AI Won’t Replace Creatives. It Will Expand Them.
In his provocative essay, The Real Creative Future After Cannes, Sami Viitamäki, founder of the innovation consultancy Futuriant, challenges the polarized narratives that dominated Cannes Lions 2025. The true transformation, he argues, isn’t a collapse of creativity under the weight of AI instead it’s a profound expansion of what creativity can be and I agree.
The piece, published on Imagineconomy, rejects both extremes of the debate. On one side: alarmists warning that generative AI will decimate creative jobs. On the other: purists insisting machines will never replicate human emotion. Viitamäki writes, “Both sides are wrong. Or rather, incomplete.” Instead, he proposes a more historically grounded view: that creativity always expands when production costs collapse.
From the printing press to smartphones, technological leaps have consistently increased the volume, diversity, and accessibility of creative work. With AI, he contends, we are entering “the age of the compound creative,” a professional who blends strategy, design, storytelling, and execution at scale, often using AI to do so.
“AI doesn’t just accelerate what you currently do,” Viitamäki writes. “It can expand you exponentially.” This transformation, he explains, means creatives no longer need to wait on collaborators to move from idea to execution. A strategist can prototype. A writer can design. A designer can animate. The result: fewer silos, faster iteration, and a surge in finished work that meets both creative and business goals.
The article’s implications for marketing communications are significant. Traditional specialization—brand, design, marketing, communications—no longer holds the same boundaries. Marketers who thrive in this environment will be those who develop fluency across disciplines and harness AI as a creative partner, not a threat.
Global labor data backs up Viitamäki’s thesis. Rather than shrinking, creative employment is growing. In the Philippines, seven million people now work in creative sectors, accounting for over 7% of GDP. Nigeria’s creative workforce is nearing 6% of national employment. “AI isn’t halting this,” Viitamäki notes. “It’s enabling more people to enter creative work, through better access to tools, knowhow and opportunity.”
The message to marketers is clear: evolve or risk obsolescence. Viitamäki distinguishes between those who merely perform routine creative tasks—who may be displaced—and those who exercise judgment, intent, and adaptability. “The creative who used to master one thing and dabble in three can now master three and operate across thirteen,” he writes.
At Cannes, this divide was visible. Some agencies demoed AI-generated content produced with no crews, no sets, and no scripts. Others insisted on human-led storytelling as a final stand for craft. Viitamäki cuts through the noise, noting the divide is not human versus machine, but between static roles and compound creators.
For marketing communications professionals, the path forward includes embracing AI to extend capacity, refining editorial judgment, and moving from content producers to strategic orchestrators. In an environment where “time to make something becomes less than the time to brief someone,” as Viitamäki puts it, communicators must learn to lead the entire process from ideation to execution.
Cannes Lions 2025 did not declare the death of creativity. Thanks to voices like Viitamäki’s, it signaled its rebirth as faster, broader, and more powerful than ever.
