Navigating the AI divide: sociotechnical dynamics of hybrid creativity, adverse incorporation, and linguistic Justice in Indonesia’s platform creator economy

Abstract

Generative AI tools promise to democratize digital content creation, yet their impacts remain underexamined in non-Western contexts. Drawing on sociotechnical systems theory, this mixed-methods study investigates how 847 Indonesian content creators navigate the AI divide—the gap between those who can achieve successful, sustainable outcomes with AI and those who cannot. Through surveys, 45 in-depth interviews, and discourse analysis, we reveal how platform-AI assemblages produce adverse digital incorporation: while AI adoption reaches 73.2% of creators, it simultaneously deepens existing inequalities through differential access, skills, and infrastructure barriers. We theorize these dynamics through hybrid creativity—a framework capturing how creators strategically blend human and algorithmic agency while navigating sociotechnical tensions between efficiency and authenticity, global technologies and local contexts. Three key findings emerge: (1) AI adoption follows digital Matthew Effect logic wherein access barriers create cumulative disadvantage; (2) creators engage in complex authenticity work, developing contextual disclosure practices; and (3) English-trained AI’s linguistic limitations paradoxically advantage creators with strong local cultural capital. This study advances platform studies by demonstrating how AI integration into platform assemblages operates along postcolonial lines, contributing empirical evidence from Southeast Asia’s largest creator economy to debates about technology governance, linguistic justice, and sustainable digital development.

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