AI and Creative Work
As of September 2026, I am enrolled in a program by academy4.ai that is aimed at fostering a thorough understanding of how to apply AI practically, safely and efficiently, and in your line of management or your own business (or hypothetical scenario) specifically. In this post, I share my thoughts on the topic or prompt given by the tutor.
AI can take the friction out of small, low-stakes decisions. What’s for dinner? Tell it what’s in your fridge, or show it what you hauled from the grocery store. Tell it you have little patience and a child with gluten-intolerance, and: ta-dah! Mental load freed up on a busy day.
A children's book needs more discernment
Tailored recipe recommendations may be helpful. Creating and publishing picture books for children is a whole different beast. Making one takes a particular kind of judgment. In a conventional publishing process, an editor catches typos and plot holes, and throws light on whether a story makes sense to a child. Whether its language suits its readers. And whether illustration and words tell the same story. Especially when the audience is still learning to make sense of the world, this takes skill and a sense of responsibility.
If anyone can create and digitally publish a children’s book with AI within a few hours, not only was this valuable editing process skipped, but as a consequence children may be exposed to unvetted contents. The parent’s eyes are the only filter left.
If AI makes publishing easier and faster without the usual editorial checks, that speed comes with a duty to consider quality and age-appropriateness. And let’s not forget about the creative labor behind these tools. Writers, illustrators, editors, and designers have spent years building skills and judgment. That their art was used to train AI is just tragically ironic.
"Democratizing" creativity and publishing isn't the whole story
One might argue that AI “democratizes” creative publishing this way. But does everybody need to be able to publish a children’s book, even if they have never spent a minute thinking about publishing children’s books until they heard that money can be made from it? Professions, skills and careers that real humans have spent years to build: Killed off because a business bro said there’s money to be made as a side hustle?
Lowering the barriers to publishing can bring new voices into the mix. That can be a good thing. But access alone doesn’t make a book thoughtful, well-edited, or right for its audience. Does everyone need to publish a (children’s) book simply because the process has become easier, or because someone has suggested there’s money in it?
Two things can be true and good at the same time: Publishing can be more accessible, while creation still asks for care, scrutiny and throughtfulness.
Faster work ≠ better work
I’ve worked in the creative industry for many years, and watched designers move boxes around presentation slides, retouch the most mundane product packaging, and resize digital advertising banners. Often while thinking, “What a waste of talent.” Some of that repetitive production work is exactly where better tools could help.
But as AI became part of the agency work, I also saw clients expect more work, faster, for less money, on the assumption that AI had already made everything quicker (but with the same quality!). If time saved only results in demand for more and more output at lower cost, the people doing the work don’t necessarily get more room for thoughtful, creative work. They just get a bigger queue or backlog, with less room to think or check their output.
Especially when talking about copywriting and image generation, let’s keep in mind how AI works: It generates an average based on what’s out there. So jumping onto the bandwagon without thinking it through is going to get you exactly that: Thoughtless sameness.
AI can offer a lot. But we still need people with clear opinions, real skill, and critical eagle eyes. We need to discern what the tool is for, on one hand, and where human judgment needs to lead, on the other.
Sources
Image: “Grocery shopping spree…” by Marawder is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse
Everything else is just my personal opinion and ramblings 😉