Creating music, art, or ad films used to be really tough. Back then, artists and creatives had to spend countless hours coming up with something clever or personal, and then actually making something people enjoyed or resonated with. But that’s the past. 

Now, with shiny new AI tools, ideas take shape in seconds through simple prompts. They’ve made things faster, no doubt. But they’ve also made much of the content feel predictable and formulaic. You see generic presentations, templated LinkedIn posts, cookie-cutter websites, and ad films.

It reflects a deeper sameness in thinking, stripped of individuality and creativity.

And right on schedule for International Women’s Day, nearly every brand worth its salt is rolling out a campaign soaked in rights, equality, and empowerment, but most do not reflect women’s lived reality. 

SOMETHING HAS SHIFTED

There’s been a steadily growing mountain of AI-generated content. Some work, but most of them are bland or just bad.  

But something has shifted recently.

So what went wrong? Well, the visuals are polished, the grammar is perfect, the music is fine, but the whole thing feels off. Algorithms and data do not care about emotions and sensitivity.  And that is the real tragedy of all this AI slop. 

That gap—between something that looks correct and something that genuinely feels good—is what it’s all about. 

Generating content is not the same as shaping meaning. 

“AI has undeniably accelerated creative output, but speed has come at the cost of distinction,” says Joe Lahham, Managing Director of TBWA\RAAD.

As the same tools power automotive launches, telecom campaigns, and fintech platforms, Lahham adds, work increasingly converges—familiar hero films, interchangeable futurism, and a shared language of “seamless” and “next-gen.” 

“This is the consequence of optimization-led creativity: AI doesn’t invent differences, it reproduces consensus. And consensus never disrupts. AI hasn’t ended creativity, but it has made mediocrity scalable. In a world where ideas are instant, speed is no longer an advantage. Judgement is. Taste is,” says Lahham.

TECH DOESN’T LOWER THE BAR. PEOPLE DO

Supporters of AI creativity often use the word “democratization,” saying that AI tools remove barriers to creativity. But barriers have value. Because when tools take the lead, and people just follow, work can look polished but feel soulless, or worse, objectively bad.

While AI has made things faster, Fizo Younis, Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe Middle East, says, it’s “exposing how much of what we produce was already built on templates and safe formulas. When speed and cost efficiency become the main, and sometimes the only, objective, the sea of sameness will follow. These systems tend to generate the average of what already exists. The technology doesn’t lower the bar. People do.”

We have definitely seen this before, when brands began converging on the same visual style and thought leaders’ posts sounded the same. But now, audiences can smell AI-generated content, and they are starting to tune it out. 

“When people learn something was AI-generated, it cheapens the content, and they are more likely to dismiss it. You see the term ‘AI slop’ all the time on social media,” says Hadas Gold, AI Correspondent at CNN. “I think we will start to see a premium on human-generated content, just like how a handmade couture garment is considered to be of higher quality than a mass-produced, machine-made piece.

Most audiences aren’t analyzing production methods, says Younis, but they respond to meaning, emotion, and relevance. “When something feels hollow or generic, it gets a backlash, or worse, it gets ignored. That would have happened before AI as well. The medium evolves. Expectations of quality don’t.”

Lahham, too, agrees that audiences may not always identify AI explicitly, but they feel it. “There’s a growing sensitivity to work that feels hollow, overly polished, or emotionally flat. The backlash isn’t against technology—it’s against work that lacks intent, tension, or human insight. When brands replace meaning with mimicry, people disengage. When brands rely on AI to imitate emotion rather than create it, trust erodes. People don’t reject AI content; they reject content that feels manufactured instead of meant.”

That’s true. A short film by Publicis, produced for its 100th anniversary, was AI-generated and got rave reviews. 

Younis says, “I was moderating a panel with Leo Global President and CCO Marco Venturelli, and he spoke about the team working on the 100-year film. When they started, the tools were at one stage, and by the time they finished, they had already evolved. That says a lot about how fast this space is moving. In the end, it’s about how well the technology serves the story and the brand.”

The same was true of AI-led campaigns by brands like Valentino and Moncler. These ads were made with intention. A strong concept, guided by human judgement. 

JUDGMENT IS A VALUABLE CURRENCY

This is why the ability to discern real quality—to know what’s truly good—is becoming one of the most critical skills. What matters most now is not operating AI tools, but guiding them with intent and insight.  Taste, judgement, and sensitivity have always been the creative’s real superpower— and now they are essential tools. Ultimately, everything comes down to judgment: the ability to sense what will resonate with people.

“Today, judgment has emerged as creativity’s most valuable currency,” says Lahham.

In a landscape where ideas can be generated instantly, the real shift is not in making more, but in knowing what is worth making at all.

“Taste, cultural intuition, and critical thinking become essential filters—separating signal from noise. Creativity endures not by accelerating, but by slowing down: questioning outputs, resisting patterns, and choosing meaning over optimization. In an age of algorithmic abundance, judgment is what keeps creativity intentional, distinctive, and unmistakably human,” adds  Lahham.

Gold points out that as AI advances rapidly and personalized AI agents become more sophisticated, it will be harder to tell what was created without AI help. Still, it’s important to find a balance between what AI can do and human creativity. “The positive potential of AI should not be completely discounted, but it should be seen as a technological tool just like how a sculptor might use an electric drill in addition to a chisel.”

“I have no doubt human creativity will survive. There may be fewer who wish to pursue truly creative endeavors, but their work will likely be very valuable,” Gold adds.

If AI tools can create high-quality visuals with just a few simple prompts and craft engaging social media content, what unique value do creatives still offer? Figuring that out is exactly what will help creatives stay relevant in the years ahead.