Creative professionals see technology—both hardware and software—as essential to performing their jobs. That’s the key finding of a new study announced today by Adobe, which found that more than half of global respondents expressed interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning and what they add to the creative process.
On Friday 29th January, Jo gave a presentation on managing your Digital Transformation at Bryo, a network of young entrepreneurs.
Need help with your transformation? Contact us:
http://www.duvalunionconsulting.com/
This is the updated version of my successful Interaction 14 talk: http://www.slideshare.net/folletto/the-shift-ux-designers-as-business-consultants
UX is a broad field and designers are increasingly playing a strategic role in many companies. Be that designer.
Businesses are increasingly adopting user-centered approaches to create experiences, moving UX design to be one of the core activities driving the company strategy and operations.
This is an incredibly valuable opportunity that we designers can take to step up and contribute to create the great experiences and services they envision, taking our vision, tools and understanding to a different level. But we need to learn the new skills to play at this table, a table that's often speaking a different language with a lot of politics and different stakeholders.
Our new perspective on achieving the full potential of human and artificial intelligence.
By Fjord, design and innovation from Accenture Interactive, and Accenture The Dock.
10 Insightful Quotes On Designing A Better Customer ExperienceYuan Wang
In an ever-changing landscape of one digital disruption after another, companies and organisations are looking for new ways to understand their target markets and engage them better. Increasingly they invest in user experience (UX) and customer experience design (CX) capabilities by working with a specialist UX agency or developing their own UX lab. Some UX practitioners are touting leaner and faster ways of developing customer-centric products and services, via methodologies such as guerilla research, rapid prototyping and Agile UX. Others seek innovation and fulfilment by spending more time in research, being more inclusive, and designing for social goods.
Experience is more than just an interface. It is a relationship, as well as a series of touch points between your brand and your customer. Here are our top 10 highlights and takeaways from the recent UX Australia conference to help you transform your customer experience design.
For full article, continue reading at https://yump.com.au/10-ways-supercharge-customer-experience-design/
Research shows that we think like we speak. The first step in Visual Design Thinking, then, is learning visual language. Come learn Glyph™, a language that balances verbal and visual elements to improve the way you learn, remember, create, and communicate. After this 2.5 hour workshop, you will be bursting through that “I can’t draw” trap and stepping into your new role as a standout visual problem solver.
Come join Stanford’s Alli McKee for a workshop that will build your creative confidence and amplify your communication. With extensive experience in both business (Bain & Company + Stanford GSB) and design (IDEO.org + Stanford d.school), Alli has come from Silicon Valley to bring you the best of both worlds to deliver a unique experience that is challenging, fun, and fulfilling.
Interested in teaching this workshop: http://visualdesignthinking.co/join-us/
Digital technology is everywhere. As a consequence, companies need fully embrace the digital transformation. To succeed, it is no longer sufficient to optimize front offices and increase customer experience by using digital. Instead, companies need a solid enterprise-wide transformation to reap the full potential of digital. We team up with clients to explore and define a digital strategy and road map to this end, thereby also creating a kick starter for change.
On Friday 29th January, Jo gave a presentation on managing your Digital Transformation at Bryo, a network of young entrepreneurs.
Need help with your transformation? Contact us:
http://www.duvalunionconsulting.com/
This is the updated version of my successful Interaction 14 talk: http://www.slideshare.net/folletto/the-shift-ux-designers-as-business-consultants
UX is a broad field and designers are increasingly playing a strategic role in many companies. Be that designer.
Businesses are increasingly adopting user-centered approaches to create experiences, moving UX design to be one of the core activities driving the company strategy and operations.
This is an incredibly valuable opportunity that we designers can take to step up and contribute to create the great experiences and services they envision, taking our vision, tools and understanding to a different level. But we need to learn the new skills to play at this table, a table that's often speaking a different language with a lot of politics and different stakeholders.
Our new perspective on achieving the full potential of human and artificial intelligence.
By Fjord, design and innovation from Accenture Interactive, and Accenture The Dock.
10 Insightful Quotes On Designing A Better Customer ExperienceYuan Wang
In an ever-changing landscape of one digital disruption after another, companies and organisations are looking for new ways to understand their target markets and engage them better. Increasingly they invest in user experience (UX) and customer experience design (CX) capabilities by working with a specialist UX agency or developing their own UX lab. Some UX practitioners are touting leaner and faster ways of developing customer-centric products and services, via methodologies such as guerilla research, rapid prototyping and Agile UX. Others seek innovation and fulfilment by spending more time in research, being more inclusive, and designing for social goods.
Experience is more than just an interface. It is a relationship, as well as a series of touch points between your brand and your customer. Here are our top 10 highlights and takeaways from the recent UX Australia conference to help you transform your customer experience design.
For full article, continue reading at https://yump.com.au/10-ways-supercharge-customer-experience-design/
Research shows that we think like we speak. The first step in Visual Design Thinking, then, is learning visual language. Come learn Glyph™, a language that balances verbal and visual elements to improve the way you learn, remember, create, and communicate. After this 2.5 hour workshop, you will be bursting through that “I can’t draw” trap and stepping into your new role as a standout visual problem solver.
Come join Stanford’s Alli McKee for a workshop that will build your creative confidence and amplify your communication. With extensive experience in both business (Bain & Company + Stanford GSB) and design (IDEO.org + Stanford d.school), Alli has come from Silicon Valley to bring you the best of both worlds to deliver a unique experience that is challenging, fun, and fulfilling.
Interested in teaching this workshop: http://visualdesignthinking.co/join-us/
Digital technology is everywhere. As a consequence, companies need fully embrace the digital transformation. To succeed, it is no longer sufficient to optimize front offices and increase customer experience by using digital. Instead, companies need a solid enterprise-wide transformation to reap the full potential of digital. We team up with clients to explore and define a digital strategy and road map to this end, thereby also creating a kick starter for change.
Technology Vision 2022: Communications Industry | Accentureaccenture
Accenture's Technology Vision 2022 for the Communications industry details the key building blocks of the Metaverse Continuum that every CSP needs to know. accntu.re/3l8fmT8
An immersive workshop at General Assembly, SF. I typically teach this workshop at General Assembly, San Francisco. To see a list of my upcoming classes, visit https://generalassemb.ly/instructors/seth-familian/4813
I also teach this workshop as a private lunch-and-learn or half-day immersive session for corporate clients. To learn more about pricing and availability, please contact me at http://familian1.com
DesignOps has rapidly become a thing: with design becoming a strategic function within the business and with the growth and globalisation of design teams, managing teams effectively to create operational and spending efficiencies has become a growing need.
Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated that during the pandemic, organisations that had a DesignOps function performed better and were able to adapt quicker to the new working models.
Nevertheless, there are still a few key questions: What is exactly DesignOps? What can DesignOps do for me and my teams? How do I know when should I start considering it? This presentation will answer the key questions about DesignOps and how Tide’s have invested in DesignOps today.
Presentation Shared at the Fintech Design Summit 2021.
Ten observations, provocations, and questions on design and innovation - a presentation by Tim Leberecht of frog design, from Re:Publica in Berlin from April 15, 2010.
Why, When and How Do I Start a Digital Transformation?Acquia
Presented at Acquia Engage APAC by Brittany Fox, Marketing Campaign Strategist, Deloitte.
Every organisation undergoing a marketing transformation has a starting point, with the difference only being the product of internal capability and maturity. At Deloitte, we take our clients from their starting point to being ready for whatever the next innovation is. This is the only real mechanism enterprises can implement for the future.
Reinventing the Last Mile: Win the Race to the Top (AU)accenture
A pivotal moment has arrived for traditional postal organisations. As retailers race to the top to win customer loyalty and market share, they are transforming their supply chains to enable the fast and free shipping that customers not only want, but expect. However, traditional postal organisations have not responded accordingly, and are now putting their future survival at risk. But by joining the race to the top—and taking advantage of their enviable position to offer the solutions retailers are looking for—they can transform their networks and win the last mile for decades to come.
What does the future look like? Is it a dark space where we’re suffering from varying degrees of techamphetamine or are we heading towards a Utopian fantasy of abundance and harmony?
Understanding that our basic human needs and wants barely change, we explore the future state of a range of topics; from our need for physical sustenance through to our age-long fascination of transcending the limitations of our biology.
Looking at the future from a human perspective, our potential for greatness is teetering on a fine line between darkness and hope. We’re banking on the latter.
How to convince business and IT to value design?
One of the biggest outcomes of the technology consumerization trend is how it has driven the importance of design. There’s no “waiting out” this trend – an unstoppable wave of interest in design centricity is hitting the business world, shifting the focus in product and service development from features to experience. But why? What is the real value of design? Why is it worth the investment?
This Altimeter Group webinar explores the findings of our latest research report on digital transformation. Attendees will learn what digital transformation is, how companies are embracing change, the challenges and opportunities that emerge throughout the process, and how to refocus and reorganize teams to modernize, optimize, and integrate digital touchpoints.
Watch the webinar: https://www.slideshare.net/Altimeter/webinar-digital-transformation-with-brian-solis
Download the related report: altimetergroup.com/digitaltransformation/
[This presentation evolves the ideas contained in this article: https://uxdesign.cc/applying-designops-to-product-teams-3defc468a03]
DesignOps and ProductOps have emerged as new key disciplines that have a major impact on how service and product organisations deliver experiences to their customers.
As with every new discipline, both Design and product Ops are still fluid and in many cases, their remit and roles are blurred.
It is indeed important to understand how these two functions can collaborate and enable design thinking, lean startup, and agile to be implemented in the best possible way to maximise efficiencies and business results.
By looking at the product lifecycle, this presentation highlights the skills and domains owned by DesignOps and ProductOps, identifying opportunities for an effective collaboration that benefits the design and product teams and impacts both the users and the business.
