AI?

“There are a lot of people worried about AI instead of getting a really firm grasp of what it is and isn’t capable of. Everyone should be spending time understanding these tools and what they can do for their industry; these tools aren’t magic, they’re processes. Much like photography didn’t make painting obsolete, AI is probably not coming for your job (and if it is, now is the time to pivot).” 

Which of the following factors do you think are most important for ethical use of generative AI?

“I think there’s something around the ethics of who built these tools (e.g. OpenAI as an Effective Altruism project) and the political intention behind them. And how does decolonisation play into this? My work is mostly writing and building community (which I see as creative). I’m not scared I would lose my job; I am scared that my workplace would not allow me to do my job in a way which is ethical and unique to my voice and also to the intention I would like to work with.”

How likely are you to incorporate generative AI tools into your creative process in the future?

“It’s not about producing pretty images with AI, it’s about the beginning of a whole new era. we’re going to see this in the history books, and in the not too distant future. No one, including AI, can predict what might happen, and it’s very exciting, unknown and scary. I think we are living in a wonderful time and technological developments have reached a wonderful level. I am very excited about the next few years”

Conclusion

The advent of generative AI in the creative industry is certainly a seismic shift, one marked by a blend of excitement, intrigue, and cautious apprehension. 

These survey results illustrate a widespread willingness to explore the potential of this technology while also maintaining a watchful eye on its impacts, both positive and negative. 

It’s clear that the intersection of creativity and technology is an evolving landscape, and as we collectively navigate it, open conversation, collaboration, and ethical considerations should remain at the forefront.

Taking these results into account, it’s apparent we have some essential next steps:

1. We must continue to foster dialogue within the creative community, ensuring that every voice and perspective is heard. This conversation is a living, evolving entity that we all shape together.
2. It’s important that we push for education and resources surrounding generative AI to be made accessible to all creatives. With the vast majority of respondents stressing the importance of at least a basic understanding of this technology, it’s vital that we bridge this knowledge gap.
3. We need to address the ethical considerations tied to the use of generative AI in our industry. Transparency and accountability are key, and we must work to develop guidelines and best practices that encapsulate these principles.
4. We should explore further research into the practical applications of generative AI within the creative industry, honing in on the specific areas of opportunity identified by our community – such as improving efficiency, sparking creativity, and even creating new roles.

As we move forward, we invite all of you to continue joining us in this exploration and to be a part of shaping the future of creativity. This journey is far from over, and we are excited to see where our collective curiosities and innovative spirits take us next.

Together, we can ensure the integration of generative AI into our creative processes happens thoughtfully, ethically, and with the best interests of our entire creative community at heart.

Industry comments

A sample of the additional comments received as part of the survey.

“This is going to absolutely fuck everyone whose job involves making words and images that don’t really need to exist, which accounts for ~80% of all advermarketingpr in the Western world, and probably the same again for the global ‘digital creative’ market too.”

“I’m concerned about plagiarism and copyright. How do we ensure that usage rights and licensing are fairly and thoroughly accounted for?”

“AI is undoubtedly a very useful tool for marketing, especially for having a large amount of data from which one cannot be abstracted, having an ethical framework behind it that defines the use of that data and for what purpose it is processed, always having the north of the common good.”

“I worry that we will rely too heavily on AI to generate ideas and first draft content (that is then refined by a human). By its nature, AI is derivative, so content will lose originality and flair. I also worry about losing the career as a freelance writer that I love and have worked so hard to build.”

“Will allow creatives to move beyond the day to day and be more strategic, focus on higher thinking. Human emotion will never be replaced, but for practical needs like ad & SEO copywriting AI presents huge opportunities for efficiency so humans can focus on creativity. Also allows for rapid testing of ideas, at low cost, so we can do work that drives better results, to be more engaging & create more powerful change much faster & much cheaper. The potential for this for low income/volunteer run campaigns is immense.”

“I think it will no doubt make the creative process much speedier, and allow more repetitive or more tedious jobs to be completed without much effort. The possibilities of photo editing will be vastly expanded, and the barrier to entry to design & illustration will be lowered, with potentially new ‘prompt-engineer’ like roles being developed. However I worry greatly at what expense these improvements will come – what happens to the junior designers tasked with creating social media posts etc when we can just plug some brand guidelines into an AI and generate thousands of posts instantaneously? What happens when the cost of creating brands & brand assets becomes so low and so commonplace that all but the very top agencies’ work dries up and the need for highly skilled designers, illustrators and motion designers vanishes? What happens when we are flooded with millions of AI generated images in an already visually saturated world? The speed at which this AI technology has improved and will improve is far quicker than the pace we as an industry can adjust. Where will we be in 3 years? 5 years? What will the graphic design industry/video industry/audio industry all look like then?”

“There’s reason for concern, but not despair. Inevitably, there will be change. But work is infinite. We still haven’t solved the climate crisis or colonised Mars. People and companies may need to pivot, up-skill or re-train but I hope that we will come out the other side in a better place.”

“I’m sad for those who are in a creative field for the wrong reasons who won’t be able to compete with AI. I think it’s a great opportunity to put clear blue water between the truly creative and the wannabes – to separate the wheat from the chaff. The adoption of AI cannot happen in isolation without disenfranchising whole swathes of multiple workforces and removing many thousands of paying customers from the capitalist marketplace – any serious discussion about how it is going to be used has to confront the financing of lost professions and the growing requirement for a Universal Basic Income.”

“How can an artist use AI and maintain some degree of ownership of their concepts?”

“Using other people’s intellectual property and calling it your own is unethical. It’s never ok to steal other people’s work, and therefore livelihoods, which is what AI does. Profits made from AI should be redistributed in mechanical royalties to those working in creative industries, especially artists and writers.”

Continue the conversation

This research project is the first that the AI Comms Lab team at Empower has undertaken. To keep updated on future projects and updates from the AI Comms Lab, and to hear about our upcoming webinar discussing the key issues raised in this report, subscribe to our email newsletter here.

To give your views on this research report or the use of AI in the creative industries, leave a comment below.