LA Tech Week Recap: 5 Creative Themes Shaping the Future of AI and Marketing

We recently had the chance to connect with some of the brightest minds in tech, media, and VC to explore how creativity and AI are reshaping the future of marketing. From conversations with leaders at Google, McKinsey, and Amazon to late-night discussions about where human imagination meets machine intelligence, one thing became clear: marketing is entering a new chapter.

Over the last two decades, marketing has evolved through major waves of change: print to digital, digital to social, social to creator. Now we’re stepping into the Human + AI era. It feels new, a little intimidating, and sometimes hard to make sense of, but the mission hasn’t changed. Our job is still to tell stories that connect people, build trust, and move culture forward. What’s different now is that imagination has more reach than ever. It shapes not just what we create, but how we create, and that’s changing everything about how brands grow and connect.

You could feel it in the air at LA Tech Week. What stood out wasn’t just the technology but the energy in every room. It felt like the early dot-com days with that same spark of possibility, but this time with a stronger sense of shared purpose. There’s excitement, yes, but also awareness. Everyone knows this next wave of innovation comes with responsibility. Ethical use, creative integrity, and human impact were a big part of the conversation.

It’s easy to assume AI might one day replace human creators, but the shared belief across every conversation was the opposite. AI isn’t here to take over creativity, but to collaborate with it. It gives marketers a bigger canvas, faster tools, and new ways to understand and connect with audiences. But the real creativity still comes from us: the strategy, ideas, and storytelling that turn smart tools into emotional, meaningful work that moves people.

Here are five creative and marketing themes we took away from those conversations that every marketing leader should be thinking about as we build toward the Human + AI era.

1) Human + AI Storytelling: Creativity as Collaboration

The most powerful stories still start with people – their ideas, emotions, and lived experiences. What’s changing is how quickly those stories can come to life. AI tools are helping creative teams move from concept to creation in hours instead of weeks, giving more time to refine the story rather than fight the process.

As one creative director shared, “We used to spend 80% of our time executing ideas. Now, with AI, we can spend 80% of our time improving them.”

AI is changing how we tell stories, not why we tell them. One panelist put it perfectly: 

Producer Jess Engel called it “art directing a machine,” describing AI as a tool that still demands taste, intuition, and emotional resonance. 

For marketers, the message is clear: AI can expand what’s possible, but it’s still up to us to direct the story.

2) AI for Brand Storytelling: Expanding the Canvas

AI isn’t just changing how we create, it’s changing how brands tell their stories. The creative canvas is growing, giving marketers new ways to understand audiences, test ideas, and bring stories to life faster than ever before.

We’re already seeing this in action. From dynamic creative testing and personalized video production to voice synthesis and adaptive design, AI is helping brands express themselves in new and unexpected ways. The challenge isn’t to automate creativity –  it’s to humanize it at scale.

Today, even small teams can create cinematic, emotionally resonant campaigns that once required massive budgets. Visual generation and video-to-video transformation tools are leveling the playing field, empowering marketers to produce story-driven content that feels as polished as a studio production.

At its best, AI helps audiences feel more seen, not more targeted.

3) AI in Action: How AI Bringing Ideas to Life

Across industries, AI is already reshaping how ideas move from concept to campaign.

 

That kind of speed and scale gives brands unprecedented feedback loops and creative clarity.

In e-commerce, Rita from Unique Vintage explained, “Meta wants 15 versions of every ad. We have one designer. Without AI, we can’t scale.” Her team now uses AI to generate variations while maintaining brand voice and emotional impact.

In film, where ambitious ideas once required massive budgets and studio teams, AI is shifting the focus from resources to vision. The creative director of Primordial Soup produced a striking short film about the Voyager Golden Record in just three weeks using only AI tools – proof that storytelling craft now matters more than access to gear.

Agencies are evolving too. “We used to shoot on location. Now we just shoot clean white studio and AI does the rest,” said Neil from KOE Agency. The result: faster campaigns, smaller budgets, and more creative freedom.

This power to create high-concept work with fewer resources is redefining how both filmmakers and brands bring ideas to life. Whether it’s directors rendering entire scenes in days or marketers testing dozens of concepts in real time, one thing is clear – AI isn’t replacing creativity; it’s accelerating it.

4) Human Skills: More Valuable Than Ever

As impressive as AI has become, a consistent theme across all the LA Tech Week panels was that human skills have never been more valuable. AI can generate, optimize, and accelerate, but it can’t feel tension, read a room, or know when to break the rules. That’s where we come in.

Taste, intuition, emotional intelligence, and strategic clarity will define the creative leaders of this new era. The best teams won’t be guided by AI, they’ll drive it, using these tools as extensions of their imagination.

Ryan Hammill, Creative Director at ServiceNow, captured it well: “We’re reaching parity for craft. Taste is the new differentiator.”

As AI makes technical execution more accessible, the value shifts toward what only humans can provide: curiosity, empathy, originality, and the ability to give ideas meaning. Success won’t come from mastering every new tool but from cultivating the judgment to know which ideas are worth bringing to life.

Ultimately, the future of creativity isn’t human versus AI. It’s about partnership, a blend of human vision and machine intelligence that allows stories to connect more deeply than ever before.

5) Trust: The Ultimate Differentiator

In a world flooded with AI-driven content, authenticity and trust are what set brands apart. People want to believe in the stories they’re told. They want to know there is intent, honesty, and consideration behind what they see.

That’s why transparency matters. How data is used, how content is created, and how brands express their values through technology all shape the trust they build with their audiences. The more automated marketing becomes, the more people will crave what feels genuine and human.

Adriana Gosford, CMO of Artera, put it best:

 

It’s a reminder that not everything labeled “AI-powered” deserves our confidence. As creative leaders, we have a responsibility to use these tools with clarity, honesty, and intention.

That sentiment echoed across the Google AI sessions. Responsible design, fairness in data, and inclusion in model training aren’t just ethical imperatives – they’re business imperatives. Othmane Rifki of Meta AI shared, “Without diverse voices in the room, it’s impossible to catch where the models go wrong.”

Trust is not built by claiming responsibility. It is earned by demonstrating it, through every decision, every story, and every use of technology that puts people first.

Bringing It All Together

It’s hard to wrap up a week’s worth of conversations into one post, but the takeaway for us was simple. AI is transforming how creative work gets done, and it’s happening faster than ever. But the real opportunity lies in how we blend human creativity with machine intelligence.

The most exciting part isn’t the technology itself, but what creative people will do with it. We’ll be able to understand audiences better, create content faster, and tell more compelling stories for less, but that only matters if we have the right storytellers – people who know how to use these tools to sharpen their thinking, strengthen their ideas, and make their work more meaningful.

We found ourselves quoting Ryan at ServiceNow, quite a bit – and for good reason, but one of his most powerful takeaways was this

 

And Othmane Rifki, Research Scientist at Meta AI, echoed that same sentiment, “AI is not replacing human intelligence, it’s augmenting it. But people who use AI will replace people who don’t.”

Technology levels the playing field, but what sets brands apart is their people – the thinkers, makers, and storytellers who know how to combine creativity with strategy and use AI as a catalyst for better ideas. The differentiator isn’t the tools; it’s the talent behind them.

At Sandy, we help marketing and creative leaders build AI-ready teams that combine strategy, creativity, and technology in powerful new ways. Because the future of marketing isn’t human or AI, it’s both – working together to tell stories that move the world forward.

Ready to see how Sandy can help you level up with AI-ready creative talent? Let’s talk.