As AI reshapes creative work and how it is produced, one of the industry’s greatest risks may be the erosion of the environments where creative judgment is developed.
That is one of the issues raised in The D&AD AI & Creativity Report 2026: The Cost of the Shortcut. Sponsored by Shutterstock Studios, the report draws on 197 in-depth conversations with global creative leaders from 30 countries, alongside an analysis of more than 10,000 D&AD Award entries.
The report finds that what separates great creative work from average work is human judgment rather than technology. And while AI has made creative work faster and cheaper, using it as a shortcut produces only “average output.”
“AI has changed what bad work looks like,” said David Patton, CEO, D&AD.
“It’s no longer lazy or derivative in any obvious way – it’s competent, polished, and generic, and it’s the default output for anyone, anywhere. The real problem sits one step earlier: how do you train someone to tell competent from excellent, when competent is now the easy default everywhere they look?”
Entry-Level Exit
Another finding is that entry-level jobs where people develop creative judgment are disappearing at the same time AI is absorbing many of the remaining repetitive tasks. According to the report, this combination is eliminating the training ground for future creative leaders.
Rather than protecting those jobs as they are, it says they should be redesigned so they continue to teach the judgment the industry depends on.
AI use among award entries doubles
The proportion of D&AD Award entries declaring the use of AI more than doubled year-on-year, reaching 27.6% in 2026. Generative AI was used in 56.2% of AI-declaring entries overall, compared with 44.7% of AI-declaring Pencil winners, alongside a proportional rise in assistive AI among winners.
According to the report, the data suggests that while AI is increasingly part of the creative process, its use alone does not translate into creative excellence. The report addes that at the highest levels, human judgement, originality and craft remain critical, and that AI is neither a shortcut to excellence nor a prerequisite for it.
The report also highlights that AI can drive the most impactful results when working invisibly beneath the idea. Projects like ‘Caption with Intention’ and ‘PainVisible’ prove that using AI to drive inclusivity and precision can push creative boundaries in ways that would be otherwise difficult to scale.
Six reckonings
The report identifies six areas it terms “critical reckonings” facing creative organizations.
Among its findings:
Originality: Left alone, AI trends towards the average. Award-winning work emerged where specialist AI tools were paired with discerning human judgement and craft.
Talent: As repetitive tasks disappear, organizations face a defining choice: use AI to replace learning opportunities or redesign junior roles around critique, taste and cultural awareness.
Leadership: Creative excellence cannot be delegated to AI. The organizations pulling ahead are those whose leaders are actively shaping how AI is adopted, governed and used.
The report concludes that AI is not determining the future of creative excellence. Rather, the choices organizations make about how they use it are.
“This report isn’t just a diagnostic of risk. It’s D&AD planting a flag – not for the tools, or against them, but for the human judgment they can’t replace,” said Patton.
You can download the report here.
