The next billion audiences

Why the arts must shape the age of AI

by Lisa Richards Toney, President and CEO of APAP

What if the most transformative leap in the age of AI isn’t about algorithms, but about something far older: the power of the arts and the spark of human connection?

The performing arts stands at the most consequential threshold in living memory. AI has unlocked exhilarating opportunities and existential questions. We must multiply our power to create meaning, healing and hope, or risk ceding it.

 This moment demands bold investment to preserve culture and ensure the performing arts lead in defining, humanising and governing the age of intelligent machines. The choices we make now will influence the future of culture and of humanity itself. 

Culture is how we futureproof

Empathy, the quiet force behind the arts and human creativity, now meets machine intelligence at a critical frontier. Is AI reshaping empathy, or is empathy reshaping AI? It must be both.

A vivid example is ArtEmis AI¹, an early form of digital empathy. Trained on nearly 500,000 emotional responses to art, ArtEmis pushed AI beyond logic into emotional interpretations shaped by aesthetic experience.

Why does this matter amid global upheaval, climate crises and rising loneliness? Because culture isn’t a luxury. It’s how societies remember, adapt and innovate.

Arts organisations are civic infrastructures that advance community wellbeing, intercultural understanding and creative risk-taking, where collective imagination becomes a public good. They strengthen local vitality, mental health and social ties, especially in rural and underserved areas.

Arts funding isn’t transactional. It’s an investment in our social fabric.

AI as creative kin, not competitor

Artists worldwide are embracing AI as a creative partner, unlocking new frontiers when treated as a collaborator, not a competitor. Playwrights overcome blocks, musicians generate harmonies, dancers blend motion capture with tradition, and audiences become co-creators² in immersive productions, shaped by AI-enhanced emotional input.

AI doesn’t replace the spark of live performance; it expands it.

GlobalFEST illustrates the arts’ adaptive power in the AI era. Held annually in New York during APAP|NYC, it showcases boundary-pushing global musicians. Its Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST collaboration with National Public Radio embodies how digital platforms — and AI — amplify voices and reshape audience engagement.

Elon University Professor Keshia Wall Gee’s Roots of Rhythm³ combines AI and tradition through an AI-powered textbook on West African dance, developed in partnership with Krikey AI. It uses digital avatars to teach and archive movement, earning recognition as a model for cultural preservation.

At Lusófona University, Ghost Dance uses motion capture to create a responsive virtual dance partner, reimagining presence, expanding agency and blurring the perceived boundaries between humans and machine intelligence.

The future we must fund

The performing arts can become the connective tissue of a world in transition, revealing not just what machines can do, but the creative brilliance only humans can bring.

What if AI systems trained on regional music and dance traditions from across generations, so every child could choreograph a dance with ancestors who came before them? Or a symphony composed with a refugee community could be heard simultaneously across six continents?

What if performing arts booking conferences included a discovery hub for emerging AI tools that enhance programming, audience engagement, creative production and advocacy? Integrating AI innovators into our professional ecosystem could transform how our field curates, collaborates and connects with the next billion audiences.

This isn’t fiction. Our field is already harnessing AI⁴ for data analysis, strategic planning, audience insight and tailored outreach. National Independent Venue Association’s expansive State of Live economic study is a strong example of AI-assisted content generation that informs decisions, amplifies impact and expands reach.

The future of performance isn’t constrained by stage or screen. It’s shaped by the imagination we choose to fund. But it will only rise as far and fast as we’re willing to invest.

Stakes, disruption and creative responsibility

Concerns about AI job loss are real, but they often assume disengagement, which invites disruption. AI can be a growth engine, expanding our reach and impact, lowering costs and unlocking new creation, revenue and advocacy. But only if we guide it, not fear it.

The performing arts offers what AI lacks: a moral compass, empathy and stewardship. Where art and technology converge, artists help shape values such as equitable access and intellectual freedom. While tech companies swiftly shape cultural norms through AI, philanthropy risks ceding its power and values if they don’t act with equal urgency.

A call to funders: Don’t watch. Shape.

The arts empower people to question, rebuild and reimagine. From Nairobi to North Carolina, artists are using AI to bridge generations and spark hope where public funding falls short. We aren’t bystanders. We’re shaping the ethical and emotional foundations our future demands.

Funders can help build a creative, empathetic digital future, or risk a world where the next billion audiences inherit profit-driven algorithms, not imagination.

This is a rare opportunity to align innovation with public purpose by investing in the arts to ensure AI and creativity flourish together – responsibly. To fund the performing arts is to fund hope itself. And no society can afford to lose hope.

Let’s ensure the next billion audiences can shape, not just consume, the content that defines us –as co-creators, as citizens, as humans.