A.I. and the creative industries' five stages of grief

Howard Gray -

Last week I whipped up a quick LinkedIn post featuring a spec Adidas ad someone made using AI. It got 10x the engagement of any other post I’ve written. But a bigger surprise was seeing the Kubler-Ross in action.

You may know it as the 5 Stages of Grief:

  1. Denial
  2. Anger
  3. Bargaining
  4. Depression
  5. Acceptance

Given how negative and dismissive many of the reactions are (especially from people in the advertising  & marketing world), I can’t help feeling there are a LOT of people at Stage 1 and 2 right now.

While much of the critique focuses on a lack of pro finesse and style, one small inconvenience is that the ad was made by David Clark - a seasoned filmmaker & creative director. He wanted to try some experiments and not let his role be redefined by the tech. 

But the real insight I’m getting from all the negativity is a lack of foresight. Maybe you find the ad execution to be gauche. Fine. And we can shout about the importance of human creativity (me too!), but here’s the thing: AI is very unlikely to just go away because we tell it to. 

Today’s tools are a Nokia 3310, and the iPhones are coming. 

Much of my time is now spent getting a better handle on these tools, help teams integrate them into their workflows, and - most importantly - have more valuable and informed conversations about all this stuff.

I’m bemused why people would just dismiss it all out of hand. But perhaps it’s just the Kubler-Ross in action.

Even if AI doesn’t go much further, I know which side of it I’d rather be on. 

This is one grief cycle I’d strongly suggest working through - and fast.

P.S. I went through my own 5 Stages of Grief with that post getting so much more engagement than the other 300+ things I’ve written. Maybe it’s time I started using AI to write them…

P.P.S. Images in the diagram were generated by ScenarioAI, guided by… me.