Moving digital transformation forward: Findings from the 2016 digital busines...Deloitte United States
Are you ready for a digital future? Nearly 90 percent of managers and executives surveyed expect “great” or “moderate” digital disruption, but fewer than half say their organizations are adequately preparing. Companies can take steps toward digital maturity, though—without necessarily putting technologists in charge.
To read more and download the full report, visit: http://deloi.tt/2fnahoe
In an increasingly competitive market, we believe that businesses will no longer be able to rely on external partners alone to drive innovation. By bringing design capabilities in-house, brands will have the ability to respond rapidly to a world changing around them, adapting constantly to remain fresh and bring relevant innovation to market – becoming what we call a ‘Living Business’.
Our ‘Design from Within’ report describes three distinct approaches businesses can take in order to design and innovate internally. Each approach shares common goals - such as creating a culture which inspires creativity, and enabling the business to scale ideas from the drawing board to the marketplace –but the models differ according to the extent of a company’s involvement in them.
This ChatGPT SEO guide is created to help individuals take advantage of the potential of ChatGPT for SEO. ChatGPT has rapidly gained popularity with over 1 million users registered in just 5 days. This guide provides an in-depth understanding of utilizing ChatGPT to improve your SEO and attain higher search engine rankings.
Where does the creative thought come from? Is it magic? Is the creative skill a genetic gift for only a few? We all are creative, it is our ability of expressing your creativity that may vary.
Creativity needs a method and the right conditions. Just create the right condition and remove the ugly limits that prevent us from being as creative as we can be.
I'll cover also the design topic of the difference between empty and negative space still from a creative point of view.
Updated International findings: Creativity & Technology in the Age of AIAdobe
Pfeiffer Consulting conducted qualitative research with more than 110 creative professionals in Japan, the US, Germany and the UK to understand their process, attitudes about technology, and opportunities for AI and machine learning. This update includes interviews with Japanese creative pros and analysis of differences by region.
Being Digital: 5 key tactics towards modernizing your organization and ideas
Fallon co-sponsored presentation event with MN AMA (American Marketing Association)
With so many rapid-fire changes in the digital landscape, how are agencies and marketers adapting their strategies and creativity to engage and connect with people?
Join Aki Spicer, Director of Digital Strategy at Fallon, as he shares insights on driving creativity in the age of digital and social media. Learn how his team is broadening its bench strength and skill sets; embracing the user over the viewer mindset; evolving measurement and ROI; building a process for experimentation; and planning for social content strategy. As a marketer, discover new ways to encourage investment in small experiments that can lead to bigger results.
Technology Vision 2022: Communications Industry | Accentureaccenture
Accenture's Technology Vision 2022 for the Communications industry details the key building blocks of the Metaverse Continuum that every CSP needs to know. accntu.re/3l8fmT8
An immersive workshop at General Assembly, SF. I typically teach this workshop at General Assembly, San Francisco. To see a list of my upcoming classes, visit https://generalassemb.ly/instructors/seth-familian/4813
I also teach this workshop as a private lunch-and-learn or half-day immersive session for corporate clients. To learn more about pricing and availability, please contact me at http://familian1.com
DesignOps has rapidly become a thing: with design becoming a strategic function within the business and with the growth and globalisation of design teams, managing teams effectively to create operational and spending efficiencies has become a growing need.
Moreover, recent studies have demonstrated that during the pandemic, organisations that had a DesignOps function performed better and were able to adapt quicker to the new working models.
Nevertheless, there are still a few key questions: What is exactly DesignOps? What can DesignOps do for me and my teams? How do I know when should I start considering it? This presentation will answer the key questions about DesignOps and how Tide’s have invested in DesignOps today.
Presentation Shared at the Fintech Design Summit 2021.
Ten observations, provocations, and questions on design and innovation - a presentation by Tim Leberecht of frog design, from Re:Publica in Berlin from April 15, 2010.
Why, When and How Do I Start a Digital Transformation?Acquia
Presented at Acquia Engage APAC by Brittany Fox, Marketing Campaign Strategist, Deloitte.
Every organisation undergoing a marketing transformation has a starting point, with the difference only being the product of internal capability and maturity. At Deloitte, we take our clients from their starting point to being ready for whatever the next innovation is. This is the only real mechanism enterprises can implement for the future.
Reinventing the Last Mile: Win the Race to the Top (AU)accenture
A pivotal moment has arrived for traditional postal organisations. As retailers race to the top to win customer loyalty and market share, they are transforming their supply chains to enable the fast and free shipping that customers not only want, but expect. However, traditional postal organisations have not responded accordingly, and are now putting their future survival at risk. But by joining the race to the top—and taking advantage of their enviable position to offer the solutions retailers are looking for—they can transform their networks and win the last mile for decades to come.
What does the future look like? Is it a dark space where we’re suffering from varying degrees of techamphetamine or are we heading towards a Utopian fantasy of abundance and harmony?
Understanding that our basic human needs and wants barely change, we explore the future state of a range of topics; from our need for physical sustenance through to our age-long fascination of transcending the limitations of our biology.
Looking at the future from a human perspective, our potential for greatness is teetering on a fine line between darkness and hope. We’re banking on the latter.
How to convince business and IT to value design?
One of the biggest outcomes of the technology consumerization trend is how it has driven the importance of design. There’s no “waiting out” this trend – an unstoppable wave of interest in design centricity is hitting the business world, shifting the focus in product and service development from features to experience. But why? What is the real value of design? Why is it worth the investment?
This Altimeter Group webinar explores the findings of our latest research report on digital transformation. Attendees will learn what digital transformation is, how companies are embracing change, the challenges and opportunities that emerge throughout the process, and how to refocus and reorganize teams to modernize, optimize, and integrate digital touchpoints.
Watch the webinar: https://www.slideshare.net/Altimeter/webinar-digital-transformation-with-brian-solis
Download the related report: altimetergroup.com/digitaltransformation/
[This presentation evolves the ideas contained in this article: https://uxdesign.cc/applying-designops-to-product-teams-3defc468a03]
DesignOps and ProductOps have emerged as new key disciplines that have a major impact on how service and product organisations deliver experiences to their customers.
As with every new discipline, both Design and product Ops are still fluid and in many cases, their remit and roles are blurred.
It is indeed important to understand how these two functions can collaborate and enable design thinking, lean startup, and agile to be implemented in the best possible way to maximise efficiencies and business results.
By looking at the product lifecycle, this presentation highlights the skills and domains owned by DesignOps and ProductOps, identifying opportunities for an effective collaboration that benefits the design and product teams and impacts both the users and the business.
Moving digital transformation forward: Findings from the 2016 digital busines...Deloitte United States
Are you ready for a digital future? Nearly 90 percent of managers and executives surveyed expect “great” or “moderate” digital disruption, but fewer than half say their organizations are adequately preparing. Companies can take steps toward digital maturity, though—without necessarily putting technologists in charge.
To read more and download the full report, visit: http://deloi.tt/2fnahoe
In an increasingly competitive market, we believe that businesses will no longer be able to rely on external partners alone to drive innovation. By bringing design capabilities in-house, brands will have the ability to respond rapidly to a world changing around them, adapting constantly to remain fresh and bring relevant innovation to market – becoming what we call a ‘Living Business’.
Our ‘Design from Within’ report describes three distinct approaches businesses can take in order to design and innovate internally. Each approach shares common goals - such as creating a culture which inspires creativity, and enabling the business to scale ideas from the drawing board to the marketplace –but the models differ according to the extent of a company’s involvement in them.
This ChatGPT SEO guide is created to help individuals take advantage of the potential of ChatGPT for SEO. ChatGPT has rapidly gained popularity with over 1 million users registered in just 5 days. This guide provides an in-depth understanding of utilizing ChatGPT to improve your SEO and attain higher search engine rankings.
Where does the creative thought come from? Is it magic? Is the creative skill a genetic gift for only a few? We all are creative, it is our ability of expressing your creativity that may vary.
Creativity needs a method and the right conditions. Just create the right condition and remove the ugly limits that prevent us from being as creative as we can be.
I'll cover also the design topic of the difference between empty and negative space still from a creative point of view.
Updated International findings: Creativity & Technology in the Age of AIAdobe
Pfeiffer Consulting conducted qualitative research with more than 110 creative professionals in Japan, the US, Germany and the UK to understand their process, attitudes about technology, and opportunities for AI and machine learning. This update includes interviews with Japanese creative pros and analysis of differences by region.
Being Digital: 5 key tactics towards modernizing your organization and ideas
Fallon co-sponsored presentation event with MN AMA (American Marketing Association)
With so many rapid-fire changes in the digital landscape, how are agencies and marketers adapting their strategies and creativity to engage and connect with people?
Join Aki Spicer, Director of Digital Strategy at Fallon, as he shares insights on driving creativity in the age of digital and social media. Learn how his team is broadening its bench strength and skill sets; embracing the user over the viewer mindset; evolving measurement and ROI; building a process for experimentation; and planning for social content strategy. As a marketer, discover new ways to encourage investment in small experiments that can lead to bigger results.
Presented to the internal creative group at frog design in SF as a way to inform and inspire the team. This deck presents a new way to think about contextual inquiry, participatory design and the future of design research. For, With, and Through Design is a new lens from which to understand the design work that is being conducted at frog and elsewhere.
How did we sell DT, how did the workshops with clients and users, which methods work and which ones do not.
Examples of real projects: both successful and not very)
- What is DT and why everyone is talking about it
- Key DT elements
- How DT works in outsourcing
- How the theory differs in practice
- How to sell DT
- How a project with DT fails
Many of us feel inspired by technology, both emotionally and creatively. Others are evangelists of the idea that once we rely on technology, we lose the ability to be creative. The objective truth is, however, that technology and creativity often go hand in hand.
Creativity is innate and ubiquitous to human actions and thoughts, and has been one of the key driving forces of innovation throughout human history. The description of properties that define a creative mind has long eluded a precise definition. Traditionally, creativity has been linked with literature and art, but since the last century, science has also been acknowledged as reliant on creative processes. In contrast to literature and art, in which it is necessary to comprehend the underlying properties of space and how such properties are experienced by different observers, a creative technological idea entails both originality and appropriateness. Creativity inspires technology not only from a perspective of generation of novel ideas but also in a way that idea produces a verifiable representation of new processes of interaction between people.
