Gen Z Founder Sophia Kianni Says 'Creativity' Is the No. 1 Human Quality AI Can't Replace
Sophia Kianni may be known primarily as a technology entrepreneur, but the 24-year-old founder also considers herself a “creative and a storyteller at heart.”
Phia co-founder Sophia Kianni says creativity and ingenuity are uniquely human, while AI can help creative teams work more efficiently.
Kianni is the co-founder of Phia, an AI-powered shopping startup she launched in April 2025 alongside her college roommate, Phoebe Gates. The pair also co-host “The Burnouts,” a business and lifestyle podcast.
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Despite working in the technology industry, Kianni says she is not concerned that artificial intelligence will take over creative work. Instead, she believes creativity is the most important human quality that AI cannot replicate or replace.
“Creativity and ingenuity [are] always going to come from a person,” she tells CNBC Make It.
Rather than viewing AI as a threat to creativity, Kianni sees the technology as a tool that can empower creative professionals and teams. She believes AI can allow smaller teams to accomplish significantly more than they could previously by speeding up their productivity.
“You can have one, two, three-person teams actually doing so much more work than what was previously possible,” she says, “because they’re able to use AI to expedite their productivity.”
AI Can Handle the Tedious Work
For Kianni, one of the biggest advantages of AI for creative teams is its ability to take care of the “tedious and time-consuming” aspects of the creative workflow.
At Phia and “The Burnouts,” Kianni says her content creation teams use AI to “automate out” tasks such as collecting data and analyzing content performance. By reducing the time spent on those responsibilities, the teams can devote more attention to developing and discussing new ideas.
“I want my teams to stay in their zone of genius,” she says. “They’re so incredible at coming up with good, interesting, creative ideas for content … I want them to focus on that.”
Her perspective is shared by other business leaders who view creativity as a skill that remains uniquely human in the age of AI.
LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky and Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman say AI is capable of “remix what exists,” while humans can “imagining possibilities that never existed before.” Both describe creativity as an irreplaceable skill.
Yat Siu, co-founder of gaming software and digital assets company Animoca Brands, also told CNBC in June that AI could give creative professionals more freedom to concentrate on their distinctive abilities. While AI may disrupt the labor market, he hopes “we can all be free to be creative, because machines can ultimately deliver what we need to do on that side of things, while we can be truly human.”
Using AI to Supercharge Creative Work
Phoebe Gates has expressed a similar view of AI's potential. Speaking at the SXSW conference in Austin in March, the Phia co-founder said people with high agency could use AI to accomplish more while avoiding many of the manual and laborious tasks that previously consumed their time.
“People with high agency are just going to be able to do more and more and more, and going to be able to use AI to basically supercharge [their work] and not have to do a lot of these manual or laborious tasks that used to have to be performed,” she said.
For Kianni, content creation has also played a significant role in Phia's growth strategy. She says using AI has helped the team build and cultivate an audience around the company.
The Adobe 2026 Creators’ Toolkit Report found that three-quarters of digital creators who use AI consider it “essential” to their work. The report was based on a survey of over 16,000 creators worldwide. According to the report, 87% say AI has helped boost the growth of their business or audience, while 63% say creative AI has increased their confidence in their work.
Why Kianni Wants Entrepreneurs to Share Their Journeys
Kianni and Gates have documented their experience building Phia through “The Burnouts,” which has over 900,000 followers, according to the podcast’s LinkedIn page.
For Kianni, sharing the company's development publicly creates a more direct connection with the audience.
“It’s “much more authentic and fulfilling to be able to actually take our audience behind the scenes and have them learn in real time with us,” Kianni says, and she encourages other entrepreneurs to share more about their process online.
Ultimately, Kianni believes that combining creativity and ingenuity with the opportunities provided by AI can help entrepreneurs build audiences that are genuinely connected to their work.
Doing so — with creativity and ingenuity — is how you develop an audience “that genuinely is invested in your success,” she says.
