AI and CCI: Shaping Europe’s Next Step

Gloria Mendoza / https://betterimagesofai.org / https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Across Europe, cultural and creative actors are asking a similar question: how can artificial intelligence be shaped in ways that strengthen creativity, cultural diversity and democratic innovation, rather than narrowing them?

The European Commission’s call for evidence on a forthcoming AI Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Sectors offers one answer: it creates a policy window where the sector can show where AI is already helping creativity, where risks are still insufficiently understood, and what fairer conditions, better transparency and better access could look like in practice.

For ekip, this is not only about responding to a consultation. It is a signal that Europe is moving from recognising the importance of culture and creativity to asking how these capacities can be embedded in innovation policy.

Through its work on open innovation ecosystems, policy recommendations and high-level dialogues, ekip has already contributed to a wider EU policy movement that places cultural and creative industries closer to the centre of debates on competitiveness, sustainability, democracy and technological transformation – and can now help turn concrete experience into policy learning.

Not just users of AI

ekip coordinator Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth argues that the cultural and creative sectors should not be treated only as users of AI.

“Creative professionals bring capacities that AI policy urgently needs: interpretation, narrative thinking, experimentation, audience understanding, ethical sensitivity and the ability to work with ambiguity. These perspectives can help ensure that an AI strategy for culture strengthens human agency rather than reducing creativity to technical adoption.”

From ambition to action

The five recommendations emerging from ekip’s High-Level Brussels event offer a practical way to move from policy ambition to action. They point towards an AI strategy that connects culture with research, innovation, skills, democratic resilience and industrial transformation.

Just as importantly, they show that Europe needs open innovation ecosystems, portfolios and foresight capacities that allow creative actors to shape technological change together with policymakers, researchers, technology developers and public institutions.

Fair participation

AI also raises urgent questions about the use of creative works, transparency, remuneration, ownership and bargaining power. Here, ekip’s contribution is to connect rights and fairness to the wider conditions that make participation possible.

As Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth notes, “The issue is not only how creative sectors can access AI tools, but how they can participate on fair terms in the value chains, innovation processes, infrastructures and governance models that the use of AI is generating.”

What is needed to make it work

Individual AI projects can show what is possible, and some practices may already be working well enough to travel across Europe. But projects alone are not enough to change systems.

ekip’s open innovation perspective points to the need for testbeds, data spaces, skills programmes, regulatory guidance, cross-sector partnerships and intermediaries that can connect artistic practice, technological development, public policy and market realities.

The consultation goes beyond written responses. Workshops, surveys and policy discussions will help shape the strategy, giving the ekip community a chance to bring real-world experience into the debate. Highlightning both AI’s creative potential and its risks, and push for fairer, more transparent access.

This is not a coincidence

The momentum around AI and culture reflects a broader European shift. CCIs are increasingly being recognised not only as sectors affected by technological change, but as actors that can help shape how innovation happens.

ekip’s work offers concepts, examples and policy arguments for this shift: from isolated initiatives to open innovation ecosystems, from short-term projects to portfolios, and from reactive policy to foresight-driven learning.

As Charlotte Lorentz Hjorth puts it, “This is a moment for the CCI community to help define what a European approach to AI should stand for. If culture, creativity and human agency are to be at the centre of future-oriented innovation, we need to be active in the consultation process now.”

Please share your perspectives at the European Commission Website