On the other hand, technology facilitates the access to social networks and large amounts of information, as well as the ability to interactively improve our ideas. In the past, people assumed that creativity has a strict consequence of personality traits of specific individuals. However, recent studies advocate that in addition to particular individual trails creativity also depends on the social and cultural context. For example, in a recent study, Vera John-Steiner analyzed of some of the greatest minds in our history, e.g. personalities like Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, and concluded that their breakthroughs were depended also on collaboration’ activities and social support.
The mutually beneficial relation between technology and creativity, allow us to expand our cognitive abilities to new levels of creativity at a much faster pace than before, but if such relation is not properly balanced it can lead to both distractions and interferences with our natural rhythm of life, thereby suppressing our innate ability to create. Hence, the truth question is how can use creativity to design technology to take the way we express our thoughts and innovate to a whole new level.
In this talk, I will speculate starting from my own perspective, on how technology is and can support the process of producing creative works, as well as how professionals involved in creativity activities are nowadays exploiting technology to assist their creations.
Crowdsourced topic rankings at Snowforce 2017 in Salt Lake City drove this one-hour "Top 10" -- from evolving role of CIO, up through AI-leveraged connection, into a culture of innovation. (Peter Coffee, VP for Strategic Research at Salesforce)
Design Thinking Comes of AgeThe approach, once.docxdonaldp2
Design
Thinking
Comes
of Age
The approach, once
used primarily in product
design, is now infusing
corporate culture.
by Jon Kolko
ARTWORK The Office for Creative Research
(Noa Younse), Band, Preliminary VisualizationSPOTLIGHT
66 Harvard Business Review September 2015
SPOTLIGHT ON THE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN THINKING
HBR.ORG
There’s a shift under way
in large organizations,
one that puts design
much closer to the
center of the enterprise.
Focus on users’ experiences, especially
their emotional ones. To build empathy with
users, a design-centric organization empowers em-
ployees to observe behavior and draw conclusions
about what people want and need. Those conclu-
sions are tremendously hard to express in quanti-
tative language. Instead, organizations that “get”
design use emotional language (words that concern
desires, aspirations, engagement, and experience)
to describe products and users. Team members
discuss the emotional resonance of a value propo-
sition as much as they discuss utility and product
requirements.
A traditional value proposition is a promise of
utility: If you buy a Lexus, the automaker promises
that you will receive safe and comfortable trans-
portation in a well-designed high-performance ve-
hicle. An emotional value proposition is a promise
of feeling: If you buy a Lexus, the automaker prom-
ises that you will feel pampered, luxurious, and af-
fluent. In design-centric organizations, emotion-
ally charged language isn’t denigrated as thin, silly,
or biased. Strategic conversations in those compa-
nies frequently address how a business decision or
a market trajectory will positively influence users’
experiences and often acknowledge only implicitly
that well-designed offerings contribute to financial
success.
The focus on great experiences isn’t limited to
product designers, marketers, and strategists—it
infuses every customer-facing function. Take
finance. Typically, its only contact with users is
through invoices and payment systems, which are
designed for internal business optimization or pre-
determined “customer requirements.” But those
systems are touch points that shape a customer’s
impression of the company. In a culture focused
on customer experience, financial touch points are
designed around users’ needs rather than internal
operational efficiencies.
Create models to examine complex prob-
lems. Design thinking, first used to make physical
objects, is increasingly being applied to complex, in-
tangible issues, such as how a customer experiences
a service. Regardless of the context, design thinkers
tend to use physical models, also known as design
artifacts, to explore, define, and communicate.
Those models—primarily diagrams and sketches—
supplement and in some cases replace the spread-
sheets, specifications, and other documents that
SPOTLIGHT ON THE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN THINKING
But the shift isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about apply-
in.
Design Thinking Comes of AgeThe approach, once.docxcuddietheresa
Design
Thinking
Comes
of Age
The approach, once
used primarily in product
design, is now infusing
corporate culture.
by Jon Kolko
ARTWORK The Office for Creative Research
(Noa Younse), Band, Preliminary VisualizationSPOTLIGHT
66 Harvard Business Review September 2015
SPOTLIGHT ON THE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN THINKING
HBR.ORG
There’s a shift under way
in large organizations,
one that puts design
much closer to the
center of the enterprise.
Focus on users’ experiences, especially
their emotional ones. To build empathy with
users, a design-centric organization empowers em-
ployees to observe behavior and draw conclusions
about what people want and need. Those conclu-
sions are tremendously hard to express in quanti-
tative language. Instead, organizations that “get”
design use emotional language (words that concern
desires, aspirations, engagement, and experience)
to describe products and users. Team members
discuss the emotional resonance of a value propo-
sition as much as they discuss utility and product
requirements.
A traditional value proposition is a promise of
utility: If you buy a Lexus, the automaker promises
that you will receive safe and comfortable trans-
portation in a well-designed high-performance ve-
hicle. An emotional value proposition is a promise
of feeling: If you buy a Lexus, the automaker prom-
ises that you will feel pampered, luxurious, and af-
fluent. In design-centric organizations, emotion-
ally charged language isn’t denigrated as thin, silly,
or biased. Strategic conversations in those compa-
nies frequently address how a business decision or
a market trajectory will positively influence users’
experiences and often acknowledge only implicitly
that well-designed offerings contribute to financial
success.
The focus on great experiences isn’t limited to
product designers, marketers, and strategists—it
infuses every customer-facing function. Take
finance. Typically, its only contact with users is
through invoices and payment systems, which are
designed for internal business optimization or pre-
determined “customer requirements.” But those
systems are touch points that shape a customer’s
impression of the company. In a culture focused
on customer experience, financial touch points are
designed around users’ needs rather than internal
operational efficiencies.
Create models to examine complex prob-
lems. Design thinking, first used to make physical
objects, is increasingly being applied to complex, in-
tangible issues, such as how a customer experiences
a service. Regardless of the context, design thinkers
tend to use physical models, also known as design
artifacts, to explore, define, and communicate.
Those models—primarily diagrams and sketches—
supplement and in some cases replace the spread-
sheets, specifications, and other documents that
SPOTLIGHT ON THE EVOLUTION OF DESIGN THINKING
But the shift isn’t about aesthetics. It’s about apply-
in ...
Supporting The Initial Stages of The Product Design Process: Towards Knowledg...CSCJournals
The creation of new products and services is an everyday activity for many industries, often assisted by professional design studios. It is evident that extensive knowledge is required by designers during the conceptual product design process, matching the complexity of design problems. Techniques based on association, analogy and metaphors are often used to facilitate the process of creative thinking and inspiration leading to new product designs. This paper presents a novel semantic tool, which has been developed to seamlessly assist product designers with knowledge management tasks during information discovery and support the formulation of new product concepts. The technology can be used in combination with a sketching application to support the generation of relevant visual content, helping to stimulate associative thinking, and thus assist creativity at the initial stage of the product design process.
Do No Harm: Do Technologists Need a Code of Ethics?Thoughtworks
Nothing is neutral, and the technology we design and build, isn’t objective. How do we ensure that what starts out as a great idea, doesn’t unintentionally (or intentionally) harm? Trolling, racially biased algorithms, surveillance capitalism, how do we assess our creations through an ethical lens so our products don’t amplify social biases? Do we need a code of ethics? How do we build ethics in our practice?
In this talk Sofia explores these questions and builds on the conversations that are happening globally within the technology community. She also talks about the Responsible Tech Playbook that ThoughtWorks is building which collate ethical frameworks and explore how to use them in design and delivery of software.
SPEAKER:
Sofia Woods, Senior Experience Designer, ThoughtWorks
Sofia has over 10 years experience solving complex problems and designing digital products, experiences and services across government, financial services, transport and the private sectors. She’s a multi-disciplined designer, experienced with the whole gamut of Human Centred Design approaches including UX research, user interface design, prototyping/ testing and can apply this approach in large scale software delivery environments. Blending human centred design with strategy and technology, she creates meaningful experiences that transform.
AUGMENTING CREATIVITY USING GEN AI FOR DESIGN & INNOVATION | TOJIN T. EAPENTojin Eapen, PhD
Presentation slides from my September 2023 guest lecture on Generative AI and its impact on creativity. The lecture also highlights the key themes of my recent July/August 2023 Harvard Business Review (HBR) cover article, exploring the potential of Generative AI to enhance human creativity. Additionally, the presentation engages in a discussion regarding the emerging opportunities and challenges within this domain.
Generative AI (GAI) refers to a type of artificial intelligence that is able to generate new data or content, such as text, images, or music. This is typically done by training a model on a large dataset of existing data, and then using the model to generate new, similar data.
-Promote Divergent Thinking
-Challenge Expertise Bias
-Assist in Idea Evaluation
-Support Idea Refinement
-Facilitate Collaboration
https://hbr.org/2023/07/how-generative-ai-can-augment-human-creativity
One of the biggest opportunities generative AI offers to businesses and governments is to augment human creativity and overcome the challenges of democratizing innovation.
Design Thinking as new strategic tool. Presentation made to spark the discussion about innovation & inspiration and new business opportunities. And how to introduce Design Thinking as a strategic tool in your company.
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https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
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Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
2. About this research project
Understanding creativity
and its relationship to technology
This research was commissioned by Adobe, with the goal
to interview creative professionals in order to thorough-
ly understand the role technology plays in their creative
process. The research also closely covered the role of AI
and machine learning (ML), the attitudes of creative pro-
fessionals to these emerging technologies, and their per-
ceived impact on creative work.
Methodology
The research consisted in qualitative research interviews
with over 75 creative professionals working in design, il-
lustration and imaging, motion graphics and UX/UI design.
Interviews were free-flowing discussions that lasted be-
tween 45 minutes and two hours.
