Creative Intelligence 2026

Written by AI

TLDR: Contra combines a survey of 150,000-plus creatives with marketplace data to map AI adoption, workflows, earnings, tools, and emerging careers.
Best for: Creative leaders comparing AI adoption, tools, workflows, and earnings
The tip: Use the discipline filters instead of treating creative AI adoption as one market.
Start here: Review adoption by experience level
Compare tools and models by discipline
Study the three phases of AI-assisted creative workflows
Filed note: Contra Labs surveyed more than 150,000 creative professionals to map AI adoption, everyday workflows, tool use, and earnings across creative disciplines.

Highlights: We surveyed 150k+ working creative professionals, combined with Contra’s marketplace data, to explore how AI is changing creative work.
The report pairs survey responses with marketplace behavior.
Creatives are doing more than ever before with AI adoption taking off.
Adoption is framed as part of daily creative work.
The field keeps growing, but what people actually use stays narrow.
Tool variety is expanding faster than actual usage.
Excerpt: We surveyed 150k+ working creative professionals, combined with Contra’s marketplace data, to explore how AI is changing creative work. Adoption, emerging workflows, earnings, next-gen AI-native careers, and more.
From contralabs.com