IMC 2025 | How AI is Transforming Creativity
How AI is Transforming Creativity: Reflections from the Alice in Marketingland Panel
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to join an inspiring panel at the IMC 2025 event, titled “AI & Creativity: Unleashing Creativity or Commodifying?”, alongside Costas Syrmos, Global Marketing Director at LEGO. The panel was coordinated by Artemis Lamprinidi, Head of Digital Marketing at COSMOTE Telekom. It was a privilege to share the stage with such talented individuals and exchange thoughts on one of the most defining issues of our time: how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping creativity, particularly in the world of advertising.
Here are some reflections I shared during the discussion.
On how I use AI
I use AI every day like a conversation partner — a tireless collaborator, always eager and very well-read, with whom I talk, share all my thoughts, and who helps me express what I’m thinking. I test scripts with it, sometimes I visualize them, and I even use it to present ideas to clients. And if we’re lucky and those ideas become reality, I can even use it to help me write the press release.
But I control the whole process. I think of AI like the Iron Man suit — it gives me unique capabilities and powers I don’t normally have. But inside, I remain a human being with my own intelligence, my own humor, and my own weaknesses, if you will. I can do things I couldn’t do before. And I’m the one driving the effort.
Can AI generate the next big idea — or just volume?
I believe that AI can’t generate the big idea. Because by definition, a big idea is something original that no one has thought of before. It’s a connection between two pre-existing ideas that someone brings together for the first time.
The way LLMs are built — trying to mimic how humans express themselves by predicting the next word — they are not able to go where humans have never been. Humans have the ability to think abstractly, to make free associations, and to reach new ideas — even if it means risking being wrong.
Also, a big idea, beyond answering all of a brand’s objectives, must speak directly to the audience it targets. Only a human can judge whether an unknown idea will truly move them. So the big idea, at least for now — thankfully — can only come from people.
Will all creative work start to look the same?
No, I don’t think all creative work will look the same. Sure, if someone gives the same generic prompt to a generative AI tool, they’ll get similar results. But it depends on what data someone uploads and how refined and specific their prompts are in order to stand out.
The difference will come from the people. And in fact, what we’ll start to see is that because AI multiplies our capabilities, the individuals and organizations who are already better at thinking will start to pull even further ahead. The gap will grow — and they’ll stand out even more in a world where everyone has access to the same tools.
Will AI replace creators in advertising?
No. Because advertising is essentially art in the service of commerce. And art is the attempt by certain people — artists — to express, in a work of art, everything they’ve observed about life and the human experience: their anxieties, their fears, their emotions, how they see people live life. All of this is embedded in a work of art, so that when the audience sees it, they feel those emotions.
It’s a conversation from one human to another — about what it’s like to be human. So by definition, AI cannot perform that process.
Another thing that audiences appreciate when they see a work of art is the human effort behind it — the dedication it took for someone to reach that level of expression and craftsmanship. No matter how impressive AI-generated images might be today, you may have noticed that we’ve already stopped being amazed by them. That’s because we don’t perceive any admirable effort behind them. We feel they simply came out of a machine. And so, that sense of value — the human touch, the passion someone poured into their work — is lost.
But because advertising is art in the service of commerce, AI can lower costs — which means better margins. Or it can allow us, in smaller markets like Greece with smaller budgets, to do things that resemble the kind of work that gets done in bigger markets with much larger budgets. So AI can help with that part a lot.
Final thought
I’m excited about AI. And I think we need to stop being romantic about the way things used to be. It’s as if we were living in the era of horses and carriages and someone had just invented the automobile. It’s time to stop being nostalgic — and to get in the car and drive fast, or we will be left behind.
