“Will AI replace creatives?” The question comes up in every meeting, often as a caricature: either AI is a threat or it is progress. At That Dog we prefer another question: what does AI actually change in a profession, and what does it still not do in the professional’s place? Here is our point of view, presented as such: an analysis, not a study.
AI automates tasks, not a profession
A creative profession is not a single task. A photographer does not only “make” images: they understand a brief, scout a location, choose a light, direct a person, pick one frame out of a hundred and answer for the result in front of the client. Generative AI can already produce some deliverables; that is one part of the chain, not the whole chain.
What changes is the balance: some steps get faster, others gain value because they become rarer.
What remains deeply human
- Choice. Producing a hundred options is easy; knowing which one serves the project is a profession.
- Art direction. A coherent universe from the first image to the last.
- The relationship. Understanding what the client really means, sometimes better than they do.
- Accountability. Someone must answer for the result, the rights and the brand image.
- The real world. A light, a place, a face, the unexpected: everything that happens on a set.
Not every profession is exposed in the same way
In our view, highly standardised, repetitive work with no brand stakes is the most exposed. Missions where the value lies in the idea, the direction and the relationship are less so, and can even be enriched by new tools. Institutions are following the topic closely: the CNC has opened an observatory dedicated to AI and Afdas has published a study on its effects on creative professionals.
Our position: AI is a tool, the profession remains an expertise
We are neither “pro-AI” nor “anti-AI”. A tool is only worth something in the hands of someone who knows what they want and can judge the result. That is the line of this section: we do not ask AI what it thinks of the professions, we ask the professions what they think of AI.
To go further: the CNC’s AI observatory (in French) · the Afdas study on generative AI (in French)
Key takeaway. AI automates tasks; choice, direction and accountability stay human. Discover our approach in Business video.
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