Creativity in the age of AI: Freepik CEO Joaquín Cuenca on work, tools, and change

Artificial intelligence is no longer a promise for the future. It’s already reshaping entire industries, redefining creative work, and forcing companies and individuals to rethink how value is created. Few platforms reflect this shift as clearly as Freepik, the Málaga-born creative ecosystem that now reaches more than 100 million users worldwide each month.

In a candid interview, Joaquín Cuenca, co-founder and CEO of Freepik, shares his perspective on the real impact of AI, the risks of early adoption, the future of creativity, and the social debates that are already taking shape.

From stock images to an AI-powered creative platform

Freepik started as a platform for graphic resources and stock imagery. For years, its foundation was built on images, vectors, and designs created by a global community of contributors. Then generative AI arrived, and the rules changed:

“We were clear that if we had to make a mistake, it should be doing too much with AI rather than too little,” Cuenca explains.

 After the emergence of models like DALL·E 2 and Stable Diffusion, Freepik made a decisive pivot in 2022. Yet, adopting AI wasn’t about adding a single feature. It meant transforming the entire company: product strategy, user acquisition, internal workflows, and even how teams thought about creativity.

The impact was immediate:

• More than 100 million monthly visitors.
• Nearly one million paying subscribers.
• Around 60% of new users now arrive through AI tools, overtaking the traditional stock business.

In just over a year, Freepik built an AI-driven business comparable in size to one that had taken more than a decade to develop.

AI doesn’t replace creativity: it amplifies it

One of the most common fears around AI in the creative industry is replacement. Designers, photographers, illustrators, and artists often see it as a threat to their livelihoods. Cuenca sees it differently:

“AI is a new tool in the creative toolbox. It doesn’t eliminate human creativity, it amplifies it.”

For him, creativity goes far beyond press a button. It lives in:

• Intentionality and message design.
• Selecting and refining outputs.
• Cultural and visual context.
• Professional judgment and taste.

AI can quickly get you to 60–70% of the way. However, the real professional value still lies in achieving the final 30% stretch, where experience, sensitivity, and expertise matter most:

“A professional achieves radically better results than an inexperienced user, even when using the same tools.”

Is AI creative?

The question inevitably comes up: can machines be creative?

Cuenca avoids semantic debates and focuses on outcomes:

“AI does things today that three years ago we would have called creative. If we don’t want to call it creativity, we’ll have to invent another very close word.”

Modern models combine information, explore vast possibilities, and generate original outputs. They may not think like humans, but they produce results with artistic, communicative, and economic value. In practice, that distinction matters less than the impact.

The impact in jobs: more transformation than destruction

AI will affect almost all intellectual work. Still, Cuenca doesn’t foresee massive long-term job destruction.

Historically, technological revolutions haven’t reduced overall employment. What they have created are painful transitions and deep role changes. 

“The real issue isn’t how many jobs disappear, but how people adapt and whether they find meaning in new roles.”

Some professions will fade, many will evolve, and new ones will emerge. The real challenge lies in education, re-skilling, and keeping pace with change.

Deepfakes, misinformation, and responsibility

Another unavoidable topic is misinformation. Cuenca acknowledges the risks but places them in context. Misinformation existed long before AI. What’s new is scale. Credibility depends less on the image itself and more on who distributes it and through which channel.

At Freepik, clear boundaries are in place: child sexual abuse content is strictly forbidden, and erotic deepfakes are not allowed.

“Ultimate responsibility lies with the user, but platforms also have a role in setting boundaries and guardrails.”

For Cuenca, the real issue isn’t technology alone, but the lack of a mature, informed public debate about what should be allowed and why.

Freepik as the creative operating system

Freepik doesn’t see itself as just another AI model aggregator. Its ambition is broader.

“We are the operating system for creativity.”

The platform’s strength isn’t defined by the models it uses, but by how creativity is organized:

• User experience and workflow design.
• Creative organization and collaboration.
• Team visibility and shared context.
• Iteration, history, and continuity.

Just as a computer isn’t defined solely by its CPU, a creative platform isn’t defined only by its AI.

Europe, startups, and mindset

Cuenca also reflects on why building large tech companies in Europe is so challenging:

• Lower tolerance for risk.
• More conservative investment culture.
• Fewer visible success stories.
• Regulations that can sometimes slow innovation rather than protect it.

“In the U.S., optimism dominates. In Europe, we tend to wait for definitive proof before acting.”

Still, he believes change is possible if more successful examples emerge and ambitious entrepreneurship becomes normalized.

A pragmatic and optimistic view of what’s next

Cuenca avoids alarmist narratives. AI brings real challenges, but also enormous opportunities in creativity, science, medicine, and productivity.

“More than 90% of the uses we see today are positive. The real challenge is learning how to use this tool responsibly as a society.”

Freepik’s journey shows how early adoption, calculated risk, and fast adaptation can turn disruption into an advantage. Artificial intelligence isn’t the end of creativity. It’s very likely the beginning of a new chapter.

Watch the full interview with Joaquín Cuenca on YouTube.