Artificial Stupidity: The Beigeing of Creativity in the Age of AI
- UK Creative
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
Laura Jordan Bambach, Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Unchartered
Monday 19th May 2025
I have always been a girl geek – being right at the centre of creative applications of technology since the early 90s. I’ve experimented with interactive storytelling since Hypercard and FutureSplash, launched websites since Netscape appeared in ‘94, and was creatively leading a digital agency as social media was born and we spread their APIs across the world. I’ve explored the creative possibilities of data, made some crazy real-life ‘can-it-be-done’ shit and embraced every new platform, device and tool that’s coming over the horizon. It’s where I get my kicks. And gen AI is no different – it makes me tingle with creative excitement.
But in today's fast-paced digital world, one of the most pressing concerns the creative industries are facing is the unstoppable rise of gen AI and how we approach it in a way that makes sense.
Generative AI has sparked fears of mass job losses, but in the race for cost efficiency, the industry risks creating another crisis of our own making.
The real thing to fear is the "blandification" of creativity - an environment where everything becomes standardised and predictable, threatening the very things that we know equate to unfair advantage for brands – frankly threatening decent, original and interesting work. We are swimming in more content slop than ever before, and the way back out is through the eternal things we know to be true. That creativity is a powerful force and the single biggest lever for brand growth; and that distinctiveness, fame and having a clear and cohesive voice is the key to successful marketing – from brand to performance and beyond.
Sleepless nights
The creative landscape is already chaotic, constantly shifting with new technologies emerging, disrupting, and then being replaced. While technological innovation has always been a source of concern, today's worries about AI and creativity represent a heightened level of anxiety, particularly within creative studios and agencies. Creatives fear their craft is under threat. The underlying challenge is not the existence of AI but the struggle to effectively harness its potential.
In our relentless pursuit of competitive advantage, the industry has stumbled into a paradox: the very technologies designed to amplify our creativity are, in many ways, diluting it. Gen AI, whose development was once seen as proof that creative roles were safe from the robots, now risks becoming the architect of a homogenised, beige creative landscape as our industry continues its race to make more, with less. We are happily sacrificing much of the intelligence, process, strategic nous and creative rigour that we know work along the way, and with that making ourselves even less valuable and more replaceable as an industry.
I’ve been there – seeing the vision for intelligent and creatively exciting work on the web be eaten in a sea of sameness, and through the excitement of social integration across everything for more creative output, that quickly became nothing but formulaic walled-garden platforms to add to the soul-sucking data machine.
In our excitement for the new, we risk yet another wave of self-sabotage – we devalue ourselves at our peril. I’m not having it - not when there are clear, simple and achievable things that we can do to create the creative future we want for us, and our clients.
Artificial stupidity?
Even for the best creative agency, the real obstacle isn't AI itself but the lack of knowledge on how to use it effectively. Many conversations around AI in creative industries centre on copyright issues or worries about how AI models are trained. However, these discussions often lack depth, resulting in misconceptions. Creatives are in a race - though not with AI but with the risk of losing control over their tools and creative processes.
- There needs to be investment in training for creatives, even if they choose not to use it
- Removing the fear around AI and building more fluency in the tools makes better work
The Isolation of AI in Creative Agencies
Within agencies and networks, AI often finds itself confined to the tech departments, siloed away from the people making the work. This segregation is born from a culture gap - a chasm of discourse and a lack of investment in training. Creatives, unversed in the language of algorithms, miss out on the benefits AI can add when wielded with insight and imagination. As Nik Roope aptly observes, this disconnect stifles the collaborative potential that could lead to groundbreaking work. It also means that we’re often building the wrong tools. It’s even apparent in the language we use. When copywriting has never been more important, it’s rebranded as ‘prompt engineering’. The language of development, not creativity.
- A collaborative culture with the space and energy to ask questions means everyone learns
- The development of tools need to be in collaboration with the creative people using them
Clone city
Generative AI platforms offer exciting possibilities for every creative studio, but they also bring concerns about bias and the tendency to homogenise content. These tools reflect the data they’re trained on, which can reinforce stereotypes or fail to provide diverse representations. This is particularly problematic when such biases are reproduced on a global scale, feeding into a "bland" uniformity that lacks the richness of highly-trained skills in the creative department like good taste, being able to spot and build on a big idea, and feeling in your gut when you’ve hit creative gold.
