Observed Signal · Oct 5, 2026 · Industry Perspective · Source: UX Collective · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Negative
Taste is dying because we stopped feeding it
This article argues that in the age of AI and curation, the development of 'taste'—the ability to judge quality and spot potential—is being neglected. The author, a design director, contends that current tools and practices lead to homogeneity and de-risking. She proposes methods to develop taste, including embracing friction, studying disliked things, tracing origins, creating instinctively, seeking human interaction, and keeping a taste journal. The piece also advises design leaders on influencing stakeholders by translating taste into consequences and anchoring choices in brand narrative. The underlying message is that taste, not AI, is the last human advantage that must be intentionally cultivated.
While the article discusses design and UX, it touches on AI's role in creative processes, but lacks concrete industry news or data. It offers opinionated commentary rather than verifiable facts about AdTech, MarTech, or media. Relevance is limited to creative leadership, not the broader ecosystem.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- The article was published on October 5, 2026.
- The author is Nicole Alexandra Michaelis, a Design Director based in Stockholm.
- The article references a talk by the author on design judgment at Future Product Days.
- The article cites Spotify research on algorithmic diversity and its effect on listening habits.
- The article references Tony Fadell's design philosophy of leaning into pain.
Connected Companies & Entities
1 Entity mapped“Spotify’s own researchers found that when people’s listening got more diverse, it happened because they moved away from the algorithm....”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
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AI Makes Taste Essential in Creative Work
The essay argues that as generative AI collapses production timelines and makes execution easy, the scarce differentiator in creative and product work is taste — defined as disciplined, contextual judgement rather than mere aesthetic preference. Drawing on Hume, Bourdieu and Wallas’s four-stage creativity model, the author warns that skipping the slow 'incubation' stage produces abundant but convergent, low-purpose output. The piece cites studies linking AI tool usage to reduced collective diversity and lower critical thinking, and uses examples (Suno, OpenAI’s Sora shutdown, Uber’s Route Share) to show failures of context and purpose. It calls for deliberately preserving friction, studying humanities and craft history, and treating taste as a trainable discipline that determines what is worth building in an era of instant generation.
AI Debate: 'Taste' Too Vague for Adland Advantage
The article is an opinion piece arguing that the advertising industry's reliance on 'taste' as a unique human advantage in the AI era is misguided. The author, James Appleby, contends that 'taste' is a slippery, subjective concept that is not practically useful for marketing effectiveness. Instead, he highlights three more concrete human qualities: reputation (taking responsibility for creative risks), timing (understanding cultural shifts), and hunger (a relentless drive for exploration and discovery). These attributes, he argues, are what will genuinely differentiate human creativity from AI-generated work.
The Taste–Talent Gap in an Algorithm-Driven Age
This Substack essay, adapted from the author’s book Super Skill, examines the “taste–talent gap” described by Ira Glass: many beginners have strong taste but their early work falls short of it. The author argues that algorithmic recommendation systems and generative AI are making it harder for people to develop independent taste, while simultaneously flooding feeds with low-quality, AI-generated content. As a result, taste becomes rarer and more valuable. The essay recommends regaining agency through deliberate practices summarized by the TASTE acronym (Take back the wheel; Attune your taste; Study the masters; Try and fail; Embrace the gap), and uses examples from Ira Glass, David Sedaris, Quentin Tarantino, and others to show how study, community, and persistent work close the gap.
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