Creativity has always been about more than expression. It's been about building identity and cultural capital. In the modern era, brands have expanded their role to become storytellers, carrying culture, values and meaning into consumers' lives. Today, creativity faces a new lens: AI. Celebrated, doubted and endlessly debated, it stands both as a mirror and a disruptor.
With AI amplifying both expression and influence, it is tempting to believe that meaning can be fully extracted from existing patterns. The word 'AI' itself is ironic. AI is built not on void but on human matter: our words, images, histories. Our data. Every sentence and image it renders is a recombination of what we've already lived. What feels transformative is the speed and polish of this recombination. But true equity needs more.
AI thrives in the known. It's a master of manifesting the already expressed. From this, it can spin endless refinements. What marks human creativity is the irrational leap, the instinctive break of pattern.
Philip Larkin once said our best manuscripts are blank notebooks, because they hold infinite possibilities. AI fills them instantly. Humans, in turn, stare at blankness until, suddenly, a leap occurs. That leap is illogical, instinctive and disobedient. It is where imagination lives.
Ask AI for a poem on life's journey, and it may reply: 'The path is the destination/ Enjoy the journey, not just the end point.' Polished, predictable. I may instead write: 'Paths call me to travel,/ But when the destination lies within,/ Where is the journey?/ I want to pause./ And listen to my own sky.' This is not syntax. It's a voice shaped by my own experience, culture and inner seeking.
AI and avyakt: AI can polish the known. But it can't reach into the 'avyakt' - the unexpressed, yet-unsaid. This is the instinct to wander where there are no paths, to hear what has not been heard. 'Sabse sundar geet racha nahin gaya ab tak, sabse sundar muskaan khili nahin ab tak, sabse unchi udaan huyi nahin abhi tak.' (The most beautiful song has yet to be written, the most luminous smile still to be smiled, the highest flight still to be taken.)
To build an enduring presence, one cannot merely optimise what is. One must articulate what people didn't know they were waiting to hear, the latent, the still unspoken.
AI can predict, but it cannot rupture. Every act of genuine creativity - whether in art, design or communication - was once an irrational leap against the grain of pattern. That human leap is what brands must still embody.
Ethics of persuasion: This power to anticipate and influence isn't new. In Anton Chekhov's 1886 short story, 'A Misfortune', a woman finds herself courted by her husband's friend - not through open declarations but through the steady drip of suggestion, influence and covert narrative. She feels the pull, even recognises it. Yet, she remains suspended in uncertainty.
Chekhov does not resolve the story. Instead, he leaves us in that fragile moment where attraction and conscience collide. The point is not whether she yields or not, but how persuasion operates - indirectly, almost invisibly - until a boundary must be drawn.
That is where brand communication finds its parallel. Algorithms and data-driven marketing often persuade in similar ways, through subtle prompts and timely cues. Efficiency is remarkable. But so is the responsibility it places on us. For, if the line between influence and manipulation is crossed, the loss is not merely transactional, it's loss of cultural trust.
From precision to meaning: Moment marketing, predictive nudges and programmatic funnels are great precision instruments. Yet, each is, at its core, a way of meeting people in their most unguarded states: the tired, grieving, hopeful.
These drip-feed signals, until behaviour bends. To exploit such moments is easy, to dignify them with meaning requires restraint. Through intent and practice, we need to balance the use of AI in creative endeavours, so that authenticity of human expression and diverse cultural narratives is not diluted.
The enduring brand isn't the one that converts behaviour, but the one that earns trust in a way that honours the audience's humanity. This trust is what pays off, be it brand-stickiness, resilience in downturns, premiums or equity.
Trust as compass: Manipulation is simple. Trust is rare. In business, trust is the most compounding asset in the brand balance sheet. Yes, trust can be treated as a KPI. For campaigns built on targeting or algorithmic nudges, they may deliver quarterly spikes. But they rarely create lasting equity.
Cultural trust - earned when a brand connects meaningfully with values, beliefs and aspirations of its audience, and not just for profit alone - is the true measure of enduring brand-building.
