"AI that works well is simply called software"

While there is outrage about image-generating tools that sometimes produce grotesque results, very few users describe a quick Google enquiry as an AI-based service. If you want to get from A to B, you simply use your navigation app, not artificial intelligence. What is still called AI today will soon just be called software or a tool. This label takes away the fear of contact - or are creatives still shying away from using DeepL or placing individualised ads?

If creative professionals want to continue to be part of their industry, they will have to carry out complex work that cannot be replaced by AI. In future, they will organise the input - for example, the right prompts for image software, the right questions for Chat GPT - and evaluate the output. The decisive triad for the requirements profile of the future: attitude, expertise and tools. Attitude means being inquisitive and quick to grasp the process and evaluating the results with stylistic confidence. Know-how includes technical skills on the one hand, and factors such as referential knowledge (see point 6), social skills and the ability to organise information on the other. Last but not least, creative professionals should not only know and master tools, but also learn how to smartly link the various pieces of software, which today are mostly still "one trick ponies". After all, it is precisely the combination of different self-sufficient tools that creates creative added value, making some work steps a thing of the past - but not your own.

Today, content generated with AI no longer requires supercomputers. Instead, it is smartphone displays that show the results of specially produced content in razor-sharp detail. Today's producers are usually no longer trained journalists, photographers or media designers, but curious amateurs who let off steam on platforms such as TikTok with the help of AI. But just as back then, when the first computer-based writing and design programmes made it possible for "even the tennis club next door to design its own magazine", as Dr Peter Kabel puts it, this development will inspire the creative process. Although the introduction of the "Aldus PageMaker" has already eliminated some jobs, such as those of typesetters, new professional fields and opportunities have brought a rethink to the creative process, according to Kabel. And media designers are still around today.

Experienced creatives have an advantage when dealing with AI applications because they have many qualities that are crucial for the work profiles of the future: Experience. Expertise. Social skills. After all, it is the wealth of knowledge that has grown over the years that will enrich the input of AI-based software in the future and, above all, determine the quality of the output. Anyone who can think of more than "Andy Warhol" when writing prompts on the subject of "pop art" will master the black box of augmented intelligence with their knowledge and create content that is convincing. And anyone who has already read hundreds of texts or seen designs knows which output is really good - and AI will not be able to take this instinct away from creative minds in the future either

The possibilities of AI-based content creation are growing every day - and with them the opportunities to utilise this potential in your own work. Listening to Jovanka von Wilsdorf and Boris Eldagsen talk about their musical and photographic work, they take AI seriously as an equal partner in the creative process. "The question is not how creative we make AI with our input, but how creative AI makes us," says Wilsdorf. Whether it's their DJ set with the robot Sophia or Eldagsen's submission of an AI-generated photo to Sony's International Photography Competition, these creatives take the possibilities of AI seriously, approach the opportunities with curiosity and allow themselves to be inspired by them in a processual way. They start with a vision, but without fixed instructions. For them, augmented intelligence is just that: augmented intelligence - an extension of their own vision.

One wrong line in the prompt and everything is broken? Starting to work with an AI tool can be characterised by reluctance or the fear of doing something wrong. But the motto is trial and error! Boris Eldagsen makes this clear with a simple example: he shows impressive images that were created by a typing error caused by thick thumbs and a small mobile phone display. Instead of "Genre", the photo and video artist entered "Gnere" into his prompt. The result: completely new visual worlds that the artist liked almost even better than the intended output. It is important to approach the tools with an open mind. And otherwise there is always the key combination Ctrl + Z.