Can Artificial Intelligence Replace a Creative Team?

Predicting the future is always a tricky business. But when it comes to the field of artificial intelligence (AI), there’s no question that this rapidly advancing technology is going to play a huge role in shaping our world over the coming years. So, what does that mean for businesses? Will AI eventually replace copywriters and designers entirely? Or will it simply augment their capabilities, allowing them to work more efficiently and produce better results? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, here are some things to consider with our current AI capabilities. 



AI cannot generate humor 

This should not come as a surprise, but machine learning has a long way to go in being able to be truly funny. It certainly tries. For example, Jasper AI (a copywriting tool) allows you to select the tone of the content you want to generate. When choosing “funny” or “humorous,” its results are embarrassing and cringeworthy. 

In one of our experiments, Jasper AI relied on using the same pun multiple times throughout a computer-generated blog post, which might have been slightly amusing the first time, but was ultimately eye-rolling as it continued to repeat its only good-ish idea. Unfortunately, making the same joke over and over doesn’t make it any funnier. 

Perhaps you have also seen AI try to write a stand-up comedy routine, as well. Unfortunately, these examples only further prove that algorithms do not understand humor, and certainly cannot say anything particularly clever or original. In these instances, only humans can produce quality humorous content due to the invisible influences of culture and subtext. 

AI makes a lot of mistakes 

If you play around with AI to generate images or content for even a few minutes, you will notice a lot of glaring errors. In the case of Jasper AI, it’s impossible to expect anything without technical mistakes. In fact, the longer the content, the more that it appears to break down. A blog post exceeding 250 words begins to throw grammar and punctuation out the window, and then repeats things that it already said in the blog post verbatim. 

For AI-generated images (like DALL-E or Midjourney), it seems obvious that the artwork was not created by a skilled designer. While it excels in producing abstract art, it struggles to design anything with human faces. Features become blurred and distorted, looking more like something out of a nightmare than a compelling marketing concept, demonstrating that you’re better off using stock photography where realistic imagery is concerned. 

AI poses serious ethical risks 

Even when AI behaves the way you want it to, using these tools to create original content and artwork for commercial use can be unethical, if not outright prohibited in the terms of use. While the AI would not have been able to generate the content without the human brain, humans could not have generated the artwork without the AI – a classic conundrum: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Nevertheless, it is important to read the terms of use when creating your account on these AI platforms as there are almost always stipulations with legal ramifications. 

But even if you are granted permission to use AI for commercial purposes, it is worth thinking about whether it is ethical to do so. Is it right to pass off unoriginal content as your own? And how would your audience feel if they discovered that the media they consumed was created by a computer? It is very likely that they would feel betrayed, and your brand would lose credibility, influence, and integrity.

AI is great for idea generation 

While we’ve determined that there are plenty of reasons not to rely on AI, we will admit that it is quite useful for generating ideas. Upon testing Jasper AI, our senior copywriter discovered that AI is helpful for creating possible outlines, headlines, and search engine optimized metadata. It could also be an efficient tool for building out topics for your content calendar instead of spending hours brainstorming. It still requires a highly skilled writer and researcher to ensure quality and accuracy, but it can save a lot of time. 

Designers are here to stay, especially when it comes to web design and user experience (UX). AI can create some interesting concepts for static designs like images or document layouts, and they might be suitable for quick mockups and mood boards, but web design requires significantly more research as well as the ability to interpret and apply that research creatively and functionally. Ultimately, you will still need a talented designer to create the final product. Beyond that, even if AI were able to design something of value, if you want to make any changes at all (including resizing), you will need a designer to edit it or even recreate it from scratch. Essentially, designers of all kinds, but UX designers in particular, offer invaluable talent and knowledge that simply cannot be replicated by a machine. 

Despite the hype, artificial intelligence has yet to supplant human creativity in most fields. After experimenting with some of the most popular AI tools, it is apparent that AI can't replace the knowledge and talent of a creative team, at least for now. You need a band of intelligent (human) creative minds that can create effective visual and written collateral for your business and your website. 

At Hoodoo Digital, now Rightpoint, we offer the real deal; knowledgeable and skilled designers, strategists, and writers that know how to create quality content that not only provides value to your audience, but also elevates your brand. 

There is nothing artificial about our intelligence. We’ll create something worthy of your business.