World-renowned tech and business journalist Kara Swisher, recently said, "Anything that can be made digital, will." This statement illustrates exactly the future that creative teams are rapidly advancing towards and need to prepare for.

There is an emerging new vision on the horizon regarding how an increasingly digitized workflow, driven by AI and other innovations in the creative process, may shift how we create content in the future. It’s also shifting when and how this content is experienced.

While there are still more questions than answers, I’ll do my best to peek into my crystal ball and contextualize the moment that we’re in.

Am I Being Replaced by Robots?

The creative industry is experiencing a global panic with the introduction of AI tools like Dall-E and ChatGPT. However, it's important to recognize that AI has been present in our lives for years through tools like Photoshop plug-ins and Netflix algorithms.

The creative team of the future will likely have AI "co-pilots" infused in their planning, decision making, and content creation processes. Adobe has already introduced a suite of AI-driven tools that can aid collaboration and generate new imagery, providing results that may never have been thought of.

While AI can never replace human creativity and expertise, some roles will likely shift as generative AI becomes embedded in our tools. Content with many iterations or repetitive tasks may transfer towards an AI-driven workflow or tools. A good deal of analytical and planning tools are likely to arise and replace some of mundane and non-value add tasks every team struggles with.

But after a natural evolution in our ways of working, AI will provide the opportunity to enhance our creative processes, focusing on unique human skills like intuition and empathy. So let's stop fearing the thousand-pound robot in the room and instead, start exploring the endless possibilities that AI can bring to our industry.

Do 3-D Renders Mean the End of Photography?

Over the past 15 years, IKEA has shifted its catalog production from traditional photography to being mostly digitally rendered in 3-D. This change has revolutionized the company's workflow and transformed the skill sets of their workforce. Customers haven’t noticed.

Many other retail industries are following suit, with fashion brands using software to create hyper-realistic digital patterns and experiences for customers. While the quality of clothing renders is high, replicating humans entirely in 3-D has not yet been successful. However, software like Lalaland.ai and others have come to the market that incorporate and manipulate photography to create photo-realistic renders of models, and products can easily be placed in scenes with realistic results.

Despite the shift towards digital, photography is unlikely to disappear entirely as a medium in marketing and e-commerce, especially in this hybrid moment. However, the use of digital rendering and 3-D models is likely to become more prevalent, reducing the need for thousands of products to be shipped across the globe to industrial-scale photo studios.

It's important to remember that the trend towards digitization is still in its early stages, and significant coordination across industries will be necessary for this future to be realized. Nonetheless, the potential benefits of using virtual models and 3-D renders in retail are clear, as they offer a more efficient, sustainable, and flexible way to create compelling imagery and product experiences for customers.

NFTs and the Metaverse: Hype or Opportunity?

Approaching the Metaverse and NFTs with an open mind but caution is crucial. Even though the Metaverse is not yet fully adopted by most people, the younger generation is already spending billions of dollars on digital goods and skins in gaming alone. So, whether we like it or not, this is the future of how we interact with digital content. Although the hype around NFTs has cooled off, there is still an opportunity for companies to explore this space, and creative teams will likely be requested to create Metaverse experiences and generate 3-D assets that feed the NFT market as Gen Z and younger consumers age into the market.

While the Metaverse and NFTs offer new opportunities for brands to engage with their audiences and transform the creative process, seeking out experts to advise on building these channels and environments is vital, in my experience. It may not be the best-fit solution for all companies, and some may need to wait for the technology to mature before investing.

Kerry Murphy, CEO of the Fabricant, noted that "NFTs and the Metaverse is 99% bullsh*t, but the 1% that isn't…is the future." Therefore, keeping a balanced perspective and monitoring these technologies is essential.

Are We Sacrificing Ethics for Innovation?

In April 2023, Levi’s announced that they would expand the diversity of their model base with the use of AI-generated models. This has sparked controversy and raised ethical concerns. Levi's faced backlash after using AI models to promote diversity in their advertising campaign, with critics arguing that AI diversity is not true diversity.

This is likely only the beginning of the controversy in leveraging AI tools and the displacement of roles in the creative process from innovation. There are already claims of manipulated imagery, misuse of images in learning models, and bias in training. Thankfully, initiatives are emerging to prevent the misuse of image rights like the collaboration between Adobe, Twitter, New York Times. The lesson here is that the tools you choose to use will reflect your company’s ethical stance towards hot topic issues like copyright and diversity.

The recent trend of layoffs tells us that companies are trying to cut costs wherever they can, even if it means outsourcing tasks or using new innovations emerging on the market. Creative leaders need to take a mature & proactive approach to these tools and identify the potential impact to their organizations and teams. If there isn’t already, there will likely be top-down pressure to find savings, and a good place to start is looking at how innovation can find efficiencies with content that is repeatable with many iterations.

Despite all the controversy, there is a silver lining here. These new innovations are making the creative process easier and helping our planet by moving towards a more sustainable digital supply chain. We can rely less on physical ways of working and be more environmentally conscious without having to ship products across the globe or use resources where they’re not needed.

Where Should a Creative Team Start?

Incorporating emerging technologies into creative workflows can be daunting, but there are a few steps teams can take to ensure success. The likely first step is to find someone on the team who is curious and enthusiastic about emerging technologies and can act as a go-to contact for evaluating new tools especially when an exec comes back from a conference with a shiny new technology. This person should research and catalog emerging trends and innovations to provide context for future requests.

The next step is to focus on the less sexy job of project management and governance. This will need to fit the organization's size, budget, structure, and priorities. This involves creating a project program that sets the strategy for innovation within the creative team, consolidating innovation-related projects, and focusing the overall structure towards key company objectives. In my experience each project should have a budget, expected results, identifiable stakeholders, and coordination and prioritization during key budgeting moments.

Managing innovation projects is similar to managing any other, but with more speculative outcomes. It requires imagination, curiosity, and persuasion to launch an innovation program successfully and a ton of coordination amongst stakeholders. It is crucial to remember that investing in emerging technologies is an ongoing process that requires constant evaluation and adaptation to stay relevant in an ever-changing landscape.