AI and artists can click – a new manifesto for modern creativity

The UK is both an epicentre of global creative industries and a budding AI powerhouse. Here’s how it can balance support for creatives while also embracing technological changes

What does it mean to be a creator in today’s modern world when artificial intelligence is reshaping relationships between humans and technology?

That’s one critical question the UK creative industry has been asking itself as AI rips up traditional conventions on copyright, ownership, effort, and originality.

For the UK government, it’s a tricky tightrope to walk. The nation must remain at the epicentre of worldwide creativity – the industry’s goods and services are worth £145.8bn to its economy (and offer plenty of soft power too). Meanwhile, there has been a consistent consensus in Whitehall on a desire to drive growth as a global AI superpower.

To achieve both, politicians must explain and show how this technology is a force for good, augmenting people’s creativity, skills, and ingenuity, rather than replacing it.

Adobe’s Simon Morris, vice-president of international marketing, explains how it’s an innate human desire to express ourselves. “That is not something that can be replicated by tools,” he says.

“Creativity is fundamentally a human trait. AI will simply empower creators to do more. It is already enhancing efficiency and unlocking new artistic possibilities, allowing them to push the boundaries of innovation.”

The “most innovative, groundbreaking work” happens, Morris suggests, when creators are most empowered to experiment and take risks. But to adopt greater levels of AI into their specialisms they also need to feel confident about its use.

“When AI absorbs tasks like retouching and resizing, it hands creators back the one thing they can never get enough of: time to think and experiment,” says Morris.

According to Adobe’s latest Creators’ Toolkit Report, there is already positivity around the technology; 87% of creators using creative AI say it has accelerated the growth of their business or audience. Two-thirds also believe creative AI has made them feel more confident as a creator, more professional in their creative work, or more serious about their creative work.

When gen Alpha leaves education to become tomorrow’s workforce, it will then be as instinctive a creative tool as a pencil and paper have been to previous generations. Of course, there will be differences in age groups, but for today’s teenage and adult gen Zers, AI is now central to their creative vision.

Adobe is already preparing for this future with its Adobe Creative Apprenticeship Programme, which helps aspiring designers, illustrators, photographers, and videographers with support to navigate the creative industries.

This programme, says Morris, gives emerging creatives real-world job, mentorship and networking opportunities, including paid projects to build portfolios, confidence, and relationships with industry professionals.

Leah Goulbourne is one of those who took part when a tutor suggested it post-graduation; it led to a role at branding and design agency NOT Wieden+Kennedy. “I had no professional experience in design,” she says, “so going straight into it was an incredible opportunity to learn in such a creatively ambitious environment, surrounded by people whose work I admire. It has accelerated my development in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”

The placement has “reignited” Goulbourne’s love for graphic design and shown her “just how much value there is in raw human creativity, taste, and collaboration”. It also opened her eyes to AI’s potential, which she uses to create mock-ups, visualise concepts, and explore ideas quickly.

“I used to be very iffy about AI, worried it would make junior design roles redundant,” she says. “But my experience has shown the reality is much more nuanced. It’s saved me countless hours in research and painstaking tweaks in Photoshop, which means I can spend more time focusing on the thinking and craft behind the work.

“As AI becomes a bigger part, I think adapting will be less about competing with technology and more about using it thoughtfully to complement human creativity.”

Lilia Quinaud, design director at NOT Wieden+Kennedy, adds that “as the creative landscape continues to evolve, the skills that will become increasingly valuable are the ones that make us human: empathy, intuition, emotional understanding and the ability to recognise a powerful idea before it’s fully formed. Tools can help us make things faster, but they can’t replace the ability to understand people and create work that genuinely connects.”

For the next generations of UK creative talent, continuing to enhance their technical skills around AI will surely be key to balancing the UK’s ambitions for AI leadership. The government has a Creative Industries Sector Plan and there are definite economic incentives to preserve aspects such as copyright while maintaining an appeal to companies looking to use the country as a base to invest in, and scale, AI.

Policy choices therefore must encourage new innovation while ensuring creatives are empowered and protected. Greater governance to safeguard the value and rights of creators and their creations will be paramount if the benefits of any future AI-led cultural and creative revolution are to be spread fairly. For example, 90% of creators in Adobe’s research felt it was important to be able to obtain copyright protection for work created with assistance of creative AI.

Stefanie Valdés-Scott, head of policy and government relations EMEA at Adobe, agrees, suggesting economic growth from creativity must be shared across the nation, while copyright frameworks are modernised to build stronger trust.

“We need to give the next generation tools to help the UK maintain its position as a creative and AI powerhouse,” she says. “And we need to make policy choices that sustain economic incentives to create. At Adobe, we are actively engaging with the government to position the UK as the global standard-bearer for getting this right.”

Dealing with bad actors who seek to use AI to threaten creators’ livelihoods, whether through stealing their work, replicating it at scale, or automating their uniqueness in ways that reduce potential earnings, is a clear and present challenge.

“Current copyright law does not protect artists from unauthorised AI-driven imitation of their style for commercial gain,” warns Valdés-Scott, who cites the Creator Act in the US as a potential solution. It aims to offer meaningful recourse against this form of exploitation, which is why she adds: “The UK should also modernise its legal framework to protect creatives from this harm.”

Adobe’s findings showed how nearly three-quarters (73%) of UK creators described creative AI as already integrated or essential to how they work; two in five (42%) said creative AI makes them feel more secure about their future as a creator.

Confidence and trust will then become even more vital when, according to Morris, 16.6 million people in the UK are contributing to the creator economy by the end of next year. That’s close to a quarter of the UK’s population.

Morris’ firm belief is that much of what truly counts for creativity can’t ever be “delegated” to a tool. “It is a combination of artistic taste, storytelling instinct, cultural context, and the creator’s lived experience that gives a piece of work its meaning,” he explains. “AI should operate the way the best creative technology always has, invisibly in service of the vision, never in place of it.”

But while the fear of AI often focuses on making the creative industries less equal, Morris also suggests the opposite can be true, if it is used appropriately. “AI plays a transformative role in empowering everyone to create,” Morris says. “The young people, like Leah, who develop that breadth of skills will be in a powerful position to enter the industry with greater confidence and competence.”

Maybe that’s the lesson because, as Valdés-Scott concedes, being pro-creator doesn’t have to mean being anti-AI. In fact, she acknowledges: “their fates are intertwined”.

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