This article first featured in Issue 05 of The Beautiful Truth Magazine. Get your copy here.

In the mid-1800s, Ada Lovelace, daughter of the poet Lord Byron, envisioned a future few others could fathom. Working alongside Charles Babbage, she not only conceptualised the first algorithm for a machine but also imagined possibilities far beyond computation: she foresaw that machines might one day create art, music and entirely new forms of human expression. Her vision wasn’t about solving the immediate problems of her era but about imagining a radically different future, one defined by possibilities yet to unfold.

As artificial intelligence (AI) shapes our world with predictive models and relentless efficiency, are we still nurturing this kind of expansive thinking? How do we ensure the imaginative leaps that define humanity aren’t sacrificed to the allure of immediate outcomes?

Our most valuable resource

Historian Yuval Noah Harari observed that humans have become the most powerful creatures on the planet because of our imagination. This remarkable capacity to envision the unseen has driven every major advancement in history, from the invention of the wheel to the launch of ChatGPT.

Stephen T Asma, Professor of Philosophy at Columbia and advocate for imagination in education, says: “Imagination is as imagination does. Suppose we treat the imagination as merely a faculty of the mind. In that case, we will miss the dynamic, action-oriented aspect: it is part of the organism’s pragmatic attempt to get maximum grip on its changing environment.” While popular culture champions the fantasy version of artistic imagination, it’s the everyday acts – cooking, daydreaming, navigation, hypothesising, moral reflection, reading, laughing – that constitute imagination as a tool for mastering our grip on life’s big shifts. Everything around us, from the transport systems that take us to work, to the streetlights that guide us home, to the novel we pick up at bedtime, is a product of this.

Just as the Industrial Revolution shifted human labour from muscle to mind, the current transformation – fuelled by AI – moves the skills most valued by economies from mind to human consciousness. As Minouche Shafik, former President of Columbia University and former Director of the London School of Economics, notes: “In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they’re about brains, but in future they’ll be about the heart.” Today’s worker is defined less by physical strength and more by the qualities unique to human beings. A Jobs for the Future survey revealed that 78% of the ten largest employment sectors identified uniquely human skills and tasks as ‘important’ or ‘very important’.

Yet the potential disruption of generative AI may be outpacing the capacity of many organisations and workers to imagine new ways of working. The temptation to let machines ‘think’ for us risks outsourcing that initial critical process of wild imagination. AI, while powerful, is a tool of replication. It mirrors the information it is fed, amplifying rather than transcending the limitations of its training. And as AI’s transformative power accelerates, organisations are struggling to align human capability with technological innovation. According to Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research, 73% of respondents say it is important to ensure that the human capabilities in an organisation keep pace with technological innovation, but just 9% say they are making progress towards achieving that balance.

Will AI supercharge creativity?

Creativity isn’t vanishing; it’s evolving. Kim Dabbs, Global Vice President of Impact at furniture business Steelcase, explains: “Creativity is being manifested in different ways than our generation did it. We just need to nurture it.” As AI enters our everyday working life, it’s a puzzle of pieces that are still finding their place. On one side lies a horse race between human and AI-generated ideas that may dull our creative instincts, and on the other, a future where AI may afford us the time to think expansively, not less creatively.

A study by the University of Exeter Business School and UCL School of Management in 2024 tasked participants with writing short stories – one group with no stimulus and in solitude and another group with the aid of AI. Writers who used AI ideas, especially those who initially scored lower on creativity tests, saw their stories rated as more creative, well written and enjoyable. This ‘levelling effect’ significantly boosted creativity for less creative individuals, demonstrating the potential of AI to help overcome creative blocks and provide fresh starting points for story development. In this sense, AI acts as a catalyst for human creativity, giving individuals the tools to produce more polished and creative work than they might otherwise achieve alone.

Yet, while the AI-generated ideas improved individual story quality, they also led to a convergence in the stories produced by participants. Stories written with AI assistance were more similar to each other than those crafted solely by humans. This homogenisation alerted researchers – that the more individuals lean on AI for inspiration, the more the breadth of novel, original ideas diminishes. While generative AI benefits individuals by making their creative work more compelling, it simultaneously reduces the overall diversity of ideas out in the world.

Could creativity become formulaic, then, with less room for the kind of unpredictable, unique breakthroughs that have historically characterised human innovation? As we embrace AI as a catalyst for creativity, how do we ensure we don’t lose those rare moments that make our imagination so surprising?

