The Zack Arnold Podcast SUMMIT TOP 5: Kylee Peña on Creativity In the Age of AI
At its core, I organized my 5 day virtual summit about Navigating the Future of Entertainment to help us creatives, artists, and storytellers answer two key questions:
What the hell is happening to our beloved film industry? And how can we shape the future of cinema?
In this episode, I talk with Kylee Peña, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Adobe and longtime post-production expert. We explore how AI is reshaping the creative process, what it means for editors and storytellers, and how to navigate the tension between innovation and artistic integrity. Kylee shares how tools like Adobe Firefly aim to protect creatives through transparency, and why understanding AI—rather than avoiding it—is key to staying relevant, empowered, and truly creative in this next chapter.
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→ Click here for lifetime access to all 15 interviews, bonus resources, and my 90 minute Masterclass to help you navigate the next act of your creative career.
Key Takeaways
- Stay ahead by keeping up with the speed of AI. Its explosive growth is outpacing legal, ethical, and creative frameworks—staying adaptable is your most important asset.
- Let AI handle the creative friction. Offload repetitive tasks so you can spend more energy on emotion, storytelling, and bold creative decisions.
- Use AI tools that prioritize ethics and transparency. Choose platforms trained on licensed data and commit to content credentials that clarify how media is made, altered, or sourced.
Episode Highlights
- Creative humanity or career survival—what’s really at risk?
- The detrimental effects to cognitive thought from outsourcing critical thinking to AI
- Learn how Adobe Firefly protects creatives and ensures transparency in the age of generative AI.
- Why this technological shift is different and how it's unfolding at an alarming rate.
- Explore the optimistic view on AI's role in storytelling and how it can empower creatives.
- Why human judgment and understanding remain critical in a world of endless AI-generated options.
- Is hyper-personalized content the future, and do we truly want it?
- Discover why high-end productions still shy away from generative AI for final deliverables and what that means for creative workflows.
- Why keeping up with AI and having your own AI perspective matters more than ever in this shifting landscape.
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Guest Bio
Kylee Peña is Sr. Product Marketing Manager for Professional Editorial at Adobe. As a former editor herself, she’s a seasoned problem-solver who wants to bridge the gap between creative and technology for all kinds of storytellers. Kylee has over 15 years of experience in post-production and hundreds of television and film credits as both a creative and technical professional, including a long stint in creative technologies at Netflix. At Adobe, she is part of the team engaging with the professional post-production community to drive the future of Premiere Pro.
An industry thought leader, Kylee has been published across various journals and included on panels worldwide. She was named a TVN “Woman to Watch in Technology”, nominated for RISE Influencer Award, and part of the team honored for HPA Engineering Excellence Award for Text-Based Editing and Enhance Speech in Premiere Pro.
Kylee is an active member of the Television Academy’s Science and Technology peer group and Hollywood Region Governor for the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. She holds a bachelor's degree in media arts from Indiana University and a master’s degree in integrated design, business, and technology from University of Southern California. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Technology from Purdue University focused on managing innovation, AI, and storytelling.
Show Credits
Edited by: Curtis Fritsch
Produced by: Debby Germino
Published by: Vim Pangantihon
Music by: Thomas Cepeda
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