Is AI Eliminating or Enabling Creativity?

Have you realized that your social media feed are suddenly filled with anime version of your friends?

The ”Studio Ghibli” craze was a result of ChatGPT’s new image generation feature, which has helped the company acquire 1 million new users under an hour! (For context, when OpenAI launched the famous Gen AI tool back in November 2022, it took them 5 days to reach 1 million users).

And in the tradition of AirAsia’s famous tagline, I guess I can safely say that “Now anyone can draw!"

And that’s such a few shift from a mere 5 years ago.

You see, before 2020, AI is usually confined to back-office tasks or predictive dashboards. Today, it’s painting, writing, composing, and even cracking jokes. From Claude helping writers brainstorm plot twists to Midjourney generating digital art for album covers, from Sora enabling anyone to direct their own short films to Suno creating the soundtrack of your lives, generative AI is elbowing its way into the creative world.

Some call it a renaissance. Others call it the beginning of the end.

Here's the paradox: AI is making it easier—and in many cases, faster—to create. But does that mean we're actually becoming more creative?

Or are we outsourcing the heavy lifting of imagination?

Ok, this article isn't about hype or doom. It's about uncovering the narrative behind the story. We'll explore how AI is reshaping the creative process, who stands to gain, what we risk losing, and how to navigate this new frontier with our originality intact.

Whether you're an artist, a leader, or someone trying to make sense of all this noise, there's something here for you.

AI as a Creativity Enabler

Let's start with the good side of things.

Generative AI is more than just a shortcut. It can actually enhance human creativity in measurable ways. A study by UCL and the University of Exeter found that stories written with AI assistance were rated as more creative, more enjoyable, and better written than those crafted without it. Plot twists were sharper. Dialogue was less wooden. And the stories were, quite simply, more fun to read.

In practical terms, AI is acting like a creative co-pilot. It can suggest novel metaphors, generate melodies based on your mood, or remix visual art in ways you may never have imagined.

For every naysayer that see AI as the hijacker of the creative opportunity, you’ll get an enthusiast who laud it as the expander of the creative playground.

Designers, for one, are already seeing the payoff. According to an IBM report, AI helps creative professionals accelerate productivity and innovation without compromising on quality. 

Don’t think of AI as a competitor. Instead, it is thaat creative coach you have in your corner, helping to expand your perspecitve and extend your possibilities.

And it’s not just about “polishing” your creative works. AI helps in something more important-scaling your creativity. Research from PNAS Nexus found that text-to-image AI tools boosted artistic productivity by 25% and increased the chances of receiving audience engagement (likes, shares, saves) by 50%. That's not just improvement. That's transformation.

Even in marketing and advertising, teams are using AI to test multiple creative directions rapidly. Copy, visuals, messaging variations—all can be prototyped in minutes instead of days. This allows more time for strategic refinement and experimentation, more free time to ideate and explore, which ironically leads to more human creativity.

Some are even seeing AI acting as a muse. Artists are feeding personal memories, sketches, or cultural influences into models to co-create works that reflect their unique voice. Instead of replacing style, AI is helping some creatives explore dimensions of it they hadn't considered.

But of course, just like any tool, there’s also the shadow side.

AI as a Creativity Eliminator

Yes, AI can help you create faster. But at what cost?

The same UCL and Exeter study that showed AI-enhanced stories were "better" also found that they were more similar to one another. That's the tradeoff: AI boosts individual creativity—but chips away at collective novelty.

It's the Netflix effect: convenient, polished, predictable. And after a while... forgettable.

When everyone uses similar prompts, trained on the same data, through the same models, we start to get creative déjà vu.

Different faces, same story.

Different brushes, same strokes.

Different tunes, same song.

It’s similar as the effect of banner blindness in advertising as well. Even if different companies are promoting different products, but if the ad looks and feels the same, customers will just switch off.

It gets worse when we become too dependent. A researcher from the University of Cologne warned about the rise of the "Human Borg"—people who mimic AI outputs so much, they stop pushing their own creative boundaries.

Instead of challenging the machine, they have become the machine!

AI can flood you with ideas, but it can't judge what's meaningful, relevant, or you. That's where your critical thinking comes in. It's not just nice to have—it's the filter that keeps creativity from turning into clickbait.

🚨 Heads Up! Stay tunes to our next #bebrilliantwithAI article, where we will covering into AI and critical thinking! This initially was one section in this article, but as I was writing it, I realize the topic is way bigger, and deserves a piece on it’s own!

This also raises questions about cultural flattening. If most AI models are trained on dominant cultural datasets, will minority perspectives be drowned out? Will local traditions or niche aesthetics get overwritten by global trends?

The danger isn't that AI will kill creativity. It's that we'll stop caring whether it does. That the convenience will become the standard, and creative discomfort—the birthplace of originality—will fade into obscurity.

