The aim of this report is to provide a cross-analysis of the common challenges revolving around the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital innovation within the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs). Its findings have been further explored in the ekip Policy Lab on Reimagining Deep Tech – What Creatives Make Possible and the ekip Policy Lab on Creativity as Civic Infrastructure: CCIs and Digital Commons. 

How do the ekip policy labs work?

The ekip policy labs follow a three-step approach to develop evidence-based policy recommendations for the CCIs.

Setting the baseline Each Lab begins with a contextual analysis to understand the specific needs of CCI actors and stakeholders. This phase produces data-driven scoping documents that establish a baseline for each policy area.

Co-formulation phase Stakeholders then take part in dedicated Policy Labs, contributing expertise and insights to shape proposals collaboratively.

Policy recommendations The process concludes with the drafting of prioritised, data-informed policy recommendations outlining concrete actions and priority areas for future implementation.

The ekip open innovation methodology guides this process, using a set of key building blocks to address challenges across CCIs. For the broader creative ecosystems, which are: sustainable competitiveness, regulation and governance, social dimensions, investment and funding, infrastructure, research and innovation, and technological solutions.

Key challenges for CCIs

The role of AI and digital technologies in fostering innovation across the CCIs has been recurring and relevant across several ekip Policy Labs. Besides the policy lab centred on the topic of Artificial Intelligence in CCIs, several others demonstrated a clear link, including those on Immersive Media, Video Games and Inclusivity, the role of CCIs in enabling the green transition through New European Bauhaus (NEB), Cross-innovation with performing arts, Platformisation of the music industry and Circularity in Fashion. While technologies and use cases vary across subsectors, the perceived threats of AI for CCIs and the barriers faced by CCI actors are largely shared, pointing to structural issues that affect the CCI sector as a whole rather than isolated, technology-specific problems. 

fragmentation of innovation ecosystems

A first overarching challenge concerns the fragmentation of innovation ecosystems. Across the CCIs, digital innovation often takes place in silos, with limited interaction between creative professionals, technologists, researchers, and intermediaries. CCIs are often positioned outside the main currents of technological knowledge exchange, which makes collaboration more difficult and limits the emergence of shared solutions and scalable initiatives at European level. This fragmentation is also visible where digital innovation is driven by data-intensive and compliance-oriented systems, which require coordinated infrastructures and capabilities that many smaller creative and design-led actors struggle to access. 

turning interdisciplinarity into day-to-day practice

Closely linked to previous challenge is the difficulty of turning interdisciplinarity into day-to-day practice. Although working across disciplines, merging CCIs with for example, social sciences, IT services and technologists, is widely recognised as essential for meaningful AI and digital innovation in the CCIs, it remains hard to achieve in practice. Differences in professional cultures, skills, and working methods often prevent creative and technical actors from developing a shared understanding, resulting in collaboration that is fragmented or limited to specific stages of the innovation process. 

Responsible and Trustworthy Digitalisation

Another major challenge, centred on issues of governance, transparency, trust, and intellectual property, further influences how digital technologies are taken up in the CCIs. Uncertainty around copyright and rights management, questions about the ethical use of data and content, and the need for transparency and recognised standards all affect confidence in digital solutions. At the same time, concerns about the wider societal impacts of digitalisation, including its effects on work and representation, continue to shape levels of trust in AI and digital technologies. 

skills and learning

Ongoing challenges around skills and learning are also identified as common challenges. Many CCI actors struggle to develop and maintain the mix of creative and digital skills needed to engage with AI and emerging technologies. Access to training, peer learning, and professional development opportunities remains uneven, particularly for smaller organisations and independent actors, making it harder to keep pace with technological change. Gaps in digital literacy and data management further limit participation in data-driven innovation processes. 

access to resources and tools

Another recurring issue concerns uneven access to the resources and tools needed for digital innovation. Across the CCIs, access to digital infrastructure, data, specialised tools, and experimentation spaces varies significantly. This includes disparities in access to data and computing resources, limited visibility of available tools and venues, and accessibility barriers linked to both software and hardware. Where digital innovation relies on structured data, the cost and complexity of digital infrastructure and data management place a disproportionate burden on SMEs and micro-enterprises, particularly in low-margin creative sectors. 

Inclusions and representation

Finally, challenges around inclusion and representation in innovation processes are also prominent. Cultural and creative actors are not always sufficiently involved from the early stages of technology design and development, which limits the integration of cultural perspectives, lived experience, and public values. Barriers to participation remain for certain actors and communities, and inclusive approaches are not consistently embedded as a routine part of digital innovation. Without targeted support, data-driven transitions risk reinforcing existing inequalities and restricting the creativity and experimentation that CCIs bring to innovation. 

