Handicrafts are making a comeback in the age of AI: why people are turning to crafts once again

Despite the rapid development of artificial intelligence, people have not stopped knitting, embroidering, modelling with clay and working with wood. On the contrary, craft activities remain widespread: according to Creative Australia, around nine million Australians create works of art or practise crafts.

Susan Luckman, a researcher specialising in craft work, believes that the explanation can be found in the history of the Industrial Revolution. Technological advances boost production, but at the same time heighten interest in items that bear the marks of human labour, skill and time.

Details

One of the major turning points in textile production began after the English inventor Edmund Cartwright patented the power loom in 1785. As machinery became more widespread, craftspeople lost their income and independence, whilst working conditions in factories were harsh.

Today, the Luddites are often portrayed as opponents of all technology. In reality, the early 19th-century movement was primarily opposed to the way factory owners used machines: skilled workers were deprived of their earnings, control over their labour and their familiar way of life.

The response was not merely economic or political. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Arts and Crafts movement turned to manual labour, natural forms and high-quality materials. For its participants, craftsmanship became a critique of cheap mass production and the alienation of the individual from the product of their labour.

Today, the motivations have changed, but some parallels remain. Handicrafts allow us to slow down, to step away from the endless news feed for a while and to see the tangible result of our own efforts. Collaborative workshops and clubs foster lively social interaction, whilst family skills—such as knitting or embroidery—bring generations together.

There is also a practical side to this. The ability to mend clothes and reuse materials helps us buy less and make our things last longer. A handmade gift is valued not only for the item itself, but also for the time invested in it.

Why this matters

A comparison with the Industrial Revolution shows that it is not technology itself that worries people, but the loss of autonomy and the meaning of labour. Craft offers the opposite experience: people choose their own pace, materials and working methods, face challenges and gradually master a skill.

This is particularly noticeable in the age of digital services, which promise instant results. The value of handcraft may lie precisely in its ‘friction’: the creation of an item requires time, mistakes and repetition. Such activities do not necessarily lead to a profession, but they provide a sense of competence and control.

However, a causal link between the spread of AI and interest in crafts has not yet been proven. The figure cited relates to Australia and combines art with various forms of handicrafts, so it cannot be used to judge a global boom in crafts. The survey records people’s participation, but does not in itself show whether they took up handicrafts specifically because of automation, anxiety or screen fatigue. This is the author’s interpretation, not the result of a specific experiment.

Source

Author’s analysis by Susan Lakman: ‘What the backlash to the Industrial Revolution can teach us about handcrafts in the age of AI’, The Conversation, 11 September 2026. The article was also published on Phys.org.

Data on Australians’ participation in the creative arts: the sixth national survey , *Creative Transformations: Results of the National Arts Participation Survey*, Creative Australia, 2026.