Data study ·
Research: generative AI is causing creative processes to collapse
Original title, in French: “Research: Gen AI Is Collapsing Creative Processes ^ H09AX3”
- Publication
- Harvard Business Review (United States) · subscribers only
- Author
- Jana Retkowsky
- Published on
- 16 September 2026 · read in the publisher's feed
Summary
A year-long study of senior creatives in charge of television and streaming advertising campaigns shows that generative AI, although it speeds up brainstorming and the visualisation of ideas, also causes traditional creative processes to collapse. According to the research, AI outputs, often produced by a single person equipped with a tool, look so polished that clients fixate on AI-generated details that are impossible or costly to reproduce, which forces production teams to spend unplanned time reworking ideas and deliverables. The authors recommend that leaders involve downstream specialists early, clarify what AI-generated concepts represent, preserve options and set up validation points with clients, without slowing the adoption of AI.
Summary based on the beginning of the article, the rest being restricted to subscribers.
Read the article on Harvard Business Review →Classification
- Country
- Worldwide scope
- Company size
- All sizes
- Industries
- Media, communications, marketing
- Keywords
- generative artificial intelligence, advertising creation, creative process, TV and streaming campaigns, AI adoption
Entry written by Marsanne Studio from the cited article, with the help of an AI model (claude-sonnet-5). The rights to the article and its illustrations belong to Harvard Business Review and its author. Entry translated from French by Claude Sonnet 5.5.