AI isn’t taking creative jobs - it’s creating better ones
It’s a somewhat strange reality to find ourselves in, that being the full expanse of our collective creative intelligence from ancient cave paintings to contemporary digital work sits in a single, searchable, remixable universe. We are no longer limited by what we can recall reference or render.
30 Jan 2026
Gabrielle Gray, Global Head of Capabilities, Brandtech+ believes we have entered an era of another creative revolution where technology doesn’t replace human imagination, it amplifies it (Image supplied)
This moment is often framed as an existential threat to many industries, creative chief among them, but I believe we have entered an era of something far more powerful: another creative revolution where technology doesn’t replace human imagination, it amplifies it.
We’ve seen it happen before, albeit on a more limited scale.
Printing was never the same after desktop publishing upended the traditional methods of the time.
Tools like Photoshop and InDesign replaced more manual efforts with click-of-a-button precision and made creative craft and excellence accessible to the world, not just those lucky enough to score apprenticeships or be accepted to expensive tertiary institutions.
If the Renaissance expanded human intellect, the Industrial Revolution mechanised labour, and the Digital Revolution democratised information, then the AI Revolution is redefining how we create, accelerate, and scale human ideas.
And as with every major transformation, fear is often the first reaction, but rarely the outcome.
The myth of displacement
Much of today’s anxiety centres on the belief that AI will erase creative roles in their entirety.
This narrative makes for punchy headlines, but it ignores the structural truth: AI is not eliminating all creative work.
It is eliminating inefficient processes. Roles may be changing in what they do or how they’re titled, but they won’t disappear.
At Brandtech+, we’ve witnessed this firsthand. As a global creative and technology engine with nearly 1,000 specialists working across five continents, we’ve adopted AI not as a cost-cutting tool, but as a capability multiplier. Instead of shrinking teams, we are expanding them. Instead of losing skills, we are building new ones.
Currently, we have over a hundred new global roles for creatives, strategists, technologists and hybrid AI-aligned specialists, on top of the 322 people we have already hired this year.
During a period when the advertising and production sector is battling budget pressure, consolidation and talent erosion, we’re scaling faster than we can recruit.
The lesson? AI isn’t taking creative jobs. It’s reshaping them and the result we’re seeing are better career paths, richer work, and more opportunity for those willing to adapt.
Why South Africans are well placed
Over the past 10 years, we’ve scaled our business from a team of less than 20 people in Johannesburg to a global 1,000-person strong engine that works with the world’s top brands, with the unshakable belief that great talent can come from anywhere, not just the world’s traditional “creative hubs” like London and New York.
We connect opportunity, and AI presents itself as one of the single greatest creative opportunities of our lifetime.
We’ve long known of the deep breadth of talent in places like South Africa, India and Mexico.
AI will supercharge these regions’ ability to respond at speed to change, because this is something they already must do every day.
‘Figuring it out’ is hardwired into our genetic make-up, and thinking two steps ahead is how we’ve learned to live our lives. It’s this experience that makes our judgment as AI-enabled Creatives that much more valuable.
AI is expanding the canvas, broadening the imagination, and accelerating the pathway from concept to creation.
Creative talent is not becoming less valuable; it’s becoming more potent, and critical thinking will be the vital differentiator to the Creator of the future.
A new category of creative professional is emerging
We are increasingly hiring creatives who are strategists, strategists who understand data, designers who speak machine learning, project leads who can orchestrate multi-market AI workflows.
These are not “AI jobs,” they are creative roles expanded by intelligence augmentation and access to the right tools and platforms.
At Brandtech+, every new hire receives advanced training on Pencil, The Brandtech Group’s proprietary AI platform that accelerates ideation, production and iteration.
This enables our teams to shift time from repetitive tasks to higher-order thinking, where distinctly human strengths live.
AI may do the heavy lifting, but our humans still do the heavy thinking.
The future of creative work is not smaller, it is broader
As we look ahead to 2026 and beyond, three trends will define the evolution of the creative and marketing industries:
- AI-enabled creativity will become a baseline expectation, not a specialist skill
Just as digital literacy became universal, AI literacy will follow. We expect that all our creatives will have experience working with the associated tools and platforms as a baseline.
- Hybrid talent will outpace traditional job categories
Those who combine their creativity with systems thinking data fluency or tech curiosity will lead.
- Global teams will be built around capability, not geography
Opportunity will increasingly flow to talent, not the other way around. We’ve watched our talent base grow since the WFH-era and expect this to explode with help of AI.
Steering the future, rather than fearing it
We’re not spectators in this technological shift. We’re active participants and we can shape how AI elevates the creative industry instead of eroding it.
If we respond with curiosity, ambition and a willingness to reinvent our craft, this era won’t diminish creative work; it could make it more human, more imaginative, and more globally connected than ever before.
About Gabrielle Gray
Gabrielle Gray is the Global Head of Capabilities for Brandtech+ the global creative-production engine of the Brandtech Group. With almost two decades of working in the creative arena across television and advertising, she leads Brandtech+’s global talent roster across five continents.
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