THE INFLUENCE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROFESSIONAL AND CREATIVE SKILLS OF FUTURE POP ARTISTS

AI is also changing how aspiring pop artists go about developing the professional and creative skills. This article studies the impact of AI on art skill acquisition and artistic innovation in terms of AI developmental tool and creative collaborator. Through a mixed-methods study with 50 participants, half used AI tools for music production, composition, and visuals in the experimental group, while the control group used more traditional processes. Both groups underwent structured training sessions over a three-month period, and their outputs were scored in terms of technical quality and creativity. Results showed that an AI-aided group 40% higher in technical proficiency than a control group, and an AI-aided group produced more innovative and thematically complex creative outputs than a control group. AI tools made myriad technical processes more fluid, allowing participants to spend time on high-level creative choices while also offering real-time feedback and automating time-consuming tasks. Qualitative analysis showed that AI gave participants the power to experiment and innovate, making them feel more confident and encouraging them to reduce entry barriers. However, a few users also raised concerns about too much reliance on AI and how the technology might homogenize artistic output. The study reveals AI’s potential to democratize access to professional tools and resources, expand boundaries of creative exploration, and transform skill development in music education. Simultaneously, it highlights the need for balanced integration, so that AI augments human creativity rather than displaces it. In the future, further studies should investigate the long-term consequences of AI utilization for artists and their audiences, while creating more custom-fit tools that correspond to the artist's vision. This investigation confirms the disruptive nature of AI in the arts ecosystem as a scalable yet effective answer for acquiring technical and creative competences while ensuring human creativity agency remains intact.