The rise of generative AI and its impact on creativity
- By Hope Cryer
- December 16, 2025
When I started my undergraduate degree in English Literature in 2021, I imagined a career based in creativity. I love storytelling and I wrote my dissertation on the evolution of storytelling through history using the repetition of certain tropes. I concluded that we look back to these stories to seek comfort but to also inform us about our uncertain futures. I ultimately decided that this is what makes us human. Four years later the world I graduated into was not one I expected, it was something out of science fiction. AI tools could now write essays, draft campaigns, design visuals and analyse data in seconds.
The creative and marketing industries have transformed dramatically because of this. The rise of generative AI and the cultural dominance of platforms like TikTok have reshaped how people search, consume, recommend and trust.
So rather than listing ‘top trends’, I wanted to explore a bigger question that’s guided my own journey into marketing:
What does AI mean for creativity and how do brands stay genuinely human in a digital world?
AI has changed the first step of any consumer journey: discovery. People are not searching anymore, they are asking. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini summarise, interpret, and personalise information instantly. People now ‘expect AI to understand what they mean, not just what they type’[1] leading to search becoming more conversational and familial. This shift from search engines to AI engines is pushing brands toward content grounded in lived experience instead of keywords. The more capable AI becomes, the more human insight matters – ‘blog posts written from lived experience will influence AI search results’[2], which is reflected in automated advertising. Targeted ad models brought in by Reddit proved to be effective, with 76% of social media users finding the blog-based platform ‘more trustworthy than any other social platform’[3] because of its active and engaged user base. It’s no longer about attracting the biggest audience but about producing content that speaks directly to a specific group – content that will naturally lead to the conversions AI uses to predict and target.
AI and TikTok
If AI is changing how we discover information, TikTok is changing how we decide what we like. Its culture is collaborative instead of polished – built around stitches, duets and reaction videos that rely on real people taking part. This has shifted trust away from brands and towards creators, friends, and communities. Funnily enough nostalgia has resurfaced as a grounding force. A similar argument to my dissertation, brands are revisiting older logos, styles, and stories because familiarity feels comforting during rapid technological change – success now often comes from ‘creating new memories from old ones’2 because this identifies them as human.
So, what does this mean for creativity? AI and social media are reshaping marketing from two angles: one technological, one cultural. AI handles efficiency and social platforms handle expression. At the centre point between them is where creativity now lives. Brands that succeed in 2026 will be the ones that use AI to enhance their thinking, not to replace it.