AI as a Creativity Equalizer

Here's where it gets exciting again.

One of AI's most powerful (and overlooked) effects is how it levels the playing field. You no longer need a diploma, fancy software, or years of experience to create something compelling. If you've got an idea, AI can help you express it.

In fact, the Science Advances study found that people considered "less creative" (based on pre-test assessments) produced stories that were 26.6% better written and 15.2% less boring when they had AI support.

That's a serious leap. In school, that would have been at least 1 leap in your grades!

This democratization is showing up everywhere—from classrooms where students use AI to develop their storytelling voice, to small business owners designing logos without hiring an agency. Copywriters can now influence beyond just words, as their breathe depth into their ads with videos and sounds. 

Heck, grandparents can now create storybooks based on their real lives to entertain their grandkids!

It breaks the old gatekeeping model and gives more people a seat at the creative table.

It also challenges our definition of "talent." Maybe it's not just about raw skill anymore. Maybe it's about knowing how to collaborate with the tools of the future.

We’re even seeing AI open doors for neurodivergent creatives—those who think visually, or struggle with writing structure, are using AI as a translator for their inner worlds. In this sense, AI is less a crutch and more an amplifier of perspectives that have been historically underserved.

The way I look at it, AI isn’t just about creating content. It’s about creating confidence. When someone who never considered themselves creative can now publish a story, produce a song, or design a logo, that changes how they see themselves.

Let’s be Professional and Talk Ethical Implications

Still, let's not pretend everything's fine and dandy.

If you ask around among your creative frriends, you'll hear stories of real anxiety. A recent survey revealed that 18% of designers believe AI will have a negative impact on their profession.

The fear isn’t about the creative profession, but creative devaluation.

When clients start asking, "Why pay you when AI can do this in seconds?", it hits hard.

But like all tools, not all disruption is destruction.

Some roles are being reshaped, not replaced. 

We're seeing a shift from creator to curator—from making everything by hand to guiding, editing, and elevating AI-generated outputs.

Still, there are limits. AI doesn't understand context (yet). 

It doesn't feel. It can't detect irony, cultural nuance, or the subtle tension that makes art resonate.

In other words, it can generate, but it can't originate.

As I was researching for this article, one of the comments caught my eye,

"Once AI takes over all the utility, what's left is the essential, spiritual nature of creativity."

That's your job now. To make things only a human could make.

And let’s not forget the legal and ethical grey zones.

Who owns an AI-generated piece of art?

Can you copyright a remix of a remix?

What happens when your original style is absorbed by a model and spit out by someone else’s prompt?

Sadly, I believe we are not a stage to provide concrete answers to these emerging quesitons yet. These are real, messy issues everyone in the creative field needs to struggle with.

But I think the biggest question of all is this:

Do we wait until the rules are written, or be the one writing the rules?

Where Do We Go From Here?

AI is not something we can put back into the bag that we took it out from.

There’s no CTRL+Z, or a massive UNDO button for us to press.

It’s here, and it’s not going away, whether we look at it as the hero or the villain.

The real opportunity lies in learning how to use it intentionally.

Imagine a future where AI takes care of the repetitive drafts, freeing you up for the risky, emotional, unpredictable parts of the process. Where the machine generates a dozen variations—and you, the artist, choose the one with soul.

But that only happens if we stay engaged. If we stay curious. If we stop expecting AI to be a muse and remember that it's a mirror. It reflects what we feed it—nothing more, nothing less.

The best creative professionals of the future won't be the ones who resist AI or blindly embrace it. They'll be the ones who co-create with it, fully aware of its strengths and its blind spots.

Perhaps a good mindset shift is this: treat AI not as a threat, but as a sparring partner.

Let it challenge your instincts, not replace them.

Let it push your thinking, not define it.

Let it show you the blind spots, not blind you.

Great artists have always used tools. This one just happens to talk back.

If we can adopt this mindset, AI becomes less of a black box and more of a sandbox—a place where creative play, discipline, and disruption can coexist.

We’re Back At The Start

So, is AI eliminating or enabling creativity?

I hate to give you this answer, but...: it depends on you.

It can elevate your work or flatten it. Spark new ideas or lull you into autopilot. Democratize the process or homogenize the outcome.

The way I look at it, creativity isn't dead. Far from it. It's just being redefined.

And in this new era, your imagination isn't obsolete—it's the creative director. AI may be your intern, your sidekick, your sandbox. But only you can decide what's worth making.

In times like this, I’m again brought back to my days at the temple, where my Master would teach me about the “middle path”. That, I believe, could be the best answer for now. We cannot be overly dependent on AI, or can we deny it’s existance.

Walk the middle path, and on it, may we find the essence of our creativity.