Lights, Camera, Algorithm: Jana Memel on Creativity in the Age of AI

Three-time Academy Award winner Jana Memel explores how creative education can prepare filmmakers for an industry shaped by artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is changing how films are made—and how future filmmakers prepare for their careers. In an article for the INUNI Global Convocation 2026 magazine, three-time Academy Award winner Jana Memel, Academy of Art University’s Executive Vice President of the Schools of Entertainment and Brand Storytelling, explores what those changes mean for creative education. Memel explains how AI can support research, experimentation, and production while emphasizing the importance of originality, collaboration, and ethical judgment. Her message for emerging filmmakers: learning new tools goes hand in hand with developing a creative voice and the ability to tell stories that connect with audiences.

The following article was produced as part of the INUNI Global Convocation 2026 magazine and is reproduced with permission from INUNI Global.

Lights, Camera, Algorithm: Creativity in the Age of AI

By Jana Memel

Executive Vice President in Charge of Brand Storytelling and the Schools of Entertainment, School of Motion Pictures and Television, Academy of Art University and three-time Academy Award winner.

Artificial intelligence has become one of the defining topics in the creative industries.

Film schools are part of that conversation because the students we teach today at Academy of Art University will graduate into a profession where these technologies will be a standard part of everyday creative work. Students deserve the opportunity to understand both what these tools can and cannot do. Ross Patrick, the Academy’s Chief AI Evangelist and Director of The School of Advertising, puts it this way.

AI literacy is becoming a basic professional requirement. But fluency means more than using the tools. It means understanding how to combine them with human insight, craft, and judgment.

That perspective shapes the way I think about artificial intelligence. Much of the public conversation focuses on whether AI will replace creative professionals. I find myself asking a different question. How should we prepare students for an industry in which AI will almost certainly become an integral part of the creative process?

Having spent my career producing films and winning Oscars for doing so, I am now focused on working with the next generation of filmmakers. I’ve seen the industry evolve in ways that once seemed unimaginable. Production has changed. Editing has changed. Distribution has changed. Every shift has influenced how stories are developed, produced, and shared with audiences. Yet one thing has remained remarkably consistent. The creative process has always adapted to new technology without losing sight of its purpose: to entertain the audience.

The distinction matters because education has never been about preparing students for the world as it exists today. It has always been about preparing them for the world they will enter tomorrow. Technology will continue to evolve throughout their careers. Some of the software they learn today will eventually disappear. New tools will emerge, just as they always have. Our responsibility is to help students develop the judgment, skills and adaptability that allow them to grow with those changes rather than be defined by them.

That means teaching technical skills, but it also means helping students develop something less tangible and ultimately more valuable.

Every film begins with a series of creative decisions. Why does this story matter? Whose perspective should it reflect? What should an audience feel when the credits roll? Those questions have never been answered by technology. They are shaped by curiosity, observation, collaboration, and a willingness to keep refining an idea until it communicates something honest.

I’ve always believed those qualities deserve as much attention in the classroom as technical proficiency. Creative careers are built through collaboration. Writers challenge one another’s ideas. Directors work closely with actors, cinematographers, and editors. Producers spend much of their time bringing people together around a shared vision. The strongest work rarely comes from one individual working in isolation. It develops through discussion, trust, and a collective commitment to creating a story that lands with as much emotional impact as possible. Artificial intelligence doesn’t change that responsibility.

It can serve as another tool in the creative process. It can help organise research, explore concepts, speed up repetitive tasks, and support experimentation. Used thoughtfully, it may even remove some of the practical barriers that have traditionally limited emerging filmmakers.

AI is lowering the barriers to production. That means ideas, judgment, and originality will matter more because everyone will have access to powerful tools.

That is worth exploring, particularly in an educational environment such as Academy of Art University, where experimentation has always been part of learning. Like every new technology, however, AI also raises important questions.

Creative work depends on originality, authorship, and trust. Those principles matter regardless of the tools involved. We teach students entering the industry that they should understand that innovation and responsibility are not competing ideas.

They have always existed together. Every generation of filmmakers has faced decisions about how to use new technology. Artificial intelligence simply asks today’s generation to engage with those questions in a different context.

One of the privileges of teaching is watching students discover their own creative voice. It rarely happens all at once. Confidence develops over time as they test ideas, learn from criticism, and begin to understand what they want to say through their work. That journey has always been personal. I don’t believe any technology can replace it because it is rooted in experience, perspective, and human connection.

The conversations surrounding AI sometimes create the impression that creativity itself is changing. I’m convinced that’s not the case.

The tools available to creative professionals are certainly changing, and they will continue to do so. Audiences are changing too, along with the platforms where stories are shared. But the reasons people tell stories remain remarkably familiar. We tell stories to understand one another, to preserve culture, to question accepted ideas, and to imagine different possibilities. Those motivations have carried the creative industries through every period of change I have experienced. That gives me confidence about the future.

The students entering our classrooms today will almost certainly work in an industry that looks different from the one I entered. They will use technologies that don’t yet exist and solve creative problems we cannot fully anticipate.

An Academy education encourages curiosity, critical thinking, ethical judgment, and a commitment to lifelong learning, so that our students will be well prepared for that future. For me, that has always been the purpose of creative education.

Academy students leave with technical skills, certainly, but they also leave with habits of curiosity, collaboration, and thoughtful decision-making that will stay with them throughout their careers. Those qualities will matter regardless of how the industry evolves.

About the Author

Jana Sue Memel is Executive Vice President of the Schools of Entertainment and Brand Storytelling at Academy of Art University. Prior to joining the Academy, she built a distinguished career spanning more than three decades as a writer, producer, and director in Hollywood, producing films for major studios and earning three Academy Awards. She later founded a storytelling consultancy, advising Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organisations on brand strategy and effective storytelling. Today, she brings her industry expertise and creative leadership to higher education, preparing the next generation of creative professionals for success in an evolving global industry.

Final Takeaway

AI won’t replace creative professionals, but it will reshape the tools they use. As barriers to production lower, judgment, originality, and human connection matter more, not less. Film education must prioritise curiosity, collaboration, and creative voice alongside technical fluency, preparing students to adapt rather than be defined by changing technology.

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