And it’s never been more important to work with creative talent with diverse perspectives who can both spot issues and add depth to the work. AI learns from data—a reflection of our world’s existing narratives and biases. Without intentional curation and steering, AI regurgitates the familiar, amplifying dominant voices while muting the diverse chorus that fuels true creativity. This unintentional reinforcement of homogeneity not only impoverishes our creative outputs but also perpetuates systemic inequities.
- Agencies need to see AI as a set of tools to enhance creative talent
- Your cultural wealth as a creative has never been more important in a gen AI world
The Vanishing Playground of Experimentation
Creativity thrives in the sandbox of experimentation, where ideas are free to clash, meld, and evolve. Yet, the modern emphasis on efficiency has cordoned off this playground. Creatives, pressed for time, are funneled into the path of least resistance, foregoing the messy, iterative processes that birth innovation. This shift sacrifices the serendipity found in unstructured exploration, leading to work that is safe but soulless.
The best way forward is to embrace the playfulness and unpredictability of AI. Creativity has always been about smashing things together in unexpected ways, and AI adds another layer to that process. By remaining curious, experimenting with new tools, and learning from the AI-driven hallucinations, creatives can continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
The future of creativity doesn’t lie in resisting AI but in understanding how to use it.
Hallucinations - the strange, unexpected results AI sometimes generates - aren’t necessarily errors but opportunities. AI isn’t a fact-checker or a search engine; it’s a pattern-recognition machine. When it goes off-script, it can guide creatives into unexpected spaces, revealing new possibilities.
- Play with all the tools you can get your hands on, it’s how you learn
- Make mistakes, make something silly, embrace the unpredictable
- Make space and time for creative people in the agency to explore AI as an open world
The Marginalization of Creative Vision in Business
Despite the irrefutable evidence that creativity propels business growth, it often sits at the periphery of corporate strategy. Creative professionals, sidelined in decision-making arenas, find their insights and work undervalued. Creativity is seen as frivolous, or a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than the core of our value to clients. This marginalisation leads to missed opportunities where AI could be harnessed to elevate artistry rather than streamline mediocrity.
The corporate world’s infatuation with efficiency, championed by financial gatekeepers, casts a long shadow over creative endeavors. AI is pigeonholed as a tool for cost-cutting, not as a partner in creative exploration or something that can drive effectiveness alongside incredible talent. This myopic view constrains AI’s transformative potential, resulting in outputs that are predictable and uninspired. This is not where the value to our clients lies.
- Creative practitioners need a louder, collective voice in the industry
- Creative talent should be at the heart of every creative business
Reclaiming our creative value
The ‘enshittification’ of creative work through AI is not a foregone conclusion but a clarion call to action. To avert this beige apocalypse, we should integrate AI expertise within creative teams, champion diversity in talent and training in those who will be using it creatively, reclaim time for playful experimentation, and elevate the role of creativity in business strategy. By doing so, we can transform AI from a purveyor of sameness into a catalyst for a renaissance of imagination, restoring the vibrant hues of human creativity.
Rather than viewing AI as a threat, it’s time that agencies and creative people see it as a brilliant new tool in the tool box - one that can be molded, shaped, and used to open up worlds of possibility.
As the creative agency landscape continues to evolve, those who stay curious, informed, and engaged will be the ones who drive the future of creativity. So get curious, make time to explore, play and discover!
Uncharted is a creative studio built for the future. We guide brands into culture with confidence. As a brand agency founded by three award-winning advertising industry leaders and innovators, we’ve put AI at the heart of the agency, using the best technology (from data and insight, research, creative testing and iteration) to give our creative ideas real cultural power and to give our clients more certainty of highly effective advertising. As a female agency, we have gathered a diverse team of makers and thinkers because we believe that diverse talent delivers more creative and impactful work. Our aim is that this will make us one of the best ad agencies in London and an independent agency who is making a difference to our sector and the wider world.
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Laura Jordan Bambach, Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Unchartered
Monday 19th May 2025
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