Can AI tools genuinely help with creative work, or only the technical stuff?

It helps, but only if you're clear about which part is yours. I run a daily short-form series where the music is AI-generated, the visuals are AI-animated photos, and the writing — short poems — is mine. The split is deliberate: I keep the creative direction and the words, and I outsource execution I can't do well myself. The mental model I use is a collaboration between a creative director and a studio. The director has the vision and the taste; the studio executes. AI is the studio. It's a gimmick the moment you let it own the direction too — then everything comes out generic, because generic is its default. Keep a firm point of view, use AI to execute the parts you'd otherwise never finish, and it stops being a gimmick and becomes leverage.