Beyond the Algorithm: How AI Is Rewriting the Boundaries of Creativity

A game changer in the creative and digital industries, David Raichman, also known as DaveThePreacher, is a Paris-based AI artist and an executive creative director at Ogilvy Paris whose role at Ogilvy pioneers the integration of artificial intelligence into commercial storytelling. With a background in philosophy and applied arts, his career bridges conceptual thinking with visual innovation. Separately, as an AI artist, David created an award-winning music video for the French metal band Mass Hysteria - one of the first to utilise generative AI techniques. In January 2023, he staged one of Paris’s first exhibitions of AI-generated artwork, showcasing pieces created by training machine learning models on his own photographic material to explore the frontier between photography and artificial intelligence. His experimental approach combines technical expertise with philosophical inquiry, consistently pushing boundaries in visual expression across both commercial and artistic domains.

The Next Revolution in Storytelling

Q> AI tools like Sora 2 let people insert themselves into stories. Is this disruption, or opportunity?

David> It started small: a Cameo-style feature in Sora 2 that lets you appear inside an AI-generated film. Fun on the surface, but really a preview of what’s coming next.
Because once you can star in your own movie, you’ll soon cast your family, your friends, your heroes- - anyone you want. A Netflix of selves is emerging: instant films written by you, starring you, for you. It feels like freedom. It may also be the beginning of the end of art as we know it. And navigating that tension is the real opportunity.

The Creative Renaissance - Not the End of Art

Q> If anyone can star in their own film, what does originality mean now?

David> Creative industries have long relied on data: what pleases, what performs, what sells. AI pushes that logic to its extreme. It doesn’t just predict your taste; it manufactures it.

The risk is endless repetition. Originality will come from those who create friction inside the loop - who dare to introduce something unexpected. That’s where agencies still matter.

Beyond Personalisation: Designing for Meaning

Q> If AI delivers exactly what people want, how do we keep stories moving people, not just pleasing them?

David> Perfect personalisation becomes a mirror. And mirrors rarely move you.

To feel something, you need a moment you didn’t expect, a window, not just a reflection. Meaning comes from surprise. Our work is to protect that space even as technology optimises around it.

The Role of Brands in the Age of Simulation

Q> If identity becomes a medium, how do agencies safeguard authenticity?

David> When everyone can simulate themselves, truth becomes fluid. Brands won’t speak to people; they’ll speak through them. Authenticity will depend on transparency and intention. The most trusted brands will be the ones that invite co-creation without losing what’s real at their core.

Leading the Transformation: Ogilvy as Cultural Architect

Q> Every major shift in media required a new creative language. How is Ogilvy inventing the grammar of AI storytelling today?

David> We’re experimenting constantly: blending filmmakers, technologists and AI artists to invent new forms of emotion and narrative. And sometimes the best way to understand the future is to build it. Our latest work forAbu Dhabi’s Natural History Museum - bringing STAN the T. rex to life as the world’s first 'AI-ncient influencer' - is exactly that. A cultural icon, reborn through AI, speaking the social media language while opening a new door into science. Projects like that help us prototype the grammar of what comes next.

Closing: The Human Core

Q> If AI makes everyone a creator, what becomes the new role of creative professionals?

David> It’s true that creators and creative professionals share the same appetite for making things. That hasn’t changed, and AI only amplifies it. But there’s still a fundamental distinction, no matter how advanced the tools become. AI can turn anyone into a creator. But not everyone understands brands: their constraints, their strategy, their tone of voice, the cultural and business context they operate in. That’s exactly where creative professionals come in. Our role isn’t just to generate. It’s to shape meaning with intention. To know what aligns with a brand’s truth, what builds equity, what breaks it, and what moments deserve to exist. Machines can create infinite possibilities. Creative professionals decide which possibility becomes a story and which story becomes a brand. So yes, everyone can be a creator. But not everyone can create for a brand. And that’s where our craft remains irreplaceable.