A brand without trust is like noise with a budget. As data races ahead, creativity must still dare to fall out of line to create new movements, markets and meaning.
This is an edited version of an article first published in Navbharat Times on Aug 11
With AI amplifying both expression and influence, it is tempting to believe that meaning can be fully extracted from existing patterns. The word 'AI' itself is ironic. AI is built not on void but on human matter: our words, images, histories. Our data. Every sentence and image it renders is a recombination of what we've already lived. What feels transformative is the speed and polish of this recombination. But true equity needs more.
AI thrives in the known. It's a master of manifesting the already expressed. From this, it can spin endless refinements. What marks human creativity is the irrational leap, the instinctive break of pattern.
Philip Larkin once said our best manuscripts are blank notebooks, because they hold infinite possibilities. AI fills them instantly. Humans, in turn, stare at blankness until, suddenly, a leap occurs. That leap is illogical, instinctive and disobedient. It is where imagination lives.
Ask AI for a poem on life's journey, and it may reply: 'The path is the destination/ Enjoy the journey, not just the end point.' Polished, predictable. I may instead write: 'Paths call me to travel,/ But when the destination lies within,/ Where is the journey?/ I want to pause./ And listen to my own sky.' This is not syntax. It's a voice shaped by my own experience, culture and inner seeking.
AI and avyakt: AI can polish the known. But it can't reach into the 'avyakt' - the unexpressed, yet-unsaid. This is the instinct to wander where there are no paths, to hear what has not been heard. 'Sabse sundar geet racha nahin gaya ab tak, sabse sundar muskaan khili nahin ab tak, sabse unchi udaan huyi nahin abhi tak.' (The most beautiful song has yet to be written, the most luminous smile still to be smiled, the highest flight still to be taken.)
To build an enduring presence, one cannot merely optimise what is. One must articulate what people didn't know they were waiting to hear, the latent, the still unspoken.
AI can predict, but it cannot rupture. Every act of genuine creativity - whether in art, design or communication - was once an irrational leap against the grain of pattern. That human leap is what brands must still embody.
Ethics of persuasion: This power to anticipate and influence isn't new. In Anton Chekhov's 1886 short story, 'A Misfortune', a woman finds herself courted by her husband's friend - not through open declarations but through the steady drip of suggestion, influence and covert narrative. She feels the pull, even recognises it. Yet, she remains suspended in uncertainty.
Chekhov does not resolve the story. Instead, he leaves us in that fragile moment where attraction and conscience collide. The point is not whether she yields or not, but how persuasion operates - indirectly, almost invisibly - until a boundary must be drawn.
That is where brand communication finds its parallel. Algorithms and data-driven marketing often persuade in similar ways, through subtle prompts and timely cues. Efficiency is remarkable. But so is the responsibility it places on us. For, if the line between influence and manipulation is crossed, the loss is not merely transactional, it's loss of cultural trust.
From precision to meaning: Moment marketing, predictive nudges and programmatic funnels are great precision instruments. Yet, each is, at its core, a way of meeting people in their most unguarded states: the tired, grieving, hopeful.
These drip-feed signals, until behaviour bends. To exploit such moments is easy, to dignify them with meaning requires restraint. Through intent and practice, we need to balance the use of AI in creative endeavours, so that authenticity of human expression and diverse cultural narratives is not diluted.
The enduring brand isn't the one that converts behaviour, but the one that earns trust in a way that honours the audience's humanity. This trust is what pays off, be it brand-stickiness, resilience in downturns, premiums or equity.
Trust as compass: Manipulation is simple. Trust is rare. In business, trust is the most compounding asset in the brand balance sheet. Yes, trust can be treated as a KPI. For campaigns built on targeting or algorithmic nudges, they may deliver quarterly spikes. But they rarely create lasting equity.
Cultural trust - earned when a brand connects meaningfully with values, beliefs and aspirations of its audience, and not just for profit alone - is the true measure of enduring brand-building.
A brand without trust is like noise with a budget. As data races ahead, creativity must still dare to fall out of line to create new movements, markets and meaning.
This is an edited version of an article first published in Navbharat Times on Aug 11
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com.)
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