What does it take to build a career that doesn’t exist yet? Before AI Creative Director became one of the fastest-growing roles in the creative industries, Lyna Bennani was already doing the work. In this personal essay, she looks back on how the unexpected combination of photography and coding eventually led her into a profession before it had a name, arguing that curiosity, craft, and the skills you pick up “for no reason” can become your greatest advantage in the age of AI.

Almost ten years ago, when I was living in California, I signed up for a coding and a photography course in the same week. There was no plan; I just wanted to learn both. I’d loved photography, film, and advertising since I was a kid, but coding was just a matter of pure curiosity. I had no idea that, one day, mixing those two worlds would literally become my job.

Today, I’m an AI Creative Director, and I teach others how to do it, too. Just four years ago, that wasn’t even a job. No title, no courses, nobody hiring for it. Before that, I was, and still am, a freelance photographer, shooting across Europe, Asia, and North Africa. I directed, I edited, I retouched. Years spent learning everything the slow, “traditional” way. Eventually, I left the comfort of that path (though I still shoot sometimes) to pursue something that didn’t really exist yet. Back then, most people didn’t really get what I was doing. Some were just confused; others were straight-up scared of AI, like, “What are you even doing?”

Now I can’t open my inbox or LinkedIn without seeing a job posting for an AI Creative Director.

How Do You Build a Career Before Anyone Else Sees the Opportunity? 

I’m not saying this to flex. I’m saying it because you’re about to make the same kind of choice, and everyone around you will tell you to be realistic. Being realistic means going for the jobs that already exist, with a clear title and a clear path. And that’s fine, honestly. But the second a job becomes obvious, a thousand people are already chasing it. It’s crowded, and the industry is shifting completely right now. 

Is the market saturated with AI Creative Directors now? Probably, yes. I got in before it even had a name. The exact timing—that the field took off when it did—isn’t something I can take credit for. But being there early wasn’t just luck. It was years of work, and one bold decision to leave the safe path before anyone could tell me it would pay off.

And that’s the part you can actually repeat. What nobody really tells you is to bet on potential. It’s not about predicting which field will explode; it’s about following the thing you can’t yet justify, and doing the work while you wait to find out. Believe in your own project before anyone else gets it, take the risk, and go digging where people aren’t looking. That space is where you get to be first.

The Best Career Decisions Often Start With Curiosity, Not Certainty

But being first is worthless if you can’t actually do the work. None of it works without the craft. You still build your skills the boring, slow way: one course, one bad first try, one late night at a time.

Everyone’s panicking about AI right now, but the tools are now available to everyone, and they’re far less technical than they used to be. Anyone can generate an image now. What they can’t do is truly see: recognise what’s actually good. That part is still all you, and it takes years to develop. I didn’t end up pursuing coding, but I never stopped pursuing photography. And somehow that’s exactly what mattered most.

Why the Skills You Learn “For No Reason” Often Matter Most 

So this summer, go and learn something. Photography, fashion history, pottery, design, it doesn’t matter. Education is key, but it won’t make you stand out on its own. The thing that sets you apart is the random skill you picked up out of pure curiosity, the one that connects to everything else later.

I couldn’t see how any of it connected back then, but now I do. Everything I learned “for no reason” is the reason I’m here.

So the best advice I can give you? Fall for potential.

Lyna Bennani
Professor and Alumna, Paris