This phrase was frequently mentioned during a recent TIME100 panel in Cannes. Four executives - from Nespresso, Luma AI, Philip Morris International, and Publicis Sapient - sat down to argue about what AI is actually doing to the creative work. Not the Sci-Fi version, but the version that you use every day and the one that shows up in your inbox on a Tuesday.
Their conclusion was almost quite boring in how consistent it was: AI isn't creative. It's the multiplier for the creative.
The Iron Man problem
Nigel Vaz, who runs Publicis Sapient, put it in the bluntest terms, put it in the bluntest words possible. Invest only in the suit, and you get a fancy empty machine. Invest only in the person, and you get someone who tops out at human speed. Bolt them together and you get something that outruns both.
The uncomfortable and concerning part is not the suit. It's how fast the manual keeps changing. Vaz's estimate for someone entering the workforce today: most of the things they learned are obsolete on arrival, and it goes stale again roughly every six months or so. The durable skill stopped being about knowing things and became unlearning things on schedule - dropping what you knew last quarter without ego and picking up the replacement.
Curiosity is the moat, not the tool
From another angle, Stefano Volpetti of PMI also highlighted the same attribute. The young, tech-native workers he observed aren’t succeeding because they have a better command of prompts; they’re succeeding because they are willing to try and make mistakes along the way. Curiosity, coupled with the willingness to be wrong out there in public—those are the attributes the technology rewards. AI as an amplifier, according to Volpetti. That works in both directions. Amplify someone with a great grasp of what his/her audience wants, and customization can reach millions. Amplify someone who has nothing to say, and you end up saying nothing.
The things AI still can't touch
The ceiling was called by Jessica Padula of Nespresso, and it bears thinking through. AI can tell you what your audience likes, where it goes, and what it clicks on. It can deliver all the data exhaust of an actual human being. The one thing it cannot give you is actually being in the same room with him/her. You know everything there is to know about a person from a dashboard but you fail to capture the one thing that can only emerge in a live dialogue. As they say, the map is not the territory.
Why this matters for what we do here
Every argument on that stage points the same direction, and it's the direction ThinkAbout is already pointed: the leverage isn't the tool, it's the taste behind it. AI can generate a hundred versions of a thing. It can't tell you which one is true — which one lands, which one respects the person on the other end of the screen.
So, the play isn't to out-tool anyone. It's to stay more curious, unlearn faster, and keep doing the one thing the machine can't fake — actually paying attention to real people.
The suit's getting better every six months. Make sure there's someone worth putting inside it.
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