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Can AI replace me as a designer? (Plot spoiler: I’m still here)



Black and white headshot of the designer next to a white illustration of a robot. Both have a speech bubble with text "I'm a designer".

After over 30 years in the creative industry and nearly eight of those freelancing, I’ve seen a lot of changes. However, for the past few months, one topic has dominated the conversation in design: AI is coming for our jobs. While I’ve tried to ignore most of this talk, lately I’ve been wondering if I'm missing out or getting left behind.


Depending on who you ask, AI can feel like an exciting opportunity or an existential threat.

On one hand, the tools that seem to pop up almost daily are incredible. They can generate images, brainstorm ideas, create videos, and even draft marketing campaigns in seconds. On the other hand, they raise tough questions about the future of our profession. Will clients still value human creativity in an AI-driven world? Can we keep up with these rapid changes? Honestly, it’s a bit overwhelming. So, at the start of the year, I decided to challenge myself: Could AI really replace me? And, if not, could it help me with some of my day-to-day tasks?


How many fingers am I holding up?

I spend a lot of time searching for the perfect image. Usually one that depicts a person of the right age and ethnicity in a believable setting. What if I could just create the perfect image? At first glance, AI tools like MidJourney promise a lot with their ability to be highly targeted, but for me the results didn’t live up to the hype. All the images I generated had glaring anatomical defects and lacked realism. Without exception, every image looked like it was created using AI. It might be suitable for sci-fi art, but public sector projects don’t have much call for that.


As this month has been about learning, I tried different apps to see if I could get better results. It felt like I spent all my time trying to write an image description to get something workable. On a live project, that time would have been better spent searching through libraries. And does a robot have a creative eye? Subconsciously my brain makes hundreds of judgements about an image and its suitability based on all the other campaigns I’ve worked on over my career. On colour, lighting, balance and composition but also my knowledge of the client, their goals and constraints, their other brand assets...


I would love for every project to have a budget to commission amazing photographers who capture the hard-to-define magic that can't be conveyed through an AI prompt. However, in reality, deadlines and costs usually mean relying on photo libraries. But not always, so it's reassuring to know that AI won't be replacing the photoshoot just yet.


When photorealism wasn’t the end goal, I achieved much better results and began to see more potential for using AI image generation. I experimented with Adobe's Firefly and Express to create my animated Christmas email which got a lot of comments. So, that’s a win for the robots, right?


Festive animation featuring the words Merry Xmas. The X is made up of lots of festive objects like Brussels sprouts, a gingerbread man and some tinsel.


Well, not quite. Robots didn’t come up with the concept, that was all me. Sure, it saved me a bit of time providing some initial images to work with. Photoshopping a pile of sprouts into the shape of an X would have taken me a bit longer. But the final result still relied on my creativity, so maybe that one’s a win for both of us.


The trouble with prompts

Social media is filled with people promising untold riches if I just learn to write better prompts. But here’s the thing: that’s not how my brain works. I might have a brilliant idea and go looking for the perfect image. Along the way, I often stumble across twenty other things that spark my creativity, sending me off exploring different directions. That original idea might change completely, but it will be stronger for it. If I wrote the "perfect" prompt to get exactly what I had in mind from the start, where would all those wonderfully unexpected discoveries come from?


Where AI did impress me

Some AI-powered updates in software I already use have been genuinely helpful. The ability to transform a client’s low-resolution portrait image into a suitable landscape format and extend backgrounds with just a couple of clicks has saved time. Identifying and loading fonts from a screenshot so I can recreate a logo that a client has lost the original for is also a crowd-pleaser.


AI and creative thinking

Next, I looked at what clients truly value: ideas. Yes, I can design and produce artwork, but its my creative thinking that tends to get me repeat business. Could ChatGPT replace me in this area? I asked it to develop a social media campaign. The initial results were generic and lifeless, but as I fed it more detailed prompts, something surprising happened. I found myself having a natural conversation with AI much as I would a colleague. It asked questions, challenged my ideas, and helped me better clarify my thoughts.


Over the last month, AI has helped me research a new client, review my website, improve my SEO, write targeted content, restructure a slide deck, troubleshoot software issues, and even create an Excel formula to streamline my timesheets. Could I have done all that without AI? Sure. But these tools saved me time, sparked ideas, and made me challenge my thinking and that's been a good thing.


The bottom line

So will AI replace me? Maybe I’ll lose some jobs to clients who can generate a quick image in Canva or grab a cheap logo on Fiverr. It all depends on what you are looking to achieve. There’s a world of difference between a quick design and a carefully crafted brand. And there's a time and place for both. AI can generate top-level ideas, but it can’t yet understand the nuances of a client’s story. On it's own, it can’t anticipate how a brand will grow over time or create a strategy that resonates emotionally with an audience. Or how it fits within the wider ambitions of the business.


That's where experienced designers can bring significant value to the table.

We don't just deliver designs; we offer insight, expertise, and a human touch, along with that elusive 'creative magic' that's hard to quantify.

If AI can handle some of the labour-intensive tasks, that leaves more brain space for creative thinking. If it can help us visualise the crazy wonderful ideas in our heads, then that's a positive. Perhaps the future of design doesn’t have to be a competition between humans and machines. I'm hoping it can be about combining the strengths of both to create something even better.


Staying curious

So, I’m challenging myself to stay curious about AI and keep exploring ways it can work for me, my clients, and my business. What tools should I try next? Have you found any that are changing the way you approach projects?


(Full disclosure: the robots checked my spelling and punctuation for me so that's on them!)

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