Geographic reach
The research covered the United States and Europe (cov-
ering Germany and the UK). Over 75 interviews were con-
ducted.1
About the research participants
Professional experience ranged from 2 to over 35 years,
and many of them have produced work for companies
such as Apple, Adidas, Amnesty International, Audi, Co-
ca-Cola, Converse, Disney, Facebook, Google, Instagram,
Kelloggs, Pepsi, Panasonic, Samsung, Swarovski, VW,
WMF among many others.
Participants were creative professionals who were found
and recruited based on Behance portfolios and recom-
mendations from other professionals. A minority of re-
spondents were referred by Adobe, but most were identi-
fied by their portfolios and appreciations.
1 Additional research interviews, covering Japan, are currently being
conducted. This report will be updated and expanded as soon as the data
from this last research phase is available.
Table of contents
Executive summary 2
About creativity 3
Creativity and technology 10
How do creatives view
AI and machine learning? 13
Creativity and artificial intelligence:
Analysis and perspectives 19
Complete data
from the research interviews 23
4. ”Whether you succeed or not
is irrelevant. Making your unknown known
is the important thing.”
Georgia O’Keeffe
”Ideas come from everything.”
Alfred Hitchcock
”The worst enemy to creativity
is self-doubt.”
Sylvia Plath
”We have to continually be jumping off cliffs
and developing our wings
on the way down.”
Kurt Vonnegut
”Others have seen what is and asked why.
I have seen what could be and asked why not.”
Pablo Picasso
”You can never solve a problem
on the level on which it was created.”
Albert Einstein
”An idea that is not dangerous
is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
Oscar Wilde
About creativity
Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 3
5. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 4
Inspiration Creative
vision
Inspirational
creativity
Executional
creativity
Outcome
The little we know about creativity
Creativity is elusive. We recognize when it is present —
and we sense its absence when it is not — but what really
defines it, how it functions, where it comes from, and how
it manifests itself remains largely a mystery.
Even the most creative people cannot really fathom its
scope (nor do they have a strong inclination to do so.) It
would be presumptuous for this research to pretend it can
provide clear answers to these questions — yet, in speak-
ing with over 75 creative professionals in the United States
and Europe, we managed to outline many overarching,
common themes linked to creativity and the way it trans-
forms inspiration to communicate vision and concepts in
a tangible way.
”You can’t wait for inspiration,
you have to go after it
with a club.”
Jack London
Different aspects of creativity
Creativity manifests itself in many different ways, and its
parameters should not be limited to intentional creative
activity:
Situational creativity is the way in which any human be-
ing, confronted with a problem that has no pre-established
solution, solves the problem at hand. Confronted with an
unfamiliar challenge, situational creativity allows human
beings to develop new solutions in a specific situation.
Inspirational creativity, on the other hand, is driven by a
desire to realize a vision, elucidate an idea in an engaging,
unexpected way.
Executional creativity, finally, is the creativity that flows
into the execution of almost any endeavor — and very
specifically a creative project; it is the pragmatic/logistical
approach to a myriad of individual steps and software op-
erations that are required to produce the desired output.
The creative professionals, who were the respondents
for this research, are acutely aware of these different as-
pects of creativity; they know that generally not only the
initial creative burst at the beginning of a project requires
their creativity, but that, in order to deliver what they envi-
sion in the beginning, their creative input will be necessary
in almost every phase of a project. As one designer put it:
“As long as there is a decision to make, there is creativity.”
Creative professionals know that the creative burst that
initiates a project is only the first phase; that all phases of
the production process will require their creativity, be it in-
spirational, executional or situational. In any case, for cre-
ative professionals, creativity is their core asset, their most
precious gift. How they perceive it, and what is common to
all the different forms of creativity we have researched will
be examined in more detail in the following pages.
6. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 5
Other
On-line resources
Art, books, films…
Real world, nature,
contacts
Where do you find
inspiration?
Where do you find
inspiration?
30%
7%
35%
28%
Creativity is about engaging
with the world
1 It is true that some of the respondents in the research have a very
personal visual signature for their work, which clients seek out and want
them to apply without major changes to their product or brand — but
interestingly, creatives see this way of proceeding as essentially un-
creative: they fear being typecast, and they generally loathe doing the
same thing over and over again. Creativity always needs to be a challenge
for the creator, and creativity always is a new departure.
2 Interestingly, current AI systems have not yet approached this question:
when we hear that a computer has “painted a Rembrandt” we are meant
to marvel at the technical expertise of the AI system imitating human-
produced outcomes, but never to ask the essential question: What did
Rembrandt want to express? Why do his paintings engage us in such a
strong way centuries after they were created?
The way creativity works and unfolds in the fields that were
researched here is quite different from the well worn ste-
reotype of the lone artist in his ivory tower, driven by the
force of his inspiration to produce some mysterious work
that he then presents to the world.
Creative professionals are sought out based on the qual-
ity of the work they have produced, but every new project
is a new challenge, and requires, to some extent, to ven-
ture out into the unknown1
— and this essentially means
engaging with the world: with the client, in order to under-
stand his needs, but also with the world at large, in order
to find inspiration and the necessary creative thrust. On
the receiving end as well, engagement with the world — in
other words, the success of the engagement in which the
outcome of a creative project is used to engage an audi-
ence or a customer, is essential.
Framed differently, for any creative project, the WHY is
as important as the WHAT. In other words, the success of
the engagement with its intended audience is the ultimate
valuation of the outcome of the creative process.
This, in turn, means that the quality and originality of the
visual outcome is only one aspect to evaluate when look-
ing at a creative project.2
This aspect also underscores
the complex role of technology, and AI and machine learn-
ing (ML) in particular, in the creative project. Technology
is enabling the creative to release the potential of his/her
vision. Yet, it is technology that defines the boundaries of
engagement, by providing an ever-increasing number of
distribution channels and platforms, which the creative
professional needs to accommodate.
In a nutshell, this tells us that we should focus less on
the details of the actual outcome of a creative project, and
much more on the multi-layered engagement processes
necessary to reach and touch its audience.
Creativity is profoundly human
It should not come as a surprise that literally all the partic-
ipants in this research view creativity as an essentially hu-
man capacity that has as much to do with openness to the
world, joy, empathy, even vulnerability, as it has with spe-
cific skills or talents. There is strong agreement that, how-
ever much has been written about creativity, its essence
is not fully (if at all) understood — hence the deep-rooted
doubt that AI systems can become truly creative.
Technology, however, is held in high esteem, and the in-
credible variety and power of tools available is universally
appreciated. However, these are perceived as a support-
ing framework for creativity itself, which happens in the
real world and in the connections the creative makes with
other people and the client. The notion that an AI-based
system could be creative in the full sense of the word, ac-
cording to the same parameters and standards they apply
to their own work, was rejected by the vast majority of the
creatives interviewed for this research. In other words, cre-
atives want the support of all the technological possibili-
ties at their disposal, but they do not want to lose control
of creativity itself.
Inspiration can come from anywhere
Anything can be inspiring, and where exactly inspiration
comes from changes drastically from one creative to the
next: Some scour the web for images, get inspiration from
work they see on Behance, Pinterest or Instagram. Others
do the exact opposite: Their inspiration comes from lateral
drifting, seemingly unrelated discussions with friends and
colleagues, music, exploring nature, sometimes dreams.
While creativity is often seen as happening inside the
head of the creative, what inspires them comes from out-
side. To be inspired, there is a need to open up to the world
around us, and everything it can offer, from scraps of paper
on a sidewalk to the work of admired artists or unexpected
imagery found on the web.
Serendipity is essential
Serendipitous discovery is often at the heart of inspiration,
and it is very important for a majority of respondents. What
makes them function, and allows them to get out of inspi-
ration block is very often something unexpected or unre-
lated. It is clear that they cherish this aspect of creativity:
opening up to the world, being touched/inspired by things
that have nothing to do with the job at hand.
Technical issues
Problems
linked to creativity
Client-related
problems
What do you fear the most
during a creative project?
What kind of
creative work
would you like to do
if it were easier?
11%
41%
47
%
What do you fear
the most during a
creative project?
7. Creative vision
Inspiration
Creative
project
Connection
Creativity is profoundly social
The research interviews also underlined how multi-facet-
ted creativity actually is. If one steps back from a simple
outcome-focused view (the creative simply trying to give
tangible form to his inspiration), one realizes that we are
witnessing a complex process that involves many phases,
and is intrinsically linked to social interaction and connect-
edness to the world. In other words, creativity is intense-
ly social, and stems out of all the interactions the creative
has with the world around him.
The most obvious connection is the one that links the
creative to the client. This relationship can be almost sym-
biotic: on one side the designer, who needs the client to
realize his creativity1
, and has to grasp his needs and re-
quirements. The client, on the other hand, relies on the in-
spiration and vision of the creative in order to attain a goal
that has been defined in business terms, but as yet lacks
the means to give it shape and form.
The quality of this creative-client interaction is essen-
tial to the success of a creative project. It requires trust
and open-mindedness on both sides; just as the creative
needs to gain a deep understanding of the client’s needs
— and in some cases dreams — the client himself has to
accept that the creative often can provide a vision that ex-
ceeds his own.2
If this process works well, it can be im-
mensely beneficial for both sides, allowing the creative
to fully exploit his capacities, and the client to receive a
wider ranging outcome than he initially anticipated. If, on
the other hand, this continuous exchange somehow back-
fires or never comes to fruition, it is counterproductive for
both sides. It is therefore hardly surprising communication
problems with the client are among the most frequently
expressed fears concerning a creative project.
Creativity depends on the interconnectedness of the
creative with the world, the client, friends and colleagues.
There is also very often a sudden perceived connection
with seemingly random, serendipitously discovered ele-
ments that feed into the creative process. This connected-
ness is the bedrock of creative work.
1 We are using the term client here in a very generic way, as the outside
reason for the creative to apply his capacities. What is essential here is
that creativity is not deployed into a void, but into a social space in which it
functions.
