White Paper Creative Disruption: The impact of emerging technologies on the creative economy

The report examines how emerging technologies are disrupting the creative economy. AI is transforming content value chains through automation and personalized matching, while AR/VR creates new immersive storytelling mediums and prototyping efficiencies. The document highlights a convergence between the creative and platform economies, noting that a few large technology companies now control the majority of referral traffic and mobile advertising revenue. Blockchain is identified as the least mature technology, offering potential for transparent royalty payments and rights management, though it lacks sufficient use-cases. The authors argue for multistakeholder collaboration to address governance gaps, data privacy, and the impact of engagement-driven design on user well-being.

• Artificial intelligence is restructuring creative value chains by enabling precise content-to-audience matching and automating production tasks. AI is already being used to generate original music, art, fashion designs, and film scripts, though it also exacerbates the spread of disinformation via algorithms that encourage viral sharing.
• Immersive technologies (AR and VR) are creating a new medium for storytelling and product development. While they can foster empathy and provide transformative educational experiences, there are risks that business incentives prioritizing user engagement may conflict with individual well-being and data privacy.
• The creative economy is converging with the platform economy, leading to a concentration of power where a small number of technology companies control content discovery and revenue. In 2017, five companies captured nearly 80% of global mobile advertising revenue, and Google and Facebook alone accounted for approximately 70% of online referral traffic for digital publishers.
• Blockchain holds potential for improving artist remuneration and intellectual property management through smart contracts and peer-to-peer transactions, but it remains the least advanced of the studied technologies. There are currently insufficient use-cases to confirm its ability to drive positive change, and some creators find the required metadata entry too tedious.
• AI is expected to automate routine activities, potentially affecting 400 million full-time equivalent jobs by 2030, but demand for creative occupations is predicted to increase, with some economies seeing growth as high as 85%.
• Existing governance frameworks for AI, AR/VR, and blockchain are widely perceived as inadequate. Specific challenges include the lack of clarity regarding non-human copyright, the opacity of AI decision-making, and the need for human oversight to ensure corporate accountability.

APA

World Economic Forum (2018). White Paper Creative Disruption: The impact of emerging technologies on the creative economy. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/39655_CREATIVE-DISRUPTION.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. White Paper Creative Disruption: The impact of emerging technologies on the creative economy. 2018. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/39655_CREATIVE-DISRUPTION.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=White Paper Creative Disruption: The impact of emerging technologies on the creative economy |date=February 2018 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/39655_CREATIVE-DISRUPTION.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2018white, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{White Paper Creative Disruption: The impact of emerging technologies on the creative economy}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = feb, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/39655_CREATIVE-DISRUPTION.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }