City Research Online

Abstract

Technology is central to the work of experts and in the creation and communication of knowledge. It has been pivotal in sharing knowledge within and across knowledge boundaries, as well as enabling individuals and groups to attain and retain distinct expert jurisdictions. From analogue to digital, and now to artificial intelligence (AI), creative workers have used technological advances for centuries to bring their ideas to life. What previous innovations have in common is that they required creative workers to master their use, and then employ them to amplify, automate, and augment their creative expertise. Previous innovations also share the common dynamic of having the creative worker retain control, with the innovation performing a supporting role. Relatedly, a vast body of creativity research has the implicit or explicit assumption that creative expertise is an inherently human skill and beyond the reach of machines—until the latest innovation in AI.

The latest innovation in AI, generative AI (GenAI), is different. It is an innovation unlike anything before it. Where incumbent innovations have been restricted to precise processes, predetermined actions, and features designed to generate specific outcomes, GenAI is a form of general intelligence that possesses broad capabilities that can take multiple forms and be applied across existing and new tasks. Consequently, GenAI is marketed as creative due to its ability to generate new, arguably useful outputs, thereby also mimicking the core tenets of creativity: novelty and usefulness.

This thesis examines the impact of AI on the creative industries (CIs) from an individual’s perspective. Research into either of these hugely popular fields is not new. What is distinct, driven by a personal interest stemming from a fusion of professional practice and academic discovery, is how this thesis foregrounds the salient role of the individual creative worker and their expertise. This thesis contends that GenAI is a radical innovation, unlike any artificial intelligence technology that has come before it. As a form of general intelligence, it possesses a broad capability that is not limited to precise features designed to generate specific outcomes. Instead, it is positioned as creative and capable of problem-solving. Thus, GenAI is mimicking the signature skill of creative workers and disrupting the natural order in the creative industries.

The UK design sector and its workforce of design experts provided a compelling context for discovery. Designers have undergone significant transformations with technological advancements, from the advent of the printing press and computer to the internet and 3D printers. With the increasing capabilities of GenAI, mimicking the tasks and skills once considered unique to creative workers’ expertise, the focus of this research crystallised as an exploration at the individual level into how GenAI impacts the practices, expertise, and identity of creative workers.

The exploratory, qualitative method of the research, combined with the temporal objective of the study, required a longitudinal interpretive approach. The study reported here draws on 100 in-depth interviews, split across two phases. The overriding message of this thesis is that GenAI is transforming the creative industries in a way unseen with past technological innovations that relied on creatives’ expertise. In short, creative expertise is no longer the exclusive domain of humans, and technology is no longer simply a tool controlled by humans. The core findings from each paper are: i) longstanding relationships with clients and partners are upended with GenAI widening the locus of creative expertise; ii) the radical technological innovation of GenAI is resulting in an unprecedented technological landscape and indications of an extension to the creative process; iii) the proximity of creative expertise is introduced as a practical framework to help understand determinants of GenAI. Creative trespassing is introduced to describe the use of GenAI by one group of experts in a different expert domain, revealing the reshaping of well-established expert boundaries.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Bayes Business School Doctoral Theses Bayes Business School > Faculty of Management Doctoral Theses

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