AI and the future of work in the creative industries

What we’re calling for

🧑 Human creativity first
AI should enhance human creativity and expertise rather than replace it

✅ Good jobs and sustainable careers
Success should be measured by impacts on work quality and career opportunities, not productivity alone.

🟰 Fair treatment for freelancers
Freelancers should have equal access to support, training and opportunities to influence AI adoption.

📣 Worker voice
Workers and their unions should be involved in decisions about AI deployment.

🪟 Transparency and accountability
Organisations should be open about where and how AI is being used.

✊ Rights and consent
Creative workers must retain meaningful rights over their work, likeness and intellectual property.

👟 Skills and opportunities
All workers should have access to AI training and skills development.

🔧 Protecting craft and technical skills
AI should strengthen rather than undermine specialist creative and technical occupations.

🌟 Protecting future talent
AI must not weaken entry routes and progression opportunities.

🫂 Sharing the benefits
The gains from AI adoption should be distributed fairly across the workforce.

Policy and research

Responding to the creative industries AI Adoption Plan
Our response to the government’s AI adoption plan argues that successful adoption depends on more than skills and technology.

TUC AI Manifesto
The TUC’s Artificial Intelligence Manifesto sets out a worker-centred approach to adoption and regulation for the creative industries.

CREAATIF: Good work in creative freelancing
Through engagement with more than 300 freelance creative workers, the CREAATIF research programme explored how AI and technological change are affecting creative careers.

Podcast: AI and creative work

Bectu’s Rosie Carter discusses the impact of AI on early-career workers in the creative industries.