AI can do a lot of things well. But even those who run AI companies believe AI is still lacking in one critical area...

"I think it speaks to some essential property of creativity which these systems (AI) lack... The reason we're in this counter-intuitive place where every person, every human becomes a manager is because humans have intuition and creativity and these systems don't." -  Jack Clark, Co-founder, Athropic on the “Plain English” Podcast with Derek Thompson.

From this perspective, creativity can and must be a critical skillset of every working person going forward. The World Economic Forum listed creative thinking as the #4 core skill in its “Future of Jobs Report,” behind only things like analytical thinking and leadership but ahead of things like technological literacy and motivation.

Why is creativity more valuable than ever? If deployed effectively, it becomes a resilient, optimistic mindset that is still largely undervalued and under-utilized in businesses. And creativity supercharged with AI? That’s an exciting world we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of. But to do it, we need to understand what creativity actually is, and where it’s best deployed for success.

Creativity is a mindset, not a thing. 

A lot of people have turned creativity into a deliverable, rather than a mindset and framework for solving problems. Many people think creativity is a design, a poem, a piece of music, art, whatever. But those are outlets for creativity, not creativity in themselves.

That's not just us saying that, either. Rick Rubin put it as "The real work of the artist is a way of being in the world." His book, the Creative Act, is all about the mindset it takes to get to outcomes. Loads of other folks are beginning to look at, and even study, creativity this way. And it's not just artists: neuroscientists like Adam Green from Georgetown University have built their entire careers around the process and mindset of creativity.

When we expand how we define creativity to think of it more like a mindset, it opens up the world of possibilities for what we can do with it. It takes the exclusivity out of the equation, invites more people to the table, and expands thought and solution sets.

Creativity is pragmatic (when it needs to be). 

As much as people like to believe creativity is about light bulb moments and making something out of thin air, the truth is that (most of the time) it’s a little less magical than that. Creativity is about working within a set of parameters, and pushing to the limits of what’s possible within them. It’s not about tearing down an entire system and rebuilding (99% of the time), it’s about exploring what’s been done, finding what hasn’t, and pushing the limits of how to bring it to life. 

In that sense it’s not about creating things out of thin air, but rather putting puzzle pieces together, testing, refining, and finding the best possible solution.

Creativity is resilient.

Creativity doesn’t see challenges as dead ends, but rather speed bumps. Challenges to creative people are not things that stop you in your tracks and make you give up, but rather obstacles that just take slowing down a little, thinking, and moving intentionally to get over them. This blissful optimism that there’s always an answer becomes resiliency when the solution is found. 

Here’s an example. Solving education problems within the confines of the school often becomes political. When we worked with the City of Covington to create Read Ready Covington, everything about it was focused on taking learning outside of the classroom and into the community. We’re proud to say that not only has Read Ready made an impact in Covington where it began, but is also expanding to include its River City neighbors and beyond. 

Creativity helps you focus.

It’s easy in the AI-era to lose track of what you should say, where you should go, and how to do it. But creativity is all about finding whitespace, finding something that’s just a little bit different than the thing before, and that solution often creates a renewed focus. 

We are working with Globe Iron Roofing (Previously HKC Roofing) to reintroduce them to a commercial audience. In a roofing industry full of animal mascots and cute slogans, Globe Iron represents a technical expertise and craftsmanship that builds trust in the commercial sector. From redefining who they are, their expertise, and the ways in which to reach their commercial audience, we're helping them leave the cuteness behind.

Creativity can (and should) work alongside AI. 

Too much conversation around AI is centered in two extremes: those who gleefully welcome its obliteration of all human toil for the sake of efficiency (i.e., it’s the best thing since sliced bread and should take over everything), and those who see any use of it as plagiaristic, unethical, slop. What these two extremes miss is the ultra-powerful, more realistic middle ground. When implemented into the creative process, AI doesn’t become a lazy "yes" person, but rather a powerful expander of critical concepts and ideas. 

We worked with Vivitec to transform them from an commodity IT business into an AI company. To do that, we obviously couldn't do so if we had a distaste for the technology altogether. While so much of the negative conversation around AI appears to come from a position of speaking of Fortune 100 companies and greed, we and Vivitec honed in how this technology actually gives small to medium businesses an incredible advantage in the decades to come. Seeing as almost all of the companies in the US are small businesses, wouldn't a tool that could theoretically level the playing field for them be a net positive? The larger point here is that the conversation is much more grey than what you see online, and while not exclusively positive or negative, creativity helps you hone in on what your real story is.

Creativity Can (and should) be Your Competitive Advantage 

Creativity, redefined as a resilient, optimistic mindset applied to strategic problem-solving, is the ultimate competitive differentiator in the age of AI. The future-proofing organization is the one that has elevated the conversation around AI beyond mere optimization or replacement and is looking at how to radically retool everything they do to make sense of this new normal. Creativity is a critical piece in that evolution.

Enjoy Building. If you'd like to chat more about this and many other things, contact us today.