Why taste still wins in the age of AI

Recently we sponsored and spoke at the inaugural AIMI Conference in Brighton, a brand new event exploring how the arrival of artificial intelligence in advertising, film, music, and visual arts, is reshaping creative industries.

Our CEO Antony spoke about how AI isn’t a replacement for creativity, it’s more of a creative partner – capable of speeding up thinking, execution, and iteration.

Too often, people mistake AI for a simple tool—like Photoshop or a word processor. But AI isn’t just another software update; it’s a platform for creating new tools entirely.

We’re in what some call the ‘in-between times.’ The tech is here, we’re using it, some people are innovating with it, but we don’t yet know what its full impact will be. We can’t yet imagine how this technology will be used. It took 20 years after the invention of electricity for street lamps to be electric instead of hand lit every night with fire. Like with any revolution, it takes time for adoption and imagination to catch up. We’re in that phase now with AI.

Creative directors, copywriters, designers, illustrators, artists of all kinds – what sets them apart isn’t their ability to produce, but their ability to discern. AI can generate endless iterations, but human taste can make the call on what’s great and what’s just noise.

At Brilliant Noise, we’ve worked with hundreds of leadership teams and agencies over the last two years and one pattern we’ve noticed is that the people most resistant to AI adoption are often the ones who stand to gain the most from it. It’s the creative leaders who are often the most sceptical. Scepticism is encouraged of course. But their emotional response is often because expertise is hard-won. We’re promised that if we just do the work, we’ll be great one day. So it’s no wonder that many people think generative AI is cheating. The traditional notion of creativity is that good art takes time. In a new era of low-cost, high-quality outputs our value is TASTE. As products and art become easier and cheaper to make, taste will become the ultimate creative commodity.

One way we have learned to move from scepticism to possibility is through AI vertigo. There’s a shift that happens when someone experiences AI’s capabilities firsthand. It’s the moment when you see AI do something you didn’t think was possible, and it unsettles your sense of reality. The key to overcoming resistance is often direct experience. Hands-on experimentation. Seeing the value for yourself. Surprise.

At Brilliant Noise, we have a collective favourite meeting: the AI Show n Tell meeting. This is where we each have five minutes to demo one thing we’ve done with AI that week that’s surprised us. It’s the most fun meeting of the week, as well as the most productive, leading us to innovate, learn and expand our skills as individuals and as a team. It’s been so valuable for us, we encourage all our clients to do the same.

If you’re in a leadership position in a creative industry:

• Don’t wait for certainty. Nobody knows exactly where this is going. But waiting on the sidelines isn’t an option.

• Invest in AI literacy. You don’t need to be a prompt engineer, but you need to understand the unusual position we’re all in to expand our possibility space when using this technology.

• Experiment deliberately. Run small tests, hold weekly show and tell meetings, and build a culture of AI curiosity.

• Reclaim your time for taste. Sooner than you might think, AI will handle the grunt work – leaving you more space for strategic thinking and innovation.

We don’t believe that AI is going to replace creatives. The opportunity here isn’t just about working faster, it’s about working differently and better. If we are going to have time back, what amazing things will we do with that time?