By Arvind Hickman
Publication Date: 2025-12-01 04:31:00
This year’s SXSW Sydney Whirlwind brought together technology, creativity, film and music and analyzed the double-edged potential of AI; from Mo Gawdat’s humanity debate to demos of generative platforms and visions of efficiency-oriented creativity. But through casual conversations between sessions, a pattern emerged: The AI applications of most participants and even some moderators were superficial, tactical, and far from transformative.
At a conference like SXSW, I expect attendees and speakers to be at the forefront of the wave of acceptance. However, my observations and quick surveys found that most people use tools like Co-Pilot to help with email writing or ChatGPT to help transform their backyard.
These are good personal use cases, but hardly transformative and certainly far from integrated holistic workflows and the panacea of efficiency for businesses. In a session on “Rewiring Creativity,” the focus was on improving efficiencies – automating routine tasks…
