Creative Skills in Crisis? Bridging the Gap Between Arts Education and Human Capital Demands in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to transform creative industries, the definition and value of creative skills are undergoing profound and complex changes. Traditionally, arts education has prioritized originality, aesthetic expression, and manual craftsmanship. However, in today’s AI-mediated creative economy, employers increasingly seek graduates who can combine artistic thinking with digital fluency, computational reasoning, and the ability to collaborate within AI-assisted design workflows. This evolving demand has introduced new tensions between educational models and labor market realities. Despite these changes, few empirical studies have investigated how arts education is adapting to this paradigm shift—particularly in China’s rapidly modernizing design sector, where innovation and technology integration are advancing at an accelerated pace. To address this gap, the present study draws on in-depth interviews with four university-level arts educators and five recruitment professionals working in design-related industries. The findings point to a growing mismatch between curricular content and labor market expectations, with educators struggling to integrate emerging technologies into pedagogical practice and employers consistently identifying deficiencies in graduates' technological readiness and interdisciplinary adaptability. This misalignment underscores the urgent need for reform in arts curricula, including the incorporation of AI literacy, data-driven creativity, and cross-disciplinary project-based learning. By bridging educational and professional perspectives, this research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the emerging creative skills crisis and proposes actionable strategies to align arts education with the evolving demands of AI-driven human capital development.