Between Assistance and Control - An Empirical Study of Informal Governance Practices among Creative Professionals

Sammanfattning

Introduction: The rapid integration of generative AI into creative professional work has raised questions about how responsibility, oversight, and acceptable use are governed when formal organizational guidance is limited or absent. Understanding how practitioners manage these challenges is increasingly important as AI becomes embedded in everyday creative workflows. Research Question: The research questions are following: RQ1: How do creative professionals develop informal governance practices for responsible AI use? RQ2: How do they decide which tasks to delegate to GenAI? Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 creative professionals across roles including content designers, UX/product designers, visual designers, and game developers. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis following an abductive reasoning approach. Results: The findings show that informal governance develops through personal judgment rather than institutional guidance, with practitioners creating their own boundaries around data confidentiality, using structured routines for verification and refinement, and adapting disclosure practices depending on the context. Delegation decisions also follow a consistent accountability-based approach, where tasks are given to AI only when practitioners feel able to evaluate the output and take responsibility for it, while tasks closely connected to creative identity are intentionally kept under human control. Discussion: These findings suggest that informal governance is necessary but fragile, as it is weakened by the same efficiency pressures that drive AI adoption and may be difficult to sustain without institutional support. The study is limited by its small purposive sample and reliance on self-reported data. Future research should examine how these practices develop over time and whether organizational support can help stabilize informal governance.