AI generated image via Gavin McLeod.
Most evenings in our house follow the same pattern. I vegetate on the sofa, while my wife scrolls TikTok. It’s her favourite ritual. Cats, hacks, fails, and all the chaos that makes TikTok what it is.
The New Reflex
Lately I’ve noticed something new. Every so often she pauses, squints at the screen, and mutters:
“Is this AI?”
If she decides it is, that’s it. Flick of the thumb. Gone. For her, AI equals fake. No humanity. No truth. No feeling.
She’s not in advertising. She doesn’t follow the AI discourse. She just wants to be entertained. And her instinct is clear: if it doesn’t feel human, she isn’t interested.
The Empathy Gap
That reaction stuck with me. Because what she’s really doing is testing for authenticity. She wants to feel something real.
And that’s where AI often falls down. It can generate endless content that looks perfect. But without humanity, people move on.
At Emotive, we talk about this a lot. We don’t want to be an AI agency. Our ambition is simpler: to be the most creative agency powered by AI in Australia.
Because the point isn’t the tool. The point is unlocking ideas that change how people feel.
Two Responsibilities
That’s why I think we carry two responsibilities with AI.
The first is to audiences. However fast or powerful the tools become, the work still has to land. It has to feel true. It has to create connection. Otherwise, what’s the point?
The second is to each other. AI is reshaping our industry, and not everyone finds the transition easy. Some thrive. Some stumble. I’ve stumbled myself. And what made the difference wasn’t a productivity hack. It was empathy. A colleague who checked in. A friend who said, “I get it,” and whose support gave me the confidence to try new directions. Small gestures that mattered more than they probably realised.
The Value of Humanity
Our CEO Simon Joyce puts it neatly: in a world of AI, humanity and authenticity become the rarest and most valuable commodities.
Anyone can make something slick. Few can make something that actually resonates. That makes someone laugh. Gasp with astonishment. Or feel the hairs rise on the back of their neck.
And that brings me back to the sofa.
The Sofa Test
Because consumers like my wife aren’t impressed by how clever the tech is. They’re impressed when something makes them laugh after a long day. Or when a story makes them feel less alone. Or when an idea feels so human it couldn’t possibly have come from a machine, even if it was made by one.
That’s the sofa test. Not whether the algorithm works, but whether someone scrolling at home feels something worth stopping for.
Closing the Empathy Gap
AI will keep changing how we create. No question. But if we let authenticity slip, we’ll lose the only thing that makes creativity matter.
So my challenge to myself is this: embrace the tools, but double down on empathy. Not just making things that look clever, but things that actually make someone laugh, pause and feel something different. Otherwise, it’s just more noise in an already noisy feed.
AI can fake a smile. But it can’t fake a soul.
Gavin McLeod is Chief Creative Officer at Emotive.