It’s spring 2023. I’m sitting across from a talented illustrator at our local café, trying to convince her to take on a long-term project. She’s thriving—so busy with her stock illustration work that she barely has time for coffee, let alone new commitments. Her art flows steadily onto platforms like iStock, each piece adding to both her income and her growing portfolio.
Eighteen months later, I spot her at a party. The conversation is completely different. The steady stream of commissions has dried up, and she’s quietly considering abandoning the career she’s spent years building. What she didn’t know—what none of us knew—was that every illustration she and thousands of other artists had uploaded was being quietly harvested. iStock would later reveal the truth: their AI Generator, “powered by NVIDIA Edify, was trained exclusively on our own creative image library and proprietary data.”
The very success that made her too busy to take on new work in 2023 would become the foundation of the technology that eliminated that work entirely.
The Creative Displacement
A vast portion of publicly available online content has been harvested by major AI companies to train generative models, often without explicit permission from creators. The artists who unwittingly enabled these models would soon find themselves competing against their own work.
Creative jobs will inevitably be reshaped and reimagined. Careers will pivot. But in this unsettling transition period, we have an opportunity to fundamentally rethink the value of human-made creativity.
Emotional Branding as Social Responsibility
I specialize in bringing a human touch to tech companies through creative direction and brand building. With budgets shrinking, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify spending on human talent when AI can deliver visually similar results. The uncomfortable truth is that creative outputs from AI and human artists often look identical to untrained eyes.
Companies now face a conscious choice: hire humans or type prompts. I believe brands should be emotionally rewarded if they continue investing in creatives, much like companies supporting environmental or social causes receive credit for their commitments. If consumers are 92% more inclined to trust companies working toward sustainability or social justice*, there’s a clear opportunity for brands to build credibility by consciously supporting creative talent.
Some artists will inevitably incorporate AI into their workflow. Yet they possess the sensibility and artistic knowledge that non-creatives lack—a human filter that technology cannot replicate.
Badges of Human Craft
Socially responsible companies communicate their values through recognized symbols: Certified B Corporation®, 1% for the Planet, Fair Trade Certified™. These badges create visual shorthand for corporate values, signaling a commitment to a better future.
I envision similar recognition for brands pledging to work with human creatives. These statements would create emotional equity for companies supporting talent in an AI-dominated landscape—turning human collaboration into competitive advantage.
The Premium of Imperfection
Like artisan brands that charge premiums for handmade irregularities, work touched by real creatives could command higher value. Imperfections create pathways to human connection, and connection deepens brand loyalty. This isn’t merely brand strategy—it has measurable financial benefits. According to The Corporate Governance Institute**, companies with strong ESG performance consistently yield higher returns than market averages.
Connection drives sales and builds loyalty. No brand can afford to lose its emotional edge.
The Flattening Effect
When I encounter AI-generated photos or videos, I’m struck by my own indifference. I’ve lost the ability to connect with the stories, characters, and environments. They feel flattened by an algorithmic sameness—technically flawless yet emotionally hollow. It’s like looking at a beautiful photograph through glass: everything appears perfect, but something essential is missing. The subtle imperfections, spontaneous moments, and human intuition that create genuine resonance have been optimized away.
Coexisting Thoughtfully
I benefit enormously from AI—it helps me brainstorm, refine concepts, draft emails, and explore visual ideas. This isn’t an argument for rejecting technology. It’s a call for more thoughtful integration.
We urgently need public discourse and policies that recognize human creativity as essential to a sustainable future. In a world racing toward efficiency, let’s not forget the imperfect, beautiful, irreplaceable contributions of real people.
*Source: https://quantive.com/resources/articles/2025-business-trends
**Source: https://www.thecorporategovernanceinstitute.com/insights/news-analysis/companies-with-good-esg-perform-better/
