AI and work in the creative industries: digital continuity or discontinuity?

There is current uncertainty about the effects of generative AI technologies on labour markets and conditions of work in creative industries. Previous scholarship identifies the potential for both replacement and displacement of human labour due to AI adoption. This article examines potential effects of AI adoption by drawing on case studies of 6 commercial products using AI, investigating conditions of work and mechanisms by which human creative labour might be replaced or displaced by AI technology. The main findings are that AI products were more labour intensive than traditional media products because they combined traditional production skills and new computational expertise. Paradoxically, contributions by human workers tended to be invisibilised in final products that foregrounded AI technology. There was potential for displacement of human labour in the ideation phase, with AI enabling producers to explore different creative possibilities. Some AI products had the potential to compete with earlier production methods (e.g. AI-generated imagery vs. stock photography). Overall, case study findings were consistent with ongoing challenges from digitalisation: conditions of deskilling, re-skilling, flexible employment and uncertainty remain intense for small firms engaged in AI-assisted creative production.