"If we get GenAI wrong, we risk undermining creativity and hollowing out careers. If we get it right, we can inspire greater creativity." - Neil Davidson, CEO HeyHuman.
As part of my ongoing research at Aston Business School, I’ve been delving into how creatives can engage with generative AI (GenAI) without compromising the essence of creativity. This isn’t about chasing the latest tech trend, it’s about rethinking how we position AI in our work, how we communicate its role, and how we help our clients understand its impact on creative value.
To navigate this evolving space, I’ve developed a framework called CREATE a guide to adopting GenAI with care, purpose, and integrity.
Collaborate With Clients
Clients want innovation, but they also want reassurance. When GenAI is seen only through the lens of speed or cost-efficiency, we miss the bigger opportunity: enhancing creativity. Many clients are understandably cautious, with valid concerns around ethics, legal risks, and brand alignment.
What you can do:
Proactively share your AI learnings. Use them to fuel meaningful dialogue – not just about tools or timelines, but how GenAI can enhance creative value in ways that matter for each unique brand.
Respect Individual Differences
Every person engages with new technology differently. Some are eager to explore; others are hesitant or skeptical. GenAI adoptions isn’t a uniform process especially among creative professionals, who bring varied mindsets and working styles.
What you can do:
Take time to understand how your team feels about GenAI. Where are the points of friction? What excites them? Build your rollout strategy around these human insights.
Enable Experimentation
Genuine discovery often begins with play. When teams have room to explore GenAI tools informally, they build confidence and surface important questions: technical, ethical, and creative. Some of the most successful implementations began as experiments or passion projects.
What you can do:
Create safe spaces for experimentation. Set clear boundaries for IP and privacy and make it a habit to share both wins and failures across the team.
Amplify What’s Working
Innovation doesn’t always come from the top down. Some of the most impactful GenAI use cases emerge from unexpected places. Spotting and supporting those early adopters can create a ripple effect across the organisation.
What you can do:
Identify your internal champions. Empower them to lead and use their insights to shape your broader approach- balancing grassroots momentum with strategic oversight.
Target Real Problems
You don’t need a grand strategy to start. The most meaningful GenAI use cases often solve small, persistent issues. Those tedious, time-consuming tasks that drain energy and distract from high-value work.
What you can do:
Look for low-hanging fruit: admin tasks, repetitive edits, workflow bottlenecks. Let usefulness not novelty drive your first steps with AI.
Establish Policies and Evolve Models
If you’re using GenAI, you need guardrails. A clear policy creates confidence and clarity, outlining how to use AI responsibly in line with your organisation’s values. At the same time GenAI is reshaping what we create and how we deliver it – your pricing and scoping models need to evolve accordingly.
What you can do:
Integrate GenAI into your creative, commercial, and cultural frameworks. Build policies that enable responsible use and revisit your business models to reflect the new ways value is being generated.