The Creative2 editorial team interviewed Chris Murray, C2’s Senior Technical Producer, on the topic of AI. He shared with us where he thinks it may be headed, as well as his experience and recommendations regarding the tool. Read his contribution to the ongoing conversation about AI.

Will AI replace the need for human talent?

The arrival and lightning-fast iteration of Generative AI products like ChatGPT, Claude, and others has entire industries reconsidering how work gets done and companies racing to keep up. We’ve repeatedly seen the narrative that executives will look to replace human workers with automation using these large language models (LLMs).

It’s important not to lose ourselves in the excitement of all these new possibilities. Salesforce recently learned a painful lesson after firing 4,000 employees, instantly regretting their decision, and frantically seeking to hire replacements.

As business leaders, it’s critical to understand these technologies and their capabilities directly, or to have trusted partners who do. With that knowledge, it becomes easier to balance hype with reality and see how we can use these tools to augment existing workflows while also imagining entirely new ones. AI is a powerful and disruptive technology, but it’s still just a tool. It is most impressive as a force multiplier with skilled, creative humans behind it. It may seem counterintuitive, but to really get the most from AI, companies should be re-investing in their workforces with training on how to make these tools, not divesting.

Human stories and experiences are what shape us all. They motivate us to climb higher and search for more. If we fail to tap that infinite well of human experience, we risk making things just for the purpose of making them. That may be creation, but it is not creative. We’ve seen what happens when the people at Creative2 take the seed of an idea and grow it into something new and powerful. AI helps us do more of that work, freeing us to focus on making impact for our partners rather than pulling levers.

How do you use AI on a daily basis at Creative2?

My workflow has evolved over the past several years. The general progression shifted from copying code snippets and editing piecemeal, to using IDEs with integrated AI chat windows, to the most recent evolution where AI runs in the terminal through specialized tools like Claude Code that can be directed to understand context around thousands of files.

These tools don’t just help with technical work. A lot of what we do at Creative2 involves planning and problem-solving that spans many disciplines, and AI is great for keeping those threads organized. It’s also changed how we work with data. Tasks that used to mean manually combing through thousands of lines to find a single error can now be handed off to an LLM with a good level of accuracy. Someone with strong development skills can reach further into areas like data science (for example) with far less friction than ever before.

What AI tools do you recommend?

I use a variety of tools, but Anthropic’s Claude (Code) has the edge currently for my workflows. I recently switched back to VSCode for my main editor after using Cursor for a little over a year. The indexing and context management that Claude Code does with codebases made it quickly stand above Cursor’s integrated chat flow. I rarely need to direct it to review specific files or codebase references and I can quickly iterate without as much manual friction.

MCPs and Plug-ins are great ways to expand upon Claude Code. I’ve used these tools to help debug stubborn items, giving Claude direct browser access. There are so many interesting applications, but knowing when to reach for these tools, or knowing when to stop an agent going down a bad path and redirect, is an essential skill that developers build intuition for with years of experience. While selecting a model is important, the human skill behind the model is the ultimate key.

The old adage that “we don’t know what we don’t know” rings very true in this field. As these tools become more advanced, clients need partners they can trust to help them distinguish what’s real from what looks real.

How has Creative2 used AI to solve problems for clients?

We’re using these tools for all kinds of problems. One interesting case is a client of ours in the furniture restoration business. We recently started supercharging their SaaS with AI tools, and it’s been so rewarding to see their reactions when we do something they would have never dreamed was possible.

One of the main functions of their software is building detailed proposals that document restoration jobs. With our recent additions, we’ve dramatically reduced the amount of time they spend filling out paperwork, enabling them to take on more work and improve the quality and consistency of their existing output. They can now document individual pieces by simply telling our software which photos to analyze. It categorizes the furniture, infers the type of damage and restoration work needed, and even suggests pricing and valuations for insurance. The descriptions and data generated from AI are so good that with a little human oversight, they’re saving hours on each and every proposal.

We’re even experimenting with tools like Google Gemini’s generative image tooling that allows them to visualize furniture in different finishes. It can take an image of a couch, regardless of conditions or lighting, and “re-imagine” it with a new fabric pattern or a different wood stain. We see this as the beginning of reshaping how people interact with software, augmenting real user experiences while abstracting away the AI layer into something familiar.

How would Creative2 advise a client when it comes to implementing AI effectively in 2026?

We are strong advocates for our clients and see their success as our success. While we’re very AI-forward, we don’t see it as a solution for every problem. Many problems are still best solved with traditional development. We always want to ensure that we’re solving issues at their core, rather than just selling shovels in a gold rush.

That said, there’s no shortage of interesting ways to augment with AI. The key question we always come back to with our clients is: what are you actually trying to accomplish, and does AI enhance that direction? Use of these tools should be framed around solving real problems. We encourage a calm, focused approach over chasing hype.

In summary, what is Creative2’s outlook on where AI is headed this year?

Change is the only constant in this rapidly developing area of technology. It’s exciting and full of opportunities to rethink traditional problems. We’re seeing both tech behemoths and open source communities creating more advanced ways of interacting with AI while also improving efficiency so these tools require less raw computing power to run. We expect the leading models to continue getting smarter and more reliable, and the gap between what requires a massive data center and what you can run on hardware you already own to keep closing. One of the most interesting shifts we’re watching is AI moving beyond simple question-and-answer into tools that can actually carry out multi-step tasks on your behalf, like a capable coworker who can take a set of instructions and run with them. We think this will reshape how businesses solve problems over the next few years, and Creative2 is already building with these capabilities in mind. Whatever direction things go, we’re here to bring our partners’ visions to life.