We’ve entered the 5th Industrial Revolution—a time when human and artificial intelligence are expected to work together, when emotion and efficiency are meant to merge, and where “creative economy” is a buzzword thrown around in strategy meetings.
But let’s talk about what’s actually happening:
Artists are tired.
Not because they aren’t passionate.
Not because they’re lazy.
But because they’re watching their life’s work get reduced to:
What’s trending on TikTok
What a robot can replicate in 7 seconds
What people can buy for $5 without blinking
We’re back to the old loop:
Fast. Cheap. Viral.
People want convenience more than connection.
Quantity over quality.
Quick dopamine hits over the long, slow burn of truth-filled expression.
And artists?
We're supposed to keep up. To post every day. To make reels, merch, mockups.
To commodify our trauma. To filter our work into algorithms that still don’t understand the nuance of grief, the messiness of healing, or the divine imperfection of handmade things.
But here's the truth:
AI doesn’t have soul.
It doesn’t cry while painting.
It doesn’t pause to process.
It doesn’t know what it feels like to create beauty while holding brokenness.
We do.
So no, we’re not competing with AI.
We’re creating what AI never can—emotional residue, sacred imperfection, and art that slows the world down.
And if you're one of those artists struggling to be seen in this era, I want to tell you this:
You are not failing. You are resisting.
And that resistance is sacred.