Eighty-one percent of creative professionals now use AI to create and release content, according to Luma's first-ever annual report, "State of Creative Professionals and AI: 2026," which surveyed 760 creative professionals.

Michele Madansky, marketing research consultant at Michele Madansky Consulting (MMC), presented the findings during a Brandweek 2026 workshop co-hosted by Luma. She was joined by Alexia Adana, forward deployed creative lead at Luma, who demonstrated how Luma's AI agents and creative platform can power the future of marketing.

High adoption, unresolved integration

Madansky called the 81% adoption figure the headline of the report. But she flagged a caveat, citing what she described as her "favorite" finding from the study: adoption is high, yet integration is still being figured out.

"On average, creative organizations evaluated 6.1 tools, adopted 4.3, and stopped using three. This is churn," Madansky said.

She explained that the results point to heavy trial, with the understanding that not everything will work or have lasting impact.

The survey includes several more findings. Agencies are leading AI adoption, while freelancers lag behind. The report also broke down the types of content being created: written copy and image creation sit ahead of video. "Video is harder to produce," Madansky explained.

Powering creative decisions with AI agents

Adana took the stage to demonstrate how Luma's AI agents and platform can help marketers. She used examples from a real workshop that Luma held with Oakley, the eyewear company owned by parent company Luxottica. In real time, she interacted with a Luma AI agent via chat, keeping the workflow simple.

"Think of the agent as this very powerful, pretrained tool that speaks to the generative AI models on your behalf. So, you do not need to be a technical prompter anymore to create these high-fidelity assets," Adana explained. "You just need to be somebody with a great idea and really solid direction to give that agent to go execute."

Adana showed how Luma builds a "Brand DNA" by uploading any data that would carry brand guidelines, such as typefaces and logos. Past campaigns can also be uploaded so Luma can learn what has worked.

From there, the creative process begins. Within Luma are "digital twins" of real-life models who have been photographed, alongside images of the brand's products. A marketer with a creative brief can tell the Luma agent to generate mood boards and other assets in the brainstorming phase.

Adana then demonstrated how marketers could bring the content to life using the company's array of AI tools. In minutes, she altered one of the Oakley test cases, showing that hybrid production using Luma can speed up the creative workflow.

Human authorship stays central

Adana stressed that the process remains human-driven, even as AI handles more of the production.

"This is all rooted in human authorship, [the assets are] rooted in real photography, and going through a hybrid workflow," Adana stated.

For creative teams weighing their next AI investment, the Luma data points to a market still sorting winners from discards — and a durable advantage for those who pair solid creative direction with tools that cut production time rather than replace judgment.

Source: Adweek (https://www.adweek.com/creativity/ai-has-reached-creative-teamsnow-comes-the-hard-part/) / Original: businesswire.com (https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260916035342/en/New-Luma-Study-Finds-AI-Has-Become-Mainstream-Among-Creative-Professionals-But-Human-Judgment-Remains-the-Industrys-Defining-Advantage)