2 Hence the frequent comment from creative professionals that they need
to work with, and sometimes educate, a client to make him understand
what a creative project can achieve beyond the initially stated business
objectives. That’s why many designers we interviewed have moved from
simple graphic design jobs to branding and strategy.
”Creativity is creating a bridge
between what the client needs
and what the creative can achieve.”
Jan Siemen
CEO, Founder of Sons of ipanema
”Creativity is all about the human connection.
You can’t listen to your client’s needs
without having thoughts of your own.”
Kristine Arth
Founder & Principal Designer, Lobster Phone
”You can’t separate
people from creativity.”
Marie Rack
Graphic designer
Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 6
8. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 7
What kind of
creative work
would you like to do
if it were easier?
14%
8% 11%
27%
40%
Coding
AR/VR
3D
Motion graphics
Video
W
hat kind of creative work would you
like to do if it were easier?
H
ow
efficient is the computer/software
in
m
aking your creativity happen?
How efficient is the
computer/software
in making creativity
happen ?
40%
3%
25%
32%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Graphic
design
Illustration Imaging
Game
design
3D
AR/VR
?
UX/UI
design
?
Web
designStrategy Branding
Motion
graphicsVideo
?
?
?
Creativity is a life journey
The vast majority of interviewees work in many different ar-
eas, use many different tools. Nobody can afford any more
to do just one thing.
Creatives don’t say “This is who I am — this is what I
do”, but rather “This is who I am — this is what I do now.”
Creative professionals are on a life journey that is less de-
fined by a specific skill than by the capacity to apply their
creativity to a variety of different situations, projects and
challenges.
They are fully aware that they need to keep evolving their
craft and continuously learning new things. The technolo-
gy landscape is in constant evolution, adding new output
channels, media and platforms at breathtaking pace. The
velocity of change is faster than ever. This wasn’t always
the case before digital transformation. This is a recent
phenomenon.
The research also shows that creative professionals gen-
erally have the self-assurance that, as AI-based software
tools become more prevalent in the creative toolbox, they
will be able to adapt, and find the best ways to integrate
them into their very personal — and very human creativity.
”The entire point
is to find out what
we can do as
creatives.”
Kristine Arth
Founder & Principal Designer,
Lobster Phone’
9. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 8
Creative Project
Inspiration
Communication
Creative
Vision
Client’s
Needs
The creative project
What, exactly, are the boundaries of creativity in the frame-
work of a given creative project? Many factors come into
play here: When the direct client is an agency, or the mar-
keting department of a larger corporation, the contribution
of the creative professional may have to integrate pre-ex-
isting decisions, branding elements or a corporate style-
guide. In that case, the scope of creative intervention can
be limited. That’s also the reason why many respondents
have a clear preference for working directly with smaller
companies and start-ups, since this tends to afford them
greater creative freedom in their work. Adapting pre-exist-
ing styles to a new format is rarely seen as creatively re-
warding, and is repeatedly cited as tedious.
Most creative projects rely on permanent interaction be-
tween the creative professional and the client. When this
interaction works well it is perceived as beneficial to both
parties, and helps stimulate creativity. If, on the other hand,
the interaction between creative professional and client is
limited or inefficient, it slows down the creative process.
The creative project is based on vision,
understanding and inspiration
Understanding the client’s needs and dreams, and putting
themselves in the shoes of the client’s target audience is
essential for creative professionals. This is what shapes
their creative vision, and helps find inspiration. But the
creative project is also shaped by technology: Technology
defines what it is possible to create — and also what it is
possible to deliver to the audience.
Both aspects are essential: creative professionals need
to know how much of their creative vision can be realized
in the given technology framework — but they are also
tied to the increasingly complex demands of multi-format,
multi-device content delivery. Understanding the dual role
of technology in the creative process, both enabling and
constraining, is essential, as it defines how creative pro-
fessionals relate to the tools and technologies they use.
”Strategy drives creativity
and thought-driven process,
business need defines the rest.”
Joe Lovelock
Creative Director, Studio Lovelock, London
10. Find your own limits / Be relevant / Experiment • Passion / Vision / Process • Make everything possible / Spontaneity / Dream •
Unexpected / Connection / Openness • Exciting / Inspiring / Emotive • Unbiased / Making connections / Not being intimidated
• Power / Happiness / Communication • Fun / Limitlessness / Ubiquity • Open-minded / Critical / Curious • Obsession / The
bigger picture / Tools • Idea / Communication / Expression • Originality / Honesty • Art / Human Beings / Animals
• Passion / Joy • Innovation / Visual / Life • Freedom / Combination • Images coming from my head • Interesting solution
to a problem • Flow / Personal style / Being inspirational • Get started / Do it • Self-realization / Discovery / Fascination •
Curiosity / Trying something new • Imagination / Remixing / Freedom of mind • Imagination / Expression / Discovering
something new • Going beyond your limits • Discovering something new / Searching • Collaboration / Curiosity / Awareness •
Spontaneity / Inspiration / Notgivingup(becauseitisimpossible)•Freedom / Values / Pushingthelimits•Freedom / Color / Form
• Inspiration / Freedom / Conception • Communication / Exchange / Thought • Fearless / Unlimited / Freedom •
Knowledge / Rhythm / Human • Imagination / Design Thinking / Communication • Freedom / Knowledge / Spontaneity •
Feedback / Work / Weightless • Inspiration / Ideas / Joy • Experimenting / Creating connections / No fear of failure • New
connections between ideas / Mental sparks • Inspiration / Execution / Passion • Teamwork / Images from my head / Problem
solving • New / Inspiration / Thinking around corners • I’m a human being, not a machine • Originality / Depth / Future •
Freedom of constraint / Daring / Forward thinking • Idea / Communication / Expression • Innovate / Being unique / Rare
• Inspiration / Exploration / Execution • Inspiration / Unexpected / Exciting • Thoughtful / Unique / Expressive •
Spark / Exciting / Life • Curiosity / Discipline / Vulnerability • Unique / Inspiring / Inventive • Curiosity / Joy / Enthusiasm •
Inspiration / Preparation / Perspiration•Ideas / Freshness / Composition•Innovation / Disruption / breakingpatterns / Surprise•
Smartsolutions / Unconventional / Unique•Spark / Light / Inspiration•Process / Knowledge / Innovation / Ambiguity•Outsideof
the box / Draftsmanship • Expression / Style / Attitude • True / Freedom / Fearless • Manipulation / Sweat / Rethinking the world
• Uniqueness / Individuality / Self-expression • Spontaneity / Freedom / Good communication • Connection / Craft / Creation
• Connection • Expansive / Generative / Evolutionary • Freedom / Expression / Fun • Energy / Sex / Imagination
Three words
We asked all of the participants in the research
to spontaneously think of 3 words that capture
the essence of creativity for them.
Here they are…
11. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 10
Engagement
Connectiontotheworld
Tools
+
technologies
Creativevision
C
reativeoutcom
e
Creativity and technology
12. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 11
Do you feel your
creative
possibilities have
increased over the
past few years ?
37%
5%
4%
15%
39%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Do you feel your creative possibilities
ha
ve
increased over the past few
year
s?
What technology means
for creative professionals
Creatives see technology as essential to their process.
Technology — the combination of software, hardware and
on-line services — is the essential toolbox for creative pro-
fessionals. These are the tools they rely on, day in, day out,
to get their job done, and they tend to have a strong rela-
tionship with their tools. Hence strong loyalty to the tools
of choice — but also sometimes criticism when they don’t
perform as expected.
Creative pros rarely turn to software features in search
of inspiration: However important software tools are for
them, they don’t look to the tool to fuel their vision. Rather,
creatives tend to look for inspiration outside of technology.1
Software features become important, on the other hand,
once they are adopted and become part of the core tool-
set; new features or creative options are considered only
if they are perceived as immediately useful, and strongly
resonate — or if there is a strong necessity to do so.2
In other words, creative pros generally aren’t feature-fo-
cused, but outcome-focused: They need to be able to re-
alize their personal creative vision; new software features
not only are rarely seen as inspiring, they carry the poten-
tial of disrupting the flow of creativity and disturbing reli-
able production processes.
1 On-line resources, such as Behance, Instagram and Pinterest are
not perceived as tools, but as a way to connect to the world and to find
inspiration.
2 There is another perceived threat linked to new creative software
features that aim at innovative visual effects: The fear that easy effects will
turn into fads that will be used widely, thus undermining the perceived
originality of a project that uses them. This is particularly true in fields such
as motion graphics or CGI.
”If software was built
around a creative’s mind
it would never function.”
Kristine Arth
Founder & Principal Designer, Lobster Phone
Rate your current
workflow in terms
of efficiency,
productivity and
creativity
7%
8%
37%
48%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Rate your current workflow in terms of
e
fficienvy, productivity and creativity
13. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 12
less than 50%
50% or more
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
How much of your work is spent
on repetitive, uncreative tasks?
74%
26%
H
as your work become more complex
over the years?
Has your work
become more
complex over the
past few years ?
34
%
20%
13%
13%
2
0%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
What do creative pros want
from technology?
In a nutshell: To get the job done. The most important role
of technology is to execute the vision, but not to get in the
way of creativity. Creative professionals need to execute
a project as quickly and smoothly as possible, and one of
the frequently cited concerns is technology that doesn’t
behave as expected.
Productivity can be a “killer feature”: Any software op-
tion or new technology that reliably reduces existing work-
load is likely to be very popular, especially when it targets
operations that are widely perceived as tedious. This also
applies to current bottlenecks, such as image search or
learning new features, where AI is perceived as potentially
very useful.
In short, there is a clear expectancy that technology
should be there to serve the creative. Given the complex-
ity of the modern media and device landscape, creative
projects almost always include many phases of complex
iteration, adaptation and process management that are
consistently cited as the most tedious part of the creative
project. Whether managing Photoshop files with dozens of
layers, or coordinating the transfer of hundreds of assets
from one system to another, the flow from creative intent
to final, delivered outcome is a complex one, and can be
more optimized. Many of the tasks involved in this transfor-
mation involve time-consuming manual operations, which
are frequently perceived as tedious or mind-numbing. And
that is also the specific area where creative pros see the
greatest potential for AI and machine learning in their cre-
ative processes.
