James Taylor (00:00)
Hi, it's James Taylor here, keynote speaker on creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence. Let me start with a simple question. When people talk about creativity and AI, why does it always sound like a fight? know, humans versus machines, creativity versus technology, artists versus algorithms. That framing is not just wrong, it's dangerous because it distracts us from the real opportunity. And that opportunity is something that I call super creativity.
I've spent the last eight years speaking to organisations all around the world about creativity, innovation and artificial intelligence. Law firms, banks, tech companies, governments, hospitals, manufacturers. And everywhere I went, I kept seeing the same thing. The people who were thriving weren't necessarily the smartest in the room. They weren't the most senior. They weren't even the most creative in the traditional sense. They were the people who knew how to collaborate creatively with other people across disciplines.
and increasingly with machines. That's where SuperCreativity was born. So what is SuperCreativity? SuperCreativity is the ability to augment your creativity through intentional collaboration with others, both humans and machines. It's not about humans versus machines. It's about humans plus machines. Think of it like this. A calculator didn't make mathematicians irrelevant. A camera didn't kill painting.
Electric guitars didn't end music. They changed what was possible. AI does the same for creativity. Now, here's the uncomfortable truth. AI doesn't replace creativity. It replaces unexamined, unintentional, and unpracticed creativity. If your job relies on repeating the same thinking over and over over again, then yes, you should be paying attention. But if you're...
value comes from judgment, imagination, curiosity and the ability to connect ideas, people and contexts, then AI becomes an amplifier. SuperCreatives don't ask, will AI replace me? They ask, how can I use it to think better, faster, more creatively?
In my new book, SuperCreativity - Accelerating Innovation in the Age of AI, I describe three types of modern creativity. First, human creativity. This is your mindset, your curiosity, your habits, your ability to generate ideas. Second, human plus human creativity. This is collaboration, teams, diversity of thinking, friction, feedback, the messy middle of innovation. And third, human plus machine creativity. This is where AI comes in, not as a replacement, but as a partner, helping you generate options.
test assumptions, explore alternatives and scale ideas. Now most organizations are still stuck in the first two modes, some are getting better at the second, very few are intentionally designing for the third. That's where the opportunity is. Super creativity is not about being more creative, it's about being more collaborative, more intentional and strategic with your creativity. It's about asking better questions, designing better systems and building teams that combine human imagination with machine intelligence.
The future doesn't belong to the most talented individuals. It belongs to those who can orchestrate creativity across people and technology. So if there's one idea I want you to take away from this episode is this. Creativity in the age of AI is not a competition. It is a collaboration. And SuperCreativity is how you learn to lead with it. If you want to go deeper, this is exactly what my book on SuperCreativity - accelerating innovation in the age of AI is all about. But for now, start with this question.
How could you use AI to make you more creative, more human, not less?
