Ep 5: "Not All Creativity Is Worth Saving"

“Not all creative jobs are worth saving.” Not what I was expecting to hear from a influential creative executive.

For Episode 5, I sat down with with David Droga, a well known creative exec from the advertising world. David is the current (and outgoing) CEO of Accenture’s creative agency called Song. Our conversation was originally recorded for the Where AI Works podcast from The Wharton School. I felt our discussion was particularly relevant for Creative Intelligence and am excited to bring it to you.

We touched upon many themes centered around the future of human creativity and creative jobs in a world where AI can write, design, animate, compose music, and more. Here are the themes that stayed with me:

1. “Not All Creativity Is Worth Saving”

Timestamp: ~4:45–6:30

David argues that much of what passes for creative output—especially in marketing and media—is formulaic, safe, and driven by conformity. AI, rather than threatening creativity, might actually help us shed the "mediocre middle." The ability of AI to increase content production — especially mediocre content — was not lost on David. He has an interesting take on how AI’s ability to industrialize imagination could in fact help us to get to the exceptional works faster.

2. The Industrialization of Taste and the Risk of Sameness

Timestamp: ~10:00–13:30

I brought up the concern that when everyone uses the same AI tools and best practices, “taste gets industrialized.” My own research set in the context of creative writing shows that even when AI improves writing quality and efficiency, it reduces the aggregate diversity of ideas. This is because everyone is using similar AI tools and generating similar ideas. Where your team of 10 people may have generated a diverse set of ideas in the absence of AI, their collective range might reduce when they are using similar tools. David agrees and emphasizes the uniquely human role in infusing taste.

3. Speed, Cost, and Quality—Now You Can Have All Three

Timestamp: ~23:30–26:00

David notes that AI has collapsed the classic creative tradeoff: “Speed, cost, quality—you used to have to pick two. Now you can get all three.” The tools let creatives get ideas out of their heads faster, prototype quicker, and operate more autonomously. But the real unlock, he argues, comes when creatives stop fearing AI and start using it to do things they previously couldn’t.

If you liked this conversation, you may also enjoy listening to the Where AI Works podcast from The Wharton School. I hosted that podcast in season 1 where I focused primarily on AI’s implications for marketing. My colleague Serguei Netessine is hosting Season 2 and he’s focusing on new business models for AI.

A preview of our next episode: I’m going to confess that I am not yet sure what episode 6 will focus on. Wish me luck as I scramble to get an episode ready in 2 weeks.