The In-situ AI Pattern Merchant: A Speculative Intervention in Huayao Embroidery Futures

Research on AI and Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) often reflects a static, object-centered perspective. This paper instead explores how generative AI can be embedded in the living practices of ICH. Through a speculative intervention in a Huayao embroidery community in Hunan, China, we reframe AI not as a tool for content generation, but as a social mediator within local craft networks. By performing as an “AI Cross-stitch Pattern Merchant” during the local festival, the study reveals how AI’s creative empowerment of young women sparked intergenerational tensions around legitimacy, labor, and authority. While youth embraced GenAI for playful self-expression, elder embroiderers judged its outputs by communal aesthetics and moral hierarchies, revealing the moral economy shaping creative legitimacy. These dynamics show how after-AI practices can unsettle the domestication of women’s creativity in heritage. We argue for a shift from generation to negotiation, toward socially embedded and relational AI practices in ICH.