Yetthispossiblereductionofrepetitivetasksisnotviewed
by all respondents as a positive: For some creatives, work-
ing through the repetitive steps required by the execution
of a creative project is seen as useful and necessary. As
one designer put it: “Not everything should be made too
easy. The trial-and-error process linked to technology is
actually important for the creative process. Errors are im-
portant, don’t take them away.”
”Technology is useful
if it creates abilities
that didn’t exist before.”
Evan Abrams
Motion Designer & Instructor
How much of your work is spent
on repetitive, uncreative tasks?
What do you find tedious
in your work today?
What do you find
tedious in your
work?
8%
15% 19%
34
%
24%
Administrative
tasks
Client-related
issues
Process
management
Repetitive
uninspiring work
Solving
technical issues
14. How do creatives view
AI and machine learning?
Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 13
15. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 14
In your opinion,
how important will
AI/ML be for
creative
professionals?
35%
4%
7%
27%
27%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
In
your opinion, how important will AI/M
Lbe for creative professionals?
How interested are
you in AI/ML?
18%
12%
38%
31%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How interested are you in AI
and machine learning?
Attitudes to AI and ML in general
To introduce the subject of artificial intelligence and ma-
chine learning (ML), we asked the participants in the re-
search first how closely they followed the subject in gener-
al. Few of the respondents had a clear idea how AI and ML
could be directly applied to their field of activity, but there
is a clear perception that these are immensely important
developments that will affect many areas of human activity.
Only a relatively small number (18%) of creative profes-
sionals proclaimed a vivid interest in AI and ML — but in-
terestingly, even fewer (12%) say they are not interested
at all. On the whole, creative professionals participating in
this research feel that AI and ML are technology transfor-
mations that are very important, but they are not yet sure
how it will change the way they work.
On the other hand, there is little doubt in their minds that
AI and ML will have a considerable impact: Over 60% of
respondents said these developments will impact the way
creative professionals work quite a lot or extremely — and
only 4% think it will have no impact at all. It is hardly sur-
prising, then, that the number of interviewees who would
be strongly or very strongly interested in having a head-
start in AI is even higher, at 63%.
It is also important to point out that many creatives stat-
ed they can imagine AI and ML affecting some parts of
their current way of working. They also see it as a healthy
challenge, and as a way to prove what human creativity
can do. And some see this challenge as an invitation to
“swim against the current”, to go in the opposite direction
of AI and ML-based developments.
”AI will shift the designer to be a
creative director. That will shift the focus
from creating to decision-making —
but no AI will supplant
human decision-making.”
Evan Abrams,
Motion Designer & Instructor
16. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 15
Do you think
Sensei can make
you more efficient,
productive?
11%
24%
62%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
D
o
you think Adobe Sensei can make you
m
ore efficient and productive?
Do you think
Sensei can make
you more creative?
15%
14%
30%
24%
1
8%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Do you think Adobe Sensei can
make you more creative?
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you have seen, how
interesting is Sensei for you?
How creative professionals
view Adobe Sensei
About Adobe Sensei
Sensei is the umbrella-term that Adobe has chosen for
the developments based on AI and machine-learning the
company has been working on for several years. Part of
this research, which was funded by Adobe, was to expose
creative professionals to some of these developments,
and to collect their impressions and thoughts.
Introduced in the last part of the research interviews, re-
spondents were shown several videos of features based
on Adobe Sensei, targeting specific parts of creative work-
flows such as style transfers from one image to another,
new methods of searching for images on Adobe Stock
based on machine learning, automated rotoscoping or
physics-simulation-based graphic arrangements, among
others.1
We also provided context to Adobe Sensei de-
velopments, the techniques that were used, and Adobe’s
general approach to these developments.
How is Adobe Sensei perceived?
While relatively few creative professionals had heard about
Adobe Sensei, and most of them had only a vague idea
what it is exactly, once they were shown concrete exam-
ples of what Adobe Sensei can achieve, 66% of respon-
dents said they were extremely interested in what these
developments can bring. Only very few (7%) were only a
little bit interested, or not interested at all.
Adobe Sensei is widely perceived as having the capacity
to reduce a lot of the drudgery involved in the production
of creative content, and it is clear that creative profession-
als are eager to embrace these developments: Over 62%
thought it was extremely likely that Adobe Sensei would
make them more productive.
Responses to the question “Do you think Adobe Sensei
can make you more creative?” were more diverse. Only
27% of respondents felt relatively certain or certain Ado-
be Sensei would make them more creative — but many
creatives stated they felt Adobe Sensei could contribute to
their creativity by executing mundane tasks for them, thus
freeing up more time for creativity. A majority of creative
professionals were very eager to experiment with these
new developments.
1 The following demos from the 2017 Adobe MAX Sneaks were used:
‘Project Cloak’, ‘Concept Canvas’, ‘Project Lincoln’, ‘Project Puppetron’,
‘Project Scribbler’, ‘PhysicsPac’, ‘SceneStitch’, ‘Select Subject’ and
‘SkyReplace’. The videos used can be viewed at https://bit.ly/2NAAyCY
17. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 16
How afraid are you
that AI could
threaten your job ?
11%
7
%
9%
54%
19%
How afraid are you
that AI could
threaten your job ?
11%
7
%
9%
54%
19%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How afraid are you that AI
could threaten your job?
Perceived threats of AI and machine
learning in the creative field
While creative professionals may not be worried about
their job, the research shows considerable concern about
possible side-effects of applying AI and machine learning
to creative tasks: There is relatively widespread fear that
AI will have a leveling effect on creative output, and could
lead to a new level of homogenized, machine-driven me-
diocrity in visual production, that will allow almost anyone
to produce good-looking results. The question is, will this
make the differentiation between machine-produced out-
put and the work a creative professional provides harder to
perceive, especially for the untrained eye.1
The concern is the leveling effect of AI on the way visu-
al output looks, which in turn could lead to a devaluation
of human creative skills. Professionals are afraid of losing
control over the creative part of the process, and do not
want to be dictated by the machine.
While the most prominent, it is not the only aspect of AI
and machine learning developments that raise concern
with creative professionals. Participants frequently cited
the necessity for privacy safeguards and a clear policy
regarding data collected from users. Some designers are
also worried that AI-based tools will make it much easier
for their personal style to be copied and duplicated.2
1 A similar trend is often mentioned in this context, the move from hand-
crafted websites to template-based developments that are less costly, but
have had an important leveling effect on the way web-sites look today.
2 One designer made the suggestion Adobe should develop an agent that
uses machine learning to help creatives track on the internet where their
style has been copied.
“AI will have an impact, but only on productivity.
The creative vision will have to be there first “
Sherri Morris
Chief of Marketing, Creative & Brand Strategy, Blackhawk Marketing
“The threat of AI: Being reliant on
doing/creating something for its
own sake, instead of considering
why we are doing it”
Joe Lovelock
Creative Director, Studio Lovelock, London
”Personal creativity cannot be imitated by
technology. It’s not because you know the tools
that you are a designer.”
Christoph Gey
Art director, Cologne
18. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 17
How interested are you in an assistant that …
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
provides
creative variations
evaluates
audience response
helps with
image search
teaches
new features
reduces
drudgery89%
81%
77%
52%
42%
Attitudes to AI-based creative assistants
For this segment of the research, we provided respondents
with context about the notion of an AI-based creative as-
sistant. We asked them to imagine a machine-learning sys-
tem that would offer targeted help with a variety of tasks,
based on what the system had learned. The questions we
asked respondents were first of all their general willing-
ness to work with such a system, and then to rate the per-
ceived usefulness of different types of creative assistants.
While a small number of respondents found the idea of
working with a creative agent slightly odd or creepy, most
of them are clearly willing to give it a try — under two con-
ditions. First, the creative assistant would have to be much
better than the current crop of voice assistants such as Ap-
ple’s Siri, or Alexa on Amazon devices. The second point
is much more essential, and was voiced by a large number
of respondents: In order for them to use such a system, it
would have to be on their terms, and controlled by them.
They do not want an always-on system that might interrupt
their work, but rather one they can call upon when they
feel the need.
”I would be interested in agent
that teaches new features —
but it would need to teach me
not only what to do, but why it
is important.”
Kristine Arth
Founder & Principal Designer, Lobster Phone
Of the different creative agents suggested during the re-
search interviews, the clear favorite would be an assistant
reducing drudgery and repetitive tasks: 89% of respon-
dents said they were very or extremely interested in such
a system. For creative professionals working frequently
with stock images, or other materials such as fonts found
on the web, AI and ML-based help with these tasks would
be very welcome: 77% of respondents indicated strong
interest for such an assistant. Assistants teaching new or
unexplored features in their software also received strong
approval ratings.
Things were less clear-cut with assistants providing cre-
ative variations based on a project at hand, triggering an
almost equal amount of very positive and very negative ap-
preciations. However, many of the interviewees said they
would certainly try such an assistant, but they probably
wouldn’t rely on it, since they want to stay in control of the
creative part of their work.
One of the suggested creative assistants that drew the
most interesting comments was a system that would help
to anticipate different types of audience responses to a
given project, based on machine learning. While some
respondents (almost 18%) had spontaneous strong neg-
ative reactions to this type of assistant, over 35% stated
extremely strong approval. What was particularly interest-
ing, however, were the suggestions for the type of informa-
tion the respondents would like to receive using such an
assistant: Several designers mentioned they would like to
test the uniqueness of a design; some creatives working
on video and motion-graphics would be interested in test-
ing when the level of attention might drop while someone
watches a clip. And UX designers, finally, would welcome
testing the coherence and intuitiveness of a user interface
design.
