Artificial Intelligence and the creative economy: friends or foes?

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to Ghana, Africa, and the global community.

However, amidst these adversities, we witnessed a remarkable surge in technological and digital adaptations, especially on the internet: FinTech applications – mobile money or internet banking, e-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI) are the most notable ‘gains’ of this dark time.

The period marked a positive disruption in Ghana’s tech landscape, with AI and digitalisation making significant impact across various sectors such as creative arts, finance, national security, healthcare, agriculture, and transportation (Dabalen and Mensah, 2023).

The ‘Creative Economy’ in Ghana, is a vibrant and dynamic sector encompassing music, film, fashion, arts and crafts, literature, and digital media contributing immensely to economic growth and employment while fostering cultural pride and identity.

In the past decade, increased recognition and support for creative talents have led to the establishment of festivals and events that celebrate local creativity. Some of such predominantly celebrated creative festivals or events are Afrochella and the Chale Wote Festival to name a few.

Digital technology has also boosted the global reach of Ghanaian creatives, facilitating collaborations and export earnings. Despite funding and infrastructure challenges, the resilience and innovation of Ghanaian creativity drive the sector’s progress, making it vital to the national economy (Owusu, 2024).

It is important to recognize the pivotal role that AI has played in navigating through that time in driving innovation across industries. But while we celebrate the advancements and opportunities AI brings, we should also acknowledge the ongoing discussions and concerns regarding its potential impact on job displacement, particularly within the creative economy in the next 10 years.

It has become crucial for creatives to stay proactive, adaptive, and continuously harness AI to enhance their efficiency, speed as well as their creativity, while ensuring that the creative workforce remains equipped and empowered for the future.

Now, the burning question is, should we worry that AI’s ability to improve productivity with less personnel while saving hours and cedis means job losses for copywriters, strategists, designers and other people in the creative industry?

Or should we embrace AI as an essential (and inevitable) tool for the future of creative ecosystems?

I lean towards the latter school of thought: adopting Artificial Intelligence and all its emerging bells and whistles will not lead to a scorched earth eradication of jobs in the Ghanaian creative scene. Rather, for those creatives who embrace it, it would lead to a new era of creative enhancement, intelligence and finesse.

At Innova DDB Ghana, we incorporate AI into several aspects of our daily workflow – desktop research, cracking the concept, idea visualization, copywriting, and of course project management– we are neck deep from 9 to 9.

While the ever-improving iterations of AI tools have been valuable to us in sparking creativity, collating information, generating audio, video and images, it still has not replaced the method and magic of making great adverts. It has improved it. Sped it up.

But a tool is only as good as its user. You must know the right prompts. Understand the premises of the research data. Draw the correct inferences and then know how everything digests the client brief into a wholesome solution.

As a through-the-line creative agency, we see AI as a friend. And there is backing in this research by Engine Creatives (2023), where one of the respondents indicates that “AI is the future and it’s getting better all the time. As with any change, we have to adapt to work with it rather than fear it”. But there are still some areas where our dear AI can do little or nothing to help us.

Cultural heritage and local insights

There is something about a people’s cultural heritage that machine learning models simply do not get. In Ghana, try as it might, AI is unable to fully interpret the SPIRIT of our beliefs. Our system of traditions plays a key role in many of the campaigns we craft for audiences within the country. It is a compendium of faith, fears and feelings that, though well documented online, is mostly unspoken, and more felt than known.

For instance, a campaign like MTN Ghana’s Independence Month Campaign features many modern-day quirks overlaid with visual cues of nkabom (togetherness) and blended perfectly using classic multi-dialect music.

The human touch will always be king

Personalized storytelling sells in Ghana; it makes for heartfelt creative content that connects with audiences – a human touch that makes all the difference. Those crafted narratives reflect local experiences and emotions which AI cannot achieve independently – it lacks that fundamental understanding of a people, of the times and of the triggers that can move them emotionally.

However, considering the lightning speed of development, I wouldn’t be surprised if this missing ‘touch’ is synthesized in the near future.

Originality still reigns

Creative communication is all about originality. Think about it.  An infectious jingle, a side-splitting video, a provocative artwork – each one stems from a spark of something new in an inspired mind, something uniquely human. AI does analyze existing trends, but it is unable to mix their meanings and come up with concepts to make one stop, think, and feel.

Generative AI’s ability to galvanize our mind is incredible. But its output is only as original as the spark we borrow it. It acts on our every prompt, but it lacks the ability to refine those ideas, add market-relevant twists, and breathe life into them – that’s where originality comes in. Only humans can tell human stories in a way that is immediately relevant to family, faith, love, patriotism, pain and politics…woven together with the fleeting zeitgeist of the moment.

Those who ply their creative trade have mixed emotions about Artificial Intelligence and its potentials. Another study by Engine Creatives (2023) found that 71.6% of creatives believe AI will support them in their roles, while only 28.4% believe it will threaten them. This suggests some positivity on AI’s view as more friend than foe.

I am more than convinced that the future of the creative economy in Ghana is not only bright, but it’s got AI as a guiding light to illuminate the path, not block it.

AI is a Friend, not a Foe, in the creative economy.

About the author

Kenneth is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Innova DDB Ghana, Innova Liberia and acting Chief Operating Officer of BrandAlert Limited. He has over ten years of brand-building experience, working with top agencies like Origin 8 Saatchi & Saatchi (Ghana). He has managed global brands such as MTN Ghana, Lonestar MTN Liberia, Stanbic Bank Ghana, Wienco, Guinness, Africa World Airlines (AWA), UT Holdings, UNICEF, UNDP, USAID, Multimedia Group amongst others. He holds an MBA from The Open University, UK, and a Doctorate from Stellenbosch University, with R 270,000 in research grants and bursaries awarded between 2012 and 2016.