At AI Summit, Prasoon Joshi and Sushant Sreeram make the case for human imagination

New Delhi: On the sidelines of AI Summit 2026 in Delhi, a quiet but powerful conversation unfolded about what creativity truly means in an age of machines that can write, paint, compose, and generate entire worlds in seconds.

Rather than sounding alarmist or euphoric, Poet, screenwriter and Central Board of Film Certification Chairperson Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, Omnicom Advertising (OA) India and Sushant Sreeram, the Head of SVOD Business & Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at JioStar, chose a more reflective path. Their shared message was simple. Technology can assist creation. Meaning still comes from human choice.

Joshi began by questioning the language itself. “First of all, it’s not artificial for me. What is artificial about AI? AI is not artificial. It is real data.”

To him, artificial intelligence is essentially accumulated human experience reorganised through computation. Impressive, yes. But fundamentally different from the messy, uncertain way humans create.

“A creative process is a process of anybody who has created a song or written a poem or written a story, also knows that you don’t have a very clear idea where you want to go. In the process of creation, the creation reveals itself.”

Joshi described creativity as discovery rather than execution. Humans do not merely assemble what already exists. They stumble into what has never existed before.

"Why do I feel that human creativity will always prevail? Because I feel that we are about what is yet to be expressed. Human creativity is about what is yet to be expressed.”

For him, humanity’s greatest strength lies in being unfinished.

“So the most beautiful song has not been written yet. And the most beautiful dream has not been seen yet.”

Sriram placed this moment within a longer historical pattern. India has lived through the industrial revolution and the internet revolution. What lies ahead, he suggested, will revolve around imagination.

“In the next 20–30 years, I think it’s going to be about imagination.”

From his perspective, AI’s real power is not replacing storytellers but reducing the friction of creation. It lowers costs, compresses time, and opens doors for more people to participate.

“AI didn’t tell Mahabharata. Maharishi Ved Vyas wrote down this mythological epic 5000 years ago. What AI helped do is collapse the time, the resources and the energy it takes to be able to bring a story to life. It massively democratises storytelling.”

Yet, greater access also means overwhelming abundance. More content does not automatically mean better content.

“In a world where you have a massive abundance of storytelling and artefacts that AI helps storytellers create, I think it raises the bar as a whole for what makes a good story.”

Joshi reiterated the idea of choice as the core human act. A machine can offer five options. Selecting one and standing by it is authorship.

For Joshi, this exposes the real challenge.

“Now this decision has come from a value system. Now, where is AI going to be anchored in to take such critical decisions?”

Sriram echoed this using examples from cinema history. Many landmark films were irrational risks that data alone would have discouraged.

“Lagaan is one of my favourite movies. I find it hard to believe that a machine would have decided to green-light a four-hour cricketing story back then.”

Data can predict patterns. It cannot generate belief.

“What an AI platform or an engine will not be able to do on its own entirely yet is to be able to tell us something about the future which not exist in the past. And I think that is where the human conviction and our instinct come through.”

Neither speaker denied the ethical, economic, or structural disruptions ahead. But both resisted dystopian thinking. They framed this era as an invitation to be more intentional.

“In a world of infinite possibilities, what choices we make, either as creators, storytellers, or platforms, I think, is what will matter,” Sriram said.

Then came a note of grounded optimism.

“I actually think it is going to be the golden age for entertainment and storytelling. The great ideas will always, always continue to shine through,” he added.

On the sidelines of AI Summit 2026, the conversation settled on a simple truth. Machines may accelerate creation. Meaning still requires a human to choose.