Today was an exciting day for me as a parent. My 9-month-old daughter came back from daycare with her first-ever "work of art" - a finger painting with beautiful colors. It got me thinking, as I looked at her proud little face, about the value of human creativity and where AI fits into the picture.

With all the buzz surrounding AI, it's easy to get caught up in the idea that it will replace human creativity and innovation altogether. As strategic designers and brand strategists, we believe there's a different way to approach this. In fact, we see an opportunity: with AI handling repetitive tasks, we can direct our focus toward the bigger picture - creating something truly meaningful and impactful, with vision and intent.

Ideas are cheap. Vision is expensive.

AI provides us with access to an unprecedented number of new information, ideas, and opportunities, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed and directionless in the face of such abundance.

In his fascinating book on innovation, Roberto Verganti points out that when we have too many options, we often miss the big idea that is right in front of us. He uses the example of Nokia, which should have been able to develop something similar to the iPhone, but with too many ideas floating around the company, had a hard time recognizing the ones that would create meaningful change.

Although AI can assist with idea generation, information synthesis, and output creation, it cannot substitute strategic decision-making in the face of uncertainty, in which human intuition plays a crucial role.

In an age of overwhelming opportunities and scarce direction, the ability to make sense of it all, hold convictions, and define intention might become the most essential skill of all.

The brain and heart behind the machine.

David Holz, the founder of Midjourney, once described AI's creations as something that is "not made by a person, not made by a machine, and we know it.”

Generative AI systems still require direction through carefully curated prompts to produce useful outputs. We are already seeing the emergence of new jobs such as "AI whisperer," or services such as PromptBase, a marketplace for finding and selling top prompts. The ability to produce impressive results from AI engines is a skill in itself and is also closely linked to expertise, knowledge, and experience in a given field.

In his podcast and newsletter, Benedict Evans has recently been comparing this topic to photography. To paraphrase his example: two people standing in front of the same beautiful scenery, each equipped with the best camera on the market, will not produce a photograph of equal quality. Some can get the most out of the machine, while others cannot. Beyond the necessary technical skills, it also comes down to taste, intuition, and intention.

Easier access. Higher standards.

Generative AI is certainly lowering the barriers to entry for generating outputs of relatively good quality. However, precisely because of this, it is also raising the standards.

This reminded us of the rise of the stock photography site Unsplash. A decade ago, websites and other creative materials either used custom-produced photographs or had to rely on low-quality, stereotypical stock pictures. Unsplash changed the game by providing businesses with free access to high-quality, creative photographs. However, in just a few years, high-quality stock photography was no longer a differentiator; quite the opposite, in fact. We witnessed an epidemic of misuse of great visual assets and the homogenization of images across the internet. Only those who possessed the taste and experience to use the assets in purposeful and creative ways managed to stand out.

While AI can provide insights, aid in idea generation, and automate aspects of the creation process, I don't believe it can fully replace human capacity for subjective judgment based on a combination of knowledge, experience, and intuition. In fact, it may even reinforce the importance of vision and intentionality - the most challenging parts of the creative process.

We all possess enduring human traits that are unique to us: imperfection, vulnerability, real emotion, and quirkiness. And as my daughter's scribble reminded me, there is value in the raw and unpolished aspects of human expression. I’d love to see AI maximize those human traits, and not suppress them.