The State of AI in Creative Production and Industry Technology
A Creative Operations Perspective for 2026 and beyond
AI is changing creative work, but the biggest shift is operational. This paper explores how creative teams need to rethink briefing, production, and workflows to make AI usable at scale.
Creative teams today are operating in an environment where AI is simply part of how work gets done. It’s an expected ingredient in delivering ideas responsibly, consistently, and at pace. The biggest shift over the last year isn’t isn’t only how far the models have advanced, but how deeply AI has embedded itself across the ecosystem; it’s where AI now lives. It’s appearing across both new and familiar platforms, integrated directly into the core tools teams trust for design, production, and collaboration.
That shift changes how organisations should make decisions. The question is moving from ‘which AI tool is best?’ to ‘how do we adapt our creative operation so AI can be used safely and effectively at scale?’ In practice, that means evolving skills, briefing behaviours, production planning, and governance, not only selecting tools.
Organisations should expect that the way of working that exists today will look materially different in the next 12 to 24 months. The teams that benefit most will be those that treat AI adoption as operational change, building new habits, new roles, and new guard rails alongside new capabilities.
Three patterns stand out at present. Convergence is accelerating as AI becomes native inside established creative tools. Scaled production is becoming more accessible as templating, bulk creation, and faster iteration mature. Ecosystems are expanding through integrations and acquisitions, which is shaping where work begins, where it lives, and how it moves end to end.
ICP is technology agnostic: We work across tools and ecosystems rather than pushing a single platform. Our job is to help organisations evaluate their creative operations objectively, test technology in realistic conditions before purchase, and embed the right tooling for the right application so it is adopted and delivers value. Things are also moving at a rate that makes ‘standing still’ an active risk.