In any case, the discussions about digital assistants
where in many cases lively, and showed to what extent
there are many perceived bottlenecks in creative projects
that creatives would love to have AI/ML-based help with.
Are you interested in an assistant that …
“I would love an assistant that
helps me get to a given result
faster.”
Juan Diaz-Faes
Graphic designer and illustrator
Could you imagine
working with an
AI/ML base
creative assistant?
2
3%
16%
8%
19%
34%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Could you imagine working with
an
AI/ML-based creative assistant?
19. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 18
How do you feel
about using you
voice to control the
computer?
15%
12%
15%
52%
5%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
H
ow
do you feel about using your voiceto control the computer?
Do you feel that the
software you use
should have better
Understanding of
your workflow?
12% 18%
15%
29%
26%
Extremely
Quite a lot
To some extent
A little bit
Not at all
D
o
you feel that your software should hav
e
ab
etter understanding of your workflo
w
?
Attitudes to voice interfaces
The final question concerning the use of AI-based de-
velopments concerned interacting with the computer/
software with their voice rather than using keyboard and
mouse. A majority of respondents clearly stated they had
no interest in using such a system, partly because their ex-
perience with voice interfaces such as Siri and Alexa were
not perceived as efficient.
It is interesting to point out that there is a clear geograph-
ic difference between respondents from the United States
and Europe in these responses: Over 43% of respondents
in the United States said they were somewhat or very in-
terested to use a voice interface with the computer. In Eu-
rope only 16% of interviewees made the same statements,
while almost 60% said they had no interest at all.
Interviewees in the US were clearly more open to the idea,
and also had a more differentiated approach to the way
they might like to interact with the computer using their
voice, providing tangible suggestions for the way it should
work. The way it is imagined by some of the respondents
is not for voice commands to replace what can be more
efficiently achieved using mouse and keyboard, but rath-
er, accelerate specific tasks, such as switching tools in an
application, or issue file-management related commands
such as “Save file as TIFF to project folder”.
20. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 19
Creativity and artificial intelligence:
Analysis and perspectives
21. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 20
AI
Machine learning
Neural networks
Imitational
AI-based art
Computational
AI-based art
Democratization
of complex
visuals
Assisting
the creativity
of professionals
Where do we go from here?
Trying to understand creativity is difficult enough; attempt-
ing to predict how it will evolve in the future it is an exer-
cise in futility. Yet given the nature of this research, and
the amount of first-hand data collected, it seemed equally
impossible not to attempt some form of outlook analysis
based on what we have learned.
What AI and machine learning can achieve
in the creative realm
AI, machine learning and neural networks have begun to
enter the creative realm in a variety of ways, all of which are
bound to have a significant impact not only on what kind of
visual output is created, but also how it is perceived, and
what role it plays in society.
Computational AI-based art: While the field of computa-
tional art has been around for decades, the use of AI and
associated technologies is relatively new, and used by a
growing number of artists, such as Pierre Huyghe1
and
Mario Klingeman2
. They generate visual output entirely
based on neural networks, machine learning and other
computational processes to create intriguing and often
stunning work. There is no doubt that this field is likely to
grow significantly over the next decade. On the other hand,
it is not yet clear if it will interfere with traditional methods
of producing art, or rather (as is likely) extend artistic prac-
tice into new dimensions.
1 https://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/pierre-huyghe-
uumwelt
2 https://www.wired.com/story/neurographer-puts-the-art-in-artificial-
intelligence/
Imitational AI-based art: Efforts to produce output that
mimics (with varying degree of success) existing styles
of conventionally produced art are also developing rap-
idly. Sometimes technically very impressive, (such as the
AI-based “Rembrandt”3
that went on sale at Christies) this
kind of visual reverse-engineering is in fact closer to so-
phisticated reproduction4
than to human creativity—yet
highlights questions that can be disturbing about the es-
sence of a work of art5
.
Democratization of sophisticated visuals: AI and ma-
chine learning have the potential of making the creation
of very sophisticated visuals available to casual users. By
applying techniques such as style transfer and other ma-
chine-learning-trained methods to generate visuals that
would have been very time-consuming to produce even
for a skilled professional, AI and machine learning are low-
ering the barrier of entry to an extent that may lead to the
devaluation of skills and expertise of creatives. It is likely
that these developments will increase significantly in the
future, and will have a distinct impact on the way creatives
express and manifest their unique creative talents.
Assisting the creativity of professionals: Finally, AI and
machine learning can be used to liberate creatives of
drudgery, complex execution and organizational tasks,
to allow them to focus more of their time on their creativ-
ity. While of the four examples listed here, this last set of
developments is the least immediately spectacular, it will
nevertheless have a strong impact on the kind of creative
work that is produced.
3 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/new-rembrandt-painting-computer-3d-
printed
4 With respect to the notion of original and reproduction, it is worth
having another look at Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction.” What Benjamin observed in 1935 considering
modern media such as the newspaper, radio and photography is still
largely applicable to the notions we struggle with when we are discussing
digital media and computer-generated art.
5 As technology pairs recent developments such as 3D printing with AI
and machine learning, the question of the nature of the artwork comes
into full focus: If the visual outcome gets so close to the original that an
untrained eye might not see the difference, does it become real? Can you
call a painting produced in 2018 a “Rembrandt”, just because it mimics
stylistic characteristics? Or is it just an astute form of forgery, where the AI-
based tools replace human forgers’ knack for capturing the look and feel
of a particular artist? Finally, are we entering a completely new phase in
mining the artistic achievements of the past, requiring us to redefine core
concepts about art from the ground up?
22. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 21
Human
creativity
Creative vision
Skills
Connection Empathy
E
ngagement
”Of course I’d take into account
what an AI system would suggest
for my work — and then I would do
the exact opposite.”
Nick Adams
Chicago Graphic designer
Possible impact scenarios
To assess the impact of these different fields of AI-based
developments on the creative realm in general, and on
creative professionals in particular, we should first look at
them individually, before attempting to analyze possible ar-
eas of ripple effects and cross-pollination..
Already in its current state, computational AI-based art
is a fascinating field that is likely to inspire a wide range
of emerging artists. Yet, as of today, there is a high entry
barrier in order to produce works like the ones cited above,
and such work requires a very specific mind-set and dis-
position, as well as considerable technical knowledge. In
that sense it can not yet be considered a readily available
tool for artistic expression — but it is only a question of
time before “consumer-level” programs and technologies
allowing to mine machine learning and neural networks
make their way into the mainstream6
, and start shaping
what artists and creatives produce.7
The situation of imitational AI-based art is more complex.
At the highest level it requires not only access to the orig-
inal artworks, but also teams of specialists, cutting-edge
technology and many months of collective effort. Given
these constraints, it will take many years before these de-
velopments become accessible even for companies or in-
stitutions with considerable funding — let alone creative
individuals. Yet ML-driven functionalities that allow specif-
ic style elements to be transferred from an existing image
to another are starting to appear on-line8
. Similar function-
ality is likely to show up in apps like Photoshop quite soon,
as Adobe’s “Project Puppetron” demo at Adobe MAX 2017
suggested.9
6 https://ai.googleblog.com/2015/06/inceptionism-going-deeper-into-
neural.html
7 It is also quite possible that these computationally produced works will
have an impact on traditionally created art, as observed in an article on
Pierre Huyghe’s UUmwelt: “ …UUmwelt turns out to be a show of great
beauty… the gallery-goer emerges from this most abstruse of high-tech
shows with a re-invigorated appetite for the arch-traditional business
of putting paint on canvas” Simon Ings, Financial Times https://on.ft.
com/2Pdom7U
8 https://deepart.io/
9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAcTtEXFYlE
Depending on how this feature will be implemented, it
could have wide-ranging ripple effects in the creative com-
munity. Making style transfer available as a push-button
option could have a considerable impact on how creatives
format multiple elements requiring a consistent style, thus
speeding up their workflow — yet in the process running
the risk of reducing the kind of creative accident that is of-
ten seen as a positive force in the creative process. On the
down-side, depending on the power and implementation
of such a feature, it could also facilitate plagiarism, a con-
cern that has been voiced repeatedly during the research
interviews.
But on the other hand, a style transfer feature could also
allow improvised creative experimentation that would be
impossible without the help of AI and machine learning. As
one designer put it: “Creativity does not necessarily mean
using a tool for its intended purpose.” Subverting tools and
letting creativity run rampant in ways unintended by the
developers is likely to lead to results we would have a hard
time imagining now.
Positive and negative impact
of the democratization of tools
The threat some see in the impact of AI and machine learn-
ing on human creativity is not new. The history of comput-
er-based visual creation is shaped by the democratization
of tools, making the production of sophisticated designs
ever easier and more accessible. Starting with the first
wave of page layout and vector design tools over three de-
cades ago, this evolution has had an extremely liberating
effect — but in its wake, countless professions have been
challenged, and in some cases utterly devastated.
But democratization is not the only issue here. Increas-
ingly, we can witness two kinds of creative tools: those
aimed at the creative professional — and those targeting
completely inexperienced users. This last group also in-
cludes apps that are not openly labeled as “creative”: Ins-
tagram and Snapchat have become creative platforms for
millions of users who live happily with the limitations of the
apps, and still manage to express their personal creativity.
Similar considerations can apply to the increasingly pow-
erful cameras in recent smartphones, that offer automated
processing options for very sophisticated results, which
previously would have required professional equipment
and years of experience before.10
10 See also: Adobe demo video on the future of mobile portrait
photography, enhanced by AI and machine learning. https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=DQ8va2ipK8I
23. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 22
Yet we are only at the beginning of AI-driven creative func-
tionalities. And as they expand, it is clear that they will am-
plify a trend that has been reported by numerous creative
professionals during the research: Everybody feels like a
designer now, and thinks what can be achieved with sim-
plistic tools is to be considered at the same level as the
fully structured creative project of a professional.
We are facing some far-reaching implications here: Tra-
ditionally, creative professionals are being considered
and valued on the strength of the visual aspects of their
work — yet it is becoming increasingly clear that what
really counts for the appreciation of their work goes well
beyond cool looking visuals.11
But what that implies, in the
long run, is that creatives need to find different signifiers
for their capacities — and also on-line resources allowing
them to show off their talents in other aspects than visual
execution.
But there is another implication to this trend, which di-
rectly concerns software developers: The more AI and
machine learning start to dominate the way visuals output
is produced, the more important it will be for the develop-
ers of tools to understand — and to individually address
— the needs of both the casual creative and the creative
professional independently. The changes in the require-
ments of creative professionals to get their job done in the
most efficient way need to be understood and addressed.
Assisting creativity in the light of AI-driven changes
Currently, for creatives, the most important developments
based on AI and machine learning are linked to alleviat-
ing drudgery and repetitive operations that later stages of
most creative projects necessitate.
The present research also underscores an expectancy
that the multitude of individual steps in the production pro-
cess should be more intelligently managed by machine in-
telligence in the future.
There is a problem, though: while in their overall struc-
ture, the processes involved are clearly defined, they way
each individual creative handles them can be very differ-
ent. In larger operations, workflow systems that handle
these tasks more efficiently have been in place for many
years; for the creative individual, however, these systems
are often perceived as too constraining.
11 Many creative professionals are fully aware of that fact, and make it
clear that the real value of their work hinges less on the sophistication of
the output, but on the creative intelligence and design thinking they bring
to a project. As one designer put it succinctly: “My clients come to me for
ideas — not for execution.”
In order to solve this problem, AI and machine learning can
step in — not primarily in order to come up with a univer-
sal workflow solution, but rather in understanding how the
creative mind deals with these issues.
This may turn out to be much more complex than it ap-
pears at first blush, as creatives need freedom and flexibil-
ity in order to build their own personal workflow — every
creative organizes these tasks in his own individual way.12
In a nutshell, the big challenge for AI and machine
learning developments for creative professionals is not
to mimic how creativity works for them, but to under-
stand the nuances and seemingly erratic jumps of the
creative mind when it tries to organize the outcome of
the creative process. Perhaps ML-based creative assis-
tants could be a first step in this direction, but we can
safely assume that it will be a complex task. In the words
of the designer quoted earlier: “If software was built
around a creative’s mind it would never function.”
What’s next?
Of course none of the trends outlined above exist in a vac-
uum. Assuming that as AI progresses, human creativity
remains at a stand-still would be a absurd. As machine
intelligence becomes increasingly powerful in producing
outcomes that in the past required human skills and exper-
tise, how will uniquely human creativity evolve?
This research provides us with some valuable clues as
we attempt to anticipate this evolution. Creativity is human,
and it is social. And, not to forget, creativity is based on
vision, connection and empathy. These are the factors,
that allow the creative to produce outstanding work: The
capacity to give form to intuition-driven connection, com-
bined with inspiration and creative vision is what sets hu-
man creativity apart. Not to forget a deeply ingrained will-
ingness to disrupt and challenge the status quo …
And these are also the core aspects that will thrive as
AI and machine learning progress in the creative space:
Creatives are aware of what they can achieve. Those core
human attributes of creativity have always been their stron-
gest asset: Now we can expect these qualities of vision,
connection and empathy to become the key component
of what creatives need to demonstrate ever more strongly:
That they, unlike the machine, can fully focus on the WHY of
a project, while the machine can only produce the WHAT.
12 A simple example: Most creatives follow some kind of naming
convention for the elements and assets in their projects — yet they need
the liberty of changing them when they feel like it.
”To achieve a creative artificial
intelligence, we would need to
build a society of exploratory
computers, all striving to surprise
and impress each other.
That social aspect of computers
is completely missing, and this is
what makes computer intelligence
so mechanical.”
Anthony Brandt & David Eagleman
”The Runaway Species”
25. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 24
What kind of
creative work
would you like to do
if it were easier?
11%
49%
40%
Technical issues
Problems
linked to creativity
Client-related
problems
What kind of
creative work
would you like to do
if it were easier?
12%
29%
59%
What kind of
creative work
would you like to do
if it were easier?
Technical issues
Problems
linked to creativity
Client-related
problems
Technical issues
Problems
linked to creativity
Client-related
problems
What kind of
creative work
would you like to do
if it were easier?
11%
41%
47
%
What do you fear
the most during a
creative project?
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
51%
3%
19
%
28%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
23
%
3%
33%
40%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How efficient is the
computer/software
in making creativity
happen ?
40%
3%
25%
32%
Other
On-line resources
Art, books, films…
Real world, nature,
contacts
32%
7%
35%
25%
Other
On-line resources
Art, books, films…
Real world, nature,
contacts
27%
6%
35%
31%
Other
On-line resources
Art, books, films…
Real world, nature,
contacts
Where do you find
inspiration?
30%
7%
35%
28%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
58%
9%
9%
23%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
3% 7%
33%
57
%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Rate your current
workflow in terms
of efficiency,
productivity and
creativity
7%
8%
37%
48%
USA USA
USA Europe
Europe
USA Europe
Europe
26. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 25
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
34%
5%
7%
14%
41%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
40%
7%
17%
37%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Do you feel your
creative
possibilities have
increased over the
past few years ?
37%
5%
4%
15%
39%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
34%
2
3%
7%
11
%
25%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
32%
16%
23
%
16%
13%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Has your work
become more
complex over the
past few years ?
34
%
20%
13%
13%
2
0%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
9%
21%
12%
33%
26%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
17%
13%
20%
23%
27%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Do you feel that the
software you use
should have better
Understanding of
your workflow?
12% 18%
15%
29%
26%
Administrative
tasks
Client-related i
ssues
Process
Management
Repetitive,
uninspiring work
Solving
technical issues
10
%
8%
2
6%
32%
24%
Administrative
tasks
Client-related
issues
Process
Management
Repetitive,
uninspiring work
Solving
technical issues
7%
2
2%
11%
36%
24%
Administrative
tasks
Client-related
issues
Process
management
Repetitive
uninspiring work
Solving
technical issues
What do you find
tedious in your
work?
8%
15% 19%
34
%
24%
USA USA
USA Europe
Europe
USA Europe
Europe
27. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 26
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
9%
14%
2
7%
25%
25%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
23%
13%
33%
23%
7%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Do you think Adobe
Sensei can make
you more creative?
15%
14%
30%
24%
1
8%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
73%
5% 5%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
57%
17%
3% 7%
17%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Sensei for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
From what you
have seen, how
interesting is
Adobe Sensei
for you?
67%
5%
9%
18%
A lot
A little bit
Not at all
11%
11%
78%
Have you heard
about Adobe
Sensei?
A lot
A little bit
Not at all
11%
9%
80%
A lot
A little bit
Not at all
11%
11%
78%
Have you heard
about Adobe
Sensei?
A lot
A little bit
Not at all
11%
10%
78%
A lot
A little bit
Not at all
Have you heard
about Adobe
Sensei?
11%
10%
79%
Very much
Somewhat
A little bit
Not at all
21%
12%
50
%
18%
Very much
Somewhat
A little bit
Not at all
16%
13%
26%
45%
Very much
Somewhat
A little bit
Not at all
How interested are
you in AI and ML?
18%
12%
38%
31%
USA USA
USA Europe
Europe
USA Europe
Europe
28. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 27
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
20%
14%
11%
18%
36%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
27
%
20%
3%
20%
30%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Could you imagine
working with an
AI/ML base
creative assistant?
2
3%
16%
8%
19%
34%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
49%
2%
12%
22%
15%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
50%
10%
7%
13%
20%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Do you feel that
having a headstart
in AI would be
valuable?
49%
6%
10%
18%
17%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
34%
7%
9%
23%
27%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
34%
3%
34%
28%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
In your opinion,
how important will
AI and ML be for
creative
professionals?
35%
4%
7%
27%
27%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
11%
16%
68%
5%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
10%
37%
53%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
Do you think Adobe
Sensei can make
you more efficient,
productive?
11%
24%
62%
USA USA
USA Europe
Europe
USA Europe
Europe
29. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 28
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
43%
7%
9%
39
%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
50%
3%
10%
17%
20%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How interested are
you in an assistant
that helps you
finding the right
material?
46%
5%
5%
12%
31
%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
43%
5%
7%
14%
32%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
47%
3%
7%
43%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How interested are
you in an assistant
that teaches you
new features?
45%
4%
7%
8%
36
%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
18%
18%
32%
14%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
20%
30%
13%
10%
27%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How interested are
you in assistant
that suggests
creative variations?
19%
2
3% 24
%
12%
22%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
5%
25%
68
%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
3%
13%
23%
60%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How interested are
you in assistant
that reduces
dudgery?
65%
4%
7%
24%
USA USA
USA Europe
Europe
USA Europe
Europe
30. Creativity and Technology in the Age of AI - 29
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
11%
9%
11%
50%
18%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
10%
3%
7%
60%
20%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How afraid are you
that AI could
threaten your job ?
11%
7
%
9%
54%
19%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How afraid are you
that AI could
threaten your job ?
11%
7
%
9%
54%
19%
Coding
AR/VR
3D
Motion graphics
Video
16%
12% 14%
16%
43%
Coding
AR/VR
3D
Motion graphics
Video
13%
3% 6%
44%
34%
Coding
AR/VR
3D
Motion graphics
Video
What kind of
creative work
would you like to do
if it were easier?
14%
8% 11%
27%
40%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
18%
9%
7%
59%
7
%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
10%
17%27%
43%
3%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How do you feel
about using you
voice to control the
computer?
15%
12%
15%
52%
5%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
30%
18%
11%
20
%
20%
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
43%
17%
13%
1
3%
13%
v
Extremely
Quite a lot
to some extent
A little bit
Not at all
How interested are
you in assistant
that helps you
predict audience
reactions?
35%
18%
12%
18
%
18%
USA USA
USA Europe
Europe
USA Europe
Europe