AI will eat your job. Or will it?
Argggghhhh. AI is coming and it's going to eat your job and then maybe your head.
Have you been hearing this lately?
The AI impact on creative jobs has become a hot topic since the launch of ChatGPT. Freelancers have seen less interest and income, as the FT and Chamath highlighted the other day. While the original predictions were for AI to start with blue collar jobs, the opposite is being shown to be true. Have you also played around with Dall-E or Midjourney and then thought about what this means for your career? Just a little bit maybe.
Understanding the real AI impact on creative jobs
Well it shouldn't worry you. Yes, AI is incredibly impressive. Uncomprehendingly impressive.
Until you understand what it's actually able to do. How much source material and training has been fed into its massive computer brain. As people, we've got no chance of remembering every pixel, position and hex colour from billions of images.
Just generating an image is one thing. But how good is a random computer at generating these themselves? Sure you can pair random phrases. Monkeys would write Shakespeare eventually. But the logic, the theory, the deep thinking, the actual CREATIVITY required for actual innovation still needs a human brain.
The human element AI cannot replicate
Jerry Salts said "It's not possible that a work made now does not have the 'now' the artist lived through be somewhere embedded into it. In this sense all art has its 'deep content' the varieties and complexities of the lived present."
We are human. We love storytelling, we understand nuance and have empathy in a way that AI can't comprehend. This fundamental difference limits the AI impact on creative jobs in ways that many futurists overlook.
On the surface, AI-generated work might be comparable to human-created work. But like a forgery, it just doesn't have the essence. This missing quality is what continues to differentiate human creativity from algorithmic output.
AI as a tool, not a replacement
As designers and technologists, we should be using Creative Cloud and Figma alongside AI tools. The AI impact on creative jobs isn't about replacement—it's about augmentation.
Computers arrived in my house in my teens, so I do consider myself a digital native. Part of the only pre-post internet generation ever. But I know designers who started pre-computers and were worried that they might be out of a job then. They weren't and they adapted.
We as designers & creatives use tools everyday, and AI is already becoming part of our daily workflow. It's no longer "AI"—it's just another piece of software.
The evolving landscape of creative professions
The truth is we're better with these tools. We're more efficient and, most importantly, more creative as a result of the options we have. This positive aspect of the AI impact on creative jobs is often overlooked in fear-based narratives.
Anyone can use software. Being able to use Canva does not make you a designer.
The best designers are tinkerers and thinkers. They'll use a combination of tools to execute on their vision. This adaptability is why the AI impact on creative jobs will be transformative rather than destructive.
At Multivitamin Studio we live to push the possible to build value. And software, including AI, gives us the space to do this.
The commercial evolution of AI technologies
ChatGPT has gone even further (kudos—they are operating at an incredible pace) by positioning themselves as an App Store, allowing customers to spin up pre-made apps and train their own proprietary datasets to avoid copyright issues. We're now beyond the test phase and into the commercial application later. Now we all as adopters have the space to go further.
Like every technological shift before it, AI will eliminate some jobs but will also allow us to be more productive human beings. The AI impact on creative jobs is best viewed as a catalyst for evolution rather than extinction.
Embracing the future of creativity
The human-digital interface is evolving, and I'm here for it. Alone, AI is nothing. Together, we're a powerful force.
Am I worried about the AI impact on creative jobs? No. Excited? Massively.
The creative professionals who will thrive in this new era are those who embrace AI as one tool among many—those who understand that technology has always shaped creative work, and that human creativity remains the essential ingredient that no algorithm can truly replicate.