The Last Creative Skill

In partnership with

In a world where AI can create faster, better, and at infinite scale, the question isn’t if creativity survives. It’s how. The one skill no machine can replicate is taste. Taste is what separates noise from meaning, novelty from resonance.

This special edition of AI Ready CMO is about reclaiming taste as the final creative skill. You’ll discover why it matters now more than ever, and how to cultivate it in a culture drowning in mediocrity.

Because in the era of infinite creation, taste isn’t just a creative skill. It’s leadership.

— Peter & Torsten

PS: Some of you might get triggered by this edition. That is fine. To be honest: that’s the point.

Before we jump in, a quick word from our sponsor:

Learn AI in 5 minutes a day

This is the easiest way for a busy person wanting to learn AI in as little time as possible:

1. Sign up for The Rundown AI newsletter

2. They send you 5-minute email updates on the latest AI news and how to use it

3. You learn how to become 2x more productive by leveraging AI

Sign up to start learning.

What Is Left for Us?

This is the question beneath every creative conversation right now. We dress it up, rephrase it, pretend we’re not asking, but it’s there.

What’s left for us, the creatives, in an era where AI can create almost anything? Where is our place? What’s the one creative skill no machine, no matter how powerful, can replicate?

The answer is simple. And uncomfortable: taste.

Without taste, infinite creation becomes infinite noise. Without taste, we slide into shallow, surface-level content. We were already drifting there long before AI.

Just look at what we’ve done with the internet.

As creatives and leaders in marketing, our job has always been to craft work that resonates with humans. We’ve gotten very efficient at that. Now, with AI, we can create content in minutes and launch campaigns in hours. What once took weeks happens in seconds.

But here’s the problem: efficiency has nothing to do with taste. Taste is not quantifiable. Taste is inefficient by nature. It demands time, attention, and the courage to say no. Taste is conviction.

The Problem With Creation Today

Most people confuse taste with preference. We say: “You do you!” 
or “It’s all subjective,” and 
“Don’t judge me!” That’s the postmodern mantra, and it has flattened our standards.

In a world obsessed with “likes” and “personalization,” we’ve lost any clear sense of what’s tasteful (“good”) and tasteless (“bad”). Add AI and risk-averse, mass-appealing media into the mix, and creation collapses into safe, generic mediocrity.

Algorithms optimize for engagement, not excellence. Anyone paying attention (though there are fewer of us every day) feels the urge to retreat into irony or cynicism to survive the flood of mediocre content.

Taste, by contrast, is about judgment. The bravery to call something valuable, and the clarity to explain why. It’s the ability to filter the world’s infinite options and say: “This is what matters.” That is the ultimate, final creative skill.

The Four Fundamentals of Taste

If taste isn’t preference, then what is it? It’s not a genetic gift or personality quirk. Taste is a discipline, built on four practices you can cultivate. You can learn taste by training.

Reference Points

We study history and culture for a reason. Reference points come from understanding fundamental principles like balance, harmony, and proportion. The foundations of design, art, literature, and architecture.

You don’t need to go to art school (though it helps). But you do need to dive deep into works curated by minds sharper and more tasteful than yours. In plain English: spend your time consuming valuable creations.

If you don’t know how to filter for quality, start with sources already vetted by people who do. AI can help since it is trained on the reference points already. You just have to ask the right questions.

The safest bet on references? Anything of value requires time to create. Time makes everything valuable.

Pattern Recognition

Once you’ve built your reference points, you can start training your eye to recognize them. Similar to a muscle, taste is something that requires daily training. If you are passionate about longevity, a healthy lifestyle, and fitness, you should also prioritize training your mind and palate. Without that, you are just a good-looking but empty shell.

Show a mass-produced garden gnome styled after a Renaissance statue to anyone with taste, and they’ll instantly know it lacks the refinement of a marble sculpture by a Renaissance master. The same applies to music, writing, and branding.

Surround yourself with quality, and it will train your brain to see value. How? Change your environment. Stand in front of art, listen to great music, and read timeless books. If you don’t have access to any of that where you live, remember: you have a magical thing called the internet. No excuses.

Curation (Filtering)

The world is noisy. Creation is infinite. Curation is the great filter of value. To lead with taste, you must ruthlessly cut 95% of the content you consume, focusing on the valuable 5%. Taste is defined as much by what you reject as by what you embrace.

Take a stand. We all have guilty pleasures. I sometimes listen to shallow, mediocre podcasts about staying hydrated or other simple-minded fluff. You can’t listen to Hardcore History all the time.

But here’s the difference: cheat days can’t become cheat weeks. Filter the garbage out actively, every single day. Taste is all about conviction, commitment, and discipline.

Bravery

Taste requires courage. It means saying: “This isn’t good enough.” Even if it alienates people, conviction inspires trust. That’s leadership: knowing when to say no, and when to say yes, only when it matters.

Be brave enough to challenge mediocrity. Reject those who declare mediocrity “good enough.” This isn’t about tattoos or bold statements. Bravery, in the creative sense, means going against most people’s “preferences.”

Taste is meaningless if you aren’t willing to call out what lacks value. But calling out isn’t enough. The difference between a snob and someone with actual taste is the ability to explain the why. Snobs are shallow, all about culture signaling. People with true taste do not just call out mediocrity. They can explain why something is not “good enough.” Taste is about context. And context is everything when creation is infinite.

Why Creatives Must Lead With Taste

Everything you do today will soon be done faster and cheaper by machines. Not in 2050, but in the 2030s. You have years, at best. Your only edge will be your ability to filter, curate, and call out value in a world drowning in options.

AI will have the reference points baked in. But it won’t have taste. A machine cannot understand what resonates with humans on a cultural and emotional level. Only you can do that. That’s the last creative skill: creating work that doesn’t just “vibe,” but resonates. Have the bravery to stay human.

Epilogue

This is for you, the skeptics. Those who think this essay (or whatever this is) was useless or impractical. Not actionable enough!

God, how much I hate that word, actionable…

Let me ask you:

• How will you brief your AI tools without context?

• How will you create work that matters when anyone can create anything in seconds?

• How will you make your brand unique, powerful, and inspiring?

• How will you drive emotions, intentions, and feelings in your customers?

Because that’s our job, right? To curate, filter, and facilitate the creation of valuable creatives that drive humans to do very human things.

If you are sceptical, let me put this here bluntly for you: in an age of infinite creation, you either have taste or you’re just another consumer of content.

The choice is yours.

_{PS: You might wonder why this essay is peppered with David Foster Wallace quotes. He isn’t even my favorite American writer (that would be Salinger). But Wallace’s work, especially Infinite Jest, wrestles with endless creation and its effects on people. He defended value and classic meaning in an age of irony and distraction. His books are hard to read. They demand commitment and conviction. And yet, they’re universally acknowledged as valuable. In many ways, Wallace symbolizes taste itself: refined, filled with meaning, brave, unafraid to be misunderstood. Plus, his work feels prophetic about our current, AI-powered world. The Jest is not for everyone. This is precisely why it is valuable.}

_{PPS: the banner for this edition is the ceiling of the Galleria degli Uffizi, also known simply as the Uffizi in Florence, one of the largest museums on the planet, and has the greatest collection of Renaissance art. Tourists often overlook it, as they prefer to visit the David statue instead in the Galleria dell’Accademia, for a “cool Instagram picture.” How original! FYI: the exact replica of David is available for free for the public on the Piazza della Signoria in front of the Palazzo Vecchio (where the original David stood). Taste can also help you skip long waiting lines, right?}

Share this edition with someone who wants to cultivate their taste and unlock some rewards in the process.