Artists, storytellers, influencers will be agents of change in post-Covid future: Moody College dean at MICA event

Dr Bernhardt said, “Humans will focus on what we still do better than AI, and that is imagination, innovation, creativity, art, emotion, and relationships. New industries will crop up around these issues."

The post-Covid future is going to be about imagination, creativity, and ideas we generate, and artists, storytellers, and influencers will be the agents of social change, said Dr Jay Bernhardt, dean of the Moody College of Communication, the University of Texas at Austin.

Delivering the keynote address at the seventh International Communication Management Conference (ICMC) at MICA Ahmedabad, which was held virtually, Dr Bernhardt said, “As manufacturing, service, and IT jobs are changed or displaced by Artificial Intelligence, our society will evolve from an information economy to an imagination economy.”

Detailing what imagination economy would consist of, Dr Bernhardt said, “Humans will focus on what we still do better than AI, and that is imagination, innovation, creativity, art, emotion, and relationships. New industries will crop up around these issues. Content creators will leverage ever-increasing distribution options for sharing stories and products with users. Artists, storytellers, and influencers will be the agents of social change.”

Saying that the year 2020 brought three revolutions: work-from-home revolution, learn-from-home revolution, and shop-from-home revolution, he added, “It also accelerated new challenges like privacy and data access and an era of mis-and-disinformation. What we do not know is whether the technology and innovation glass is half-full, half-empty, or half-filled with poison?” Interdisciplinary collaboration and people skills will be of the utmost importance, he said.

The three-day conference will enable understanding of some of the turbulences that we are seeing now, said Shailendra Raj Mehta, president and director, MICA.

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