MCAD Spring Semester ‘26/27
AI for Creative Entrepreneurs
Course Preview
October 5, 2026 (updated as the curriculum comes together)
Everyone has access. Few have an advantage.
This course is about finding your advantage with AI. That might be new work, a faster way of working, or a solid, informed reason never to use it again. At MCAD, students learn by making, so we’re going to make a lot with AI, alone and in groups – whether you’re a power user or have never written a prompt. Along the way, we look at AI’s predecessors (the camera, the synth, and Photoshop all rattled artists first), at who builds these tools and what they want from you, and at what you’re actually trying to make and who it’s for. We test where AI makes your work more yours and where it flattens you into average. We also take the case against it seriously, including theft, labor, privacy, and energy use. You’ll leave with portfolio work, a toolkit you’ve tested yourself, and a position on AI you can defend in a critique or a client meeting. Fans are welcome. Skeptics, especially.
The WIP Curriculum
This is course about AI, a topic that changes by the hour. Here’s a current reckoning of topics and ideas I’m considering, in no particular order. As the curriculum evolves I’ll revise updates here.
How did we get here? The printing press, photography and the internet all promised to end art. What can those panics teach us about this one?
Who’s it for? What’s it for? Strategy comes before software. Know what you’re trying to do before you ask a machine to help.
Which tools, and why? Tools change monthly, so learn to judge capabilities and specs rather than chase them.
Thinking partner Use AI to argue with, sharpen and question your ideas and presentations, not just to finish them.
More you, not more generic Can AI make your work more yours? How would you know? And how would you justify it?
Let’s use AI tools and make lots of things Words, images, sound, motion, prototypes, agents. Combine tools, break them, find out what surprises you. Let’s experience building a diverse mix of creative and entrepreneurial outcomes.
Taste When everyone can make anything in seconds, judgment becomes the scarce skill. When do you keep the output, and when do you throw it away? How do you know?
Running the business Research, proposals, admin, marketing, sales. Can AI enable an artist to make more art? And what if business is your art? How might AI help you thrive?
Money and ownership What do you charge when making costs almost nothing? Who owns what you make? What do you tell clients?
Real or fake? If audiences are doubting everything they see, how do you prove your work is yours?
What’s a portfolio for now? If making the work is easy, maybe how you made it matters more.
Knowing when not to Choosing not to use AI is a creative decision too, and a valid final project.
Running through every session: ethics. Who benefits, who pays, what’s lost, and what you’re willing to put your name on and why.
Who’s teaching this course?
Me. In 2007, ad legend Nancy Rice asked me to teach what’s coming next at MCAD. I didn’t know what the future of advertising was, so I built a course to find out. I’ve taught The Future of Advertising since 2008, through blogs, social, mobile and a pandemic move to remote teaching.
I started writing about AI and the people who make ideas in 2017, and about prompts as creative briefs a month before ChatGPT launched. When it did, my syllabus broke. AI became a core theme of the 2023 course, and MCAD asked me to write a new one.
I’ve taught AI for Artists and Entrepreneurs twice: in person in 2024, then online and asynchronous in 2025. Students built e-commerce shops, custom GPTs, product designs and video.
I use these tools every day. I also can’t defend their hallucinations, and ethics, copyright and business models are core to the course. I’m neither booster nor doomsayer. AI tools do nothing on their own; they work better when you bring an idea.
My favorite adage: if you want to learn something, teach it. I’m still learning. Bring your doubts.