Inspired… or Influenced?
Creative Highlight - Photo by NMG Network
The difference might define your creative future.
I had a wonderful conversation today with a photographer with whom I shared one of my favorite questions.
When we’re creating, do we create from a place of inspiration? Or do we find ourselves being in a place of influence… Really stop and think about this for a minute. There’s so much coming at us from so many different directions and in so many different forms of media.
Driving back home after a long Saturday night of Uber Eats deliveries last weekend, I approached the third-worst traffic-causing bottleneck in the U.S. in San Francisco and found myself surrounded by billboard after billboard. And let’s face it… It’s March 2026, and almost every single one, except for maybe two, because I counted, told me about some AI app or company using AI to help you with something.
A.I. = Artificial Intelligence. Have we all stopped to think about that for a moment? Nothing about the “help” we’re receiving is real! And it came to me again as it had before. This isn’t going to last forever. We can’t deny our human-ness or the need for human connection. Just last week, I found myself walking through the parking lot to my car, saying out loud in a loud voice for all to hear, “Representative… Rep — reee—sentative!” All while my neighbor walks past me, laughing and shaking her head. “Isn’t that just the most annoying?” She called out. Then I caught myself “covering” the phone, saying, “Don’t talk too loud; she’ll say she can’t understand my request!!” Duh. That’s why “Mute” exists on my iPhone screen.
We’re human! We’re what’s real! And what’s real is Creativity. Do any of the definitions associated with the word Creativity vibe with the words fake or artificial? Actually, the true definition of Creative, as described by Webster's dictionary, is,
Creative (adjective) means - Marked by the ability or power to create, or having the quality of something created rather than imitated (imaginative).
AI, after all, is created from existing concepts. And how could it create anything anyway unless we told it what to do? My point? It is a tool. That tool can support us, Creatives, in a way that helps us explain or share with a client who doesn’t come from a creative background what we can, in fact, create for them. How many times have I heard or watched a creative miss a project because the client didn’t see what they wanted in a creative's portfolio? Just because it’s not there doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. heeelller. But try explaining that to a client who just “needs to see it”. Incoming quote - Seeing is believing. Not always true, but dammit, there’s a reason that quote exists!
So I invite you to stop for a moment and remind yourself that, when you’re surrounded by the invasive thoughts and concerns about AI, you, yourself, are a Creative. And because of that, you can and have created something originally when you came into a space from inspiration. Something that is entirely you. Yes, it can be replicated, changed, morphed, or tweaked by that little thing called AI, but at the end of it all, YOU are needed and necessary for Creativity to exist.
Please keep creating. Keep changing and involving. It may be a little uncomfortable at first, but we are, after all, capable of anything we set our hearts to. And ask yourself, next time you see something that makes you think of your work, why did you think about work? Was it because you said, I’d be better if I had more? Or did you say that makes me want to create something new… Pick a new, wonderful Creative. The world needs more of YOU.
-Brandi Moore