Nurturing imagination 

“If we invest more in empathy, problem-solving and imagination early on, we’ll see it pay off in a workforce equipped with the creativity we need.” So says Emma Franklin, a Deloitte member of the business task force that supports the Royal Foundation’s Centre for Early Childhood. “Every business has touchpoints that impact children under five – whether through their workforce, their customers or their community presence,” she explains. Companies like LEGO, Co-op and Unilever are already finding ways to contribute, with LEGO continuously donating their products to early years schools for children to explore ‘focused joy’, and Co-op donating unsold food to local communities so that more children are fed to fuel their days at school. These actions spark a cultural movement, inspiring other businesses to step up. “It’s not necessarily about changing what you’re doing,” Emma remarks, “but raising visibility of what is being done, and inspiring others to act.” Beyond corporate responsibility, the long-term benefits are clear. Emma notes that nurturing these skills in childhood could add more than £12 billion to the UK economy.

Imagination is more than a muscle or a skill; it serves as a lens through which we interpret the world. In Finland, where public arts spending is the highest per capita at around $91 per person, the nurturing of creativity is embedded in the fabric of society. This commitment to the arts fosters a culture rich in innovation and collaboration, aptly summarised by the Finnish concept of talkoo – the spirit of working together for a common good.

Since 2010, UK GCSE arts entries have plummeted by 47%, and with creative workers in business relying upon an arts GCSE, it prompts concern about the consequences of sidelining creative education. “Businesses want creative people, but schools just aren’t giving students enough time to explore that side of themselves anymore,” says Lucy Byrne, founder of dot-art, an organisation that helps young people practise art, instilling confidence by making time to paint and enter interschool competitions. It’s well established that artistic expression fosters young visionaries with the kind of wisdom you can’t find in textbooks. But as Byrne points out: “It’s not just about painting. We’re losing something vital.”

Framed imagination

“Art’s ability to flex our imaginations may be one of the reasons why we’ve been making art since we were cave-dwellers,” says Girija Kaimal, a professor specialising in creative arts therapies, adding that “it might serve an evolutionary purpose.” In the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, Kaimal argues the brain uses imagination to make predictions about what we might do next – and, more importantly, what we need to do to survive and thrive.“Rather than concentrating on constructing rocket ships, we should direct our efforts towards building cathedrals – sustainable businesses with strong foundations that create lasting impact for generations to come,” says Tessa Clarke, CEO of food sharing app company Olio. She nods to the need for durability and legacy in an era obsessed with speed and scale. As the leader of a venture-backed technology company, Clarke feels the pressure of inflation and digital disruption. Yet, she questions whether innovation alone can steer us through. If innovation is about preserving new futures, could it be less about tools and efficiency and more about questioning entrenched assumptions about progress, authenticity and impact? Rob Hopkins, FromWhat Is to What If? author, tells us that we need to ask fundamental questions about the future we’re building, reminding us: “We need to be able to imagine positive, feasible, delightful versions of the future before we can create them.”

Businesses know the commercial value of harnessing the novel ideas born from a protected process of imaginative thinking. Take design thinking – a tool to unpack a ‘user’ problem typically, but a human one. The method embraces wild curiosity by asking a multitude of “How might we?” questions to any challenge. It explores radical ideas in the confines of what is possible through protected moments of brainstorming, before narrowing in on the practical. This approach is found across most businesses and has transformed both public and private sectors, creating space for diverse voices to share their unique ideas. Kim Dabbs explains that “everyone has ideas, has gifts,” and that translating these gifts across cultures fuels momentum for “critical change.” This thinking enables organisations to engage employees at all levels, encouraging them to “take risks and pursue breakthroughs.”

In their 2021 book Framers, Kenneth Cukier, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Francis de Véricourt argue that “counterfactual thinking” is essential to framing challenges differently. In our minds, we often imagine countless possibilities of how the world might be different, mentally playing several moves ahead. This counterfactual thinking allows us to look beyond the present reality, considering what could have been or might still be, rather than being stuck in the “what is.” It’s rooted in our understanding of cause and effect and comes naturally, despite being a complex process. This ability helps us “fill in the blanks,” making sense of what we know and imagining what we don’t. For instance, NASA engineers predicted nearly everything during the Apollo 11 landing, despite never having been to the moon, drawing on generations of scientific knowledge. Similarly, Galileo’s famous experiment at the Leaning Tower of Pisa – meant to challenge ancient Greek ideas about gravity – was likely a mental exercise in counterfactual reasoning, as scholars today believe he never actually dropped the objects.

The stories we tell ourselves about what is possible – our “what ifs?” will define our future. The same is true for organisations: every business is guided by its story, and the most powerful stories inspire action, align people, and give meaning to change. This livestream is for communications, corporate affairs, and culture professionals who believe in the power of storytelling to make strategy stick, help culture flourish, and bring meaning to change. Join The Beautiful Truth on 10th December.