A Creative Director in the Age of AI: Why I’m Not Worried (And You Should Be)

Lead. Believe. Or Get Out of the Way.

Let’s get one thing straight: “Creative Director” has become the "middle management" of the creative world. A safe title. A warm, squishy buffer between strategy decks and execution timelines.

It used to mean something.
It still does — if you’re willing to step up.

The creative leader of tomorrow won’t have a title — they’ll have gravitas. A cultural force. Part designer, part creator, part writer, part trusted advisor, a conductor — and absolutely nothing you can template, replicate, or automate. Because creativity is human, with all its flaws and idiosyncrasies. I have always felt that being a creative director is like conducting an orchestra, guiding, directing, inspiring team-mates, divisions and vendors. This still applies, even in the world of AI.

Research? Strategy? Execution? Automated. Done. Next. What’s left standing is the only thing that was ever scarce: taste. Taste isn’t a software skill. It’s not something you can download, prompt engineer, or fake with a curated Pinterest board. Taste is sacred. It’s earned. And it’s about to become the single most valuable currency in the creative economy. I also call it ‘The Aesthete.’

AI isn’t coming to kill creativity, (killing IP laws will do that) — it’s coming to kill the kind of creativity that deserves to die.

The safe kind. The “Good Enough” kind.
The trend-chasing kind. (Hello Ghibli and Action Figures!)
The kind that waits for a brief, then traces over whatever’s already working and calls it "insight."
The kind that believes if you move pixels fast enough, you’ll be irreplaceable, or relies heavily on AI to do the work. Spoiler alert: you won’t.

The future belongs to those who create irrational devotion, not fleeting attention.

Here’s to the world-builders!

I’ve been doing this for 30 years. Through fads, through pivots, through the rise and fall of entire platforms and industries. I'm still here because I didn’t play it safe. I didn’t wait for permission. I didn't chase trends — I chased truths while waiting for the next tech wave. And when the dust clears in this AI era, it’s not going to be the best technicians standing. It’ll be the ones who make people believe.

This isn’t the end of creative careers. It’s the end of average.
It’s a purge of the hacks.

And if you’re clinging to your title, your process, your "best practices" — if you’re praying that your decks and your deliverables will save you — you’re already cooked.

The ones who survive this will be the ones who lead, not follow.
Who create the future, not ride its coattails.

“The Creative Director is the new power hire. Taste is now a growth lever.” - Greg Isenberg

El Sailon Continues

May 13, 5:30-7:30 pm | BOXCAR

AI and the Neuroscience of Leadership

How artificial intelligence impacts the algorithm of the human brain. Our guest speaker is Lydia Knight, award winning coach, speaker, author, and founder of The She Center. Curt will sit down with Lydia afterwards for a fireside chat along with his AI Roundup to kick it off. El Sailon is now a ticketed event. Buy your tickets now at EventBrite, even if you signed up on Meetup. You can still pay at the door.

TICKET PORTAL NOW OPEN. CLICK HERE.

Want to advertise in RealmIQ+ or our Podcast?

If your company is interested in reaching an audience of AI professionals and decision makers, you may want to advertise with us.

AI Roundup

The Jobs That Will Fall First As AI Takes Over The Workplace
Artificial intelligence is advancing at breakneck speed. AI technology will soon dominate the job market. Start planning now to stay relevant and get ahead of the curve. RTO and the Recession are drivers that will weed out those who have not adopted AI.

OpenAI Trying to Buy Chrome So It Can Ingest Your Entire Online Life to Train AI
The government is looking to break up Google's monopoly over the internet — and OpenAI is ready to swoop in. As Ars Technica reports, OpenAI product head Nick Turley affirmed in the Justice Department's landmark antitrust case against Google that his employer would, if given the chance, purchase the search giant's flagship internet browser. "Yes, we would [be interested], as would many other parties," Turley said when asked if OpenAI would ever buy Chrome. What could go wrong?

Google Gemini among the top three AI services, with 350 million monthly users
Details about Google’s Gemini user base have been revealed in an unceremonious fashion, indicating that the brand’s AI chatbot has garnered approximately 350 million monthly active users and 35 million daily active users as of March 2025.

Podcast News

"We’re at the edge of a change where our devices aren’t just tools—they’re partners."
— Alex Serdiuk

I had a great conversation with Alex, discussing topics such as the Ethics and permission-based voice synthesis; Vocal Roots AI: Reanimating hip-hop legends with Frank Nitty; synthetic voice for multilingual music and interactive artist engagement; and deepfake concerns vs. synthetic media. Watch it on YouTube.

About the Author

Curt Doty, founder of CurtDoty.co, is an award winning creative director whose legacy lies in branding, product development, social strategy, integrated marketing, and User Experience Design. His work of entertainment branding includes Electronic Arts, EA Sports, ProSieben, SAT.1, WBTV Latin America, Discovery Health, ABC, CBS, A&E, StarTV, Fox, Kabel 1, and TV Guide Channel.

He has extensive experience on AI-driven platforms MidJourney, Adobe Firefly, ChatGPT, Perplexity, HeyGen, Descript and OpusClips. He also runs his AI consultancy RealmIQ and companion podcast RealmIQ: Sessions on YouTube and Spotify.

As a new writer, he released his first novella Griffin and the Dark Secret on Amazon under his imprint MediaSlam Press and is working on the second installment Griffin: Future Past.

He is a sought after public speaker having been featured at Streaming Media NYC, Digital Hollywood, Mobile Growth Association, Mobile Congress, App Growth Summit, Promax, CES, CTIA, NAB, NATPE, MMA Global, New Mexico Angels, Santa Fe Business Incubator, EntrepeneursRx, Davos Worldwide, NMPRSA, Robert Half, and AI Impact. He has lectured at universities including Full Sail, SCAD, Art Center College of Design, CSUN and Chapman University.

He currently serves on the board of the Godfrey Reggio Foundation and is the AI Writer for Parlay Me.