Taken together, evidence analysed by ekip highlights a set of common challenges that obstruct the development and uptake of AI and digital innovation across cultural and creative sectors:  

• Fragmented ecosystems and collaboration gaps, with persistent silos and limited interaction between creative, technical, and research actors.

• The difficulty of turning interdisciplinarity into day-to-day practice, combined with skills gaps and uneven access to training and professional development. 

• Structural barriers related to access, governance, and inclusion, including unequal access to resources and tools, uncertainty around trust and intellectual property, and limited representation of cultural perspectives in innovation processes. 

Key policy recommendations

The cross-analysis of the ekip policy labs points to a set of shared recommendations aimed at strengthening the capacity of CCIs to engage with AI and digital technologies as drivers of innovation. These recommendations focus on improving ecosystem conditions, collaboration mechanisms, skills development, funding approaches, and policy coordination, recognising that digital innovation in CCIs is shaped by interconnected factors, rather than isolated technological challenges. 

build Shared spaces and infrastructures

A first recommendation concerns the development of AI and digital-enabled collaboration ecosystems for CCIs. Evidence from ekip policy labs highlights the importance of shared spaces and infrastructures that bring together creative professionals, technologists, and other relevant actors. These include physical and digital collaboration environments such as incubators, accelerators, universities, museums, and other cultural institutions that can support experimentation, co-creation, and knowledge exchange around AI and digital technologies. Digital innovation increasingly depends on structured data, traceability, and interoperability. Indeed, these ecosystems also need to provide access to shared digital infrastructures that enable secure data exchange, common standards, and compatibility across tools and platforms.  

strengthen intermediaries

Closely related is the recommendation to strengthen intermediaries and connectors within AI and digital value chains. Intermediary organisations, communities of practice, and support structures play a critical role in mapping available resources, facilitating partnerships, and supporting collaboration across creative and technological domains. As CCIs engage with more complex and data-heavy digital systems, these actors can help navigate fragmented value chains, uneven digital capacity, and opaque information flows. Investing in these actors can help bridge gaps between CCIs and technology-driven sectors, improve visibility of available tools and infrastructures by mapping them, and support the formation of cross-sectoral partnerships that enable AI- and digital-driven innovation to scale. 

Strengthen Digital Skills and Capabilities

A further set of recommendations focuses on building AI and digital skills, literacy, and interdisciplinary capabilities across the CCIs. This includes introducing AI literacy measures for creative professionals, implementing interdisciplinary training at schools and universities, and strengthening the capacity to support organisations within innovation ecosystems. As digital innovation increasingly combines creative practice with data management, CCIs require a broader mix of competences covering creative, digital, and data-related skills. Facilitators, mentors, and community managers are identified as important enablers in helping creative and technical actors develop a shared language and understanding and therefore supporting more effective collaboration and sustained engagement with digital technologies.

Adapt Funding to Support AI and Digital Experimentation 

The policy labs also underline the need to adapt funding mechanisms to better support AI and digital experimentation in CCIs. Recommendations emphasise the importance of entry-level and experiment-based funding schemes that lower barriers to participation for smaller creative organisations and support risk-taking. Funding mechanisms are also seen as a tool to incentivise interdisciplinary collaboration, ensure the sustainability of project results beyond their initial lifecycle, and support real-world experimentation through living labs and similar approaches.

Improve Governance, Coordination and Strategic Visibility 

Finally, the policy labs focus on recommendations related to improving governance, policy articulation, and strategic visibility for AI and digital innovation in CCIs. This includes the need for innovation policies that are transparent, tailored to the specificities of the CCIs, and better coordinated across programmes and levels of governance. Strengthening structured dialogues with cultural agencies and users of digital technologies, increasing the visibility of existing support instruments, and systematically evaluating support structures are identified as important steps to ensure that AI and digital innovation policies are accessible, coherent, and aligned with the realities of the sectors. 

EU-level priorities

At European level, a first priority is to strengthen EU support for collaboration ecosystems that enable creative and technological actors to work together across borders and disciplines. EU programmes such as Creative Europe and Horizon Europe are seen as important enablers of trans-sectoral collaboration, particularly where digital innovation requires shared infrastructures, interoperable systems, and coordinated standards across Member States. 

The importance of using EU research and innovation frameworks to support CCI-relevant experimentation and standards is extremely relevant. Horizon Europe is identified as a key vehicle for research activities and experimentation formats, including living labs, that are tailored to the specific contexts of the CCIs. At the same time, EU-level action can support the development of common production standards and interoperable digital approaches that foster trust, quality, and uptake of AI- and data-driven solutions in cultural and creative settings. 

Skills development and education emerge as another area where EU-level intervention adds clear value. Existing actions under Erasmus+ already contribute to digital skills development, interdisciplinarity, and inclusive practices in areas such as game development. In parallel, planned actions under Digital Europe support excellence in higher education for key digital technologies.