It’s no secret that the computational abilities of AI have grown exponentially over the past 10 years. We’ve hit a threshold where we no longer have to question whether AI is coming for us all–the answer is a resounding yes. A more useful question perhaps is: how will we as creatives move forward with AI?
As a designer, I’ve been reluctant to accept or interpret the creative output I’ve seen achieved with AI tools as soulful, or once aware of artificial methods used, to be truly moved by the results. But over time, I’ve come to see that bias as my own limitation and a challenge to take on as the creative industry plunges forward with an explosion of new tools to harness.
After all, AI in the field of design is currently trained on material of the past, but we humans are uniquely positioned to create new material–material that resonates with human beings and is the right creative solution for a precise moment. We can do that with AI–but AI cannot do that without us.
So rather than run in fear from the supposed impending doom of AI, let’s demystify things a bit and explore a couple of the primary creative opportunities that AI presents.
Good design for all.
The advent of AI has quickly democratized good design. Products that designers once painfully pixel-pushed can be generated at the click of a button and easily finessed without even needing to know how to code. There’s no longer an excuse not to output perfect UI.
With this comes the acknowledgment that the current state of gen AI presents a massive opportunity for the underdogs. As powerful creative tools become more ubiquitous, smaller agencies can compete with the more established houses. They may even be preferred because they can pivot quickly without having to jump through any bureaucratic hoops. Clients will expect a more participatory exchange where they can watch their needs be iterated and refined in real time.
Increasing the value of creative discernment.
What I think is more difficult to achieve than good design–and what now defines and distinguishes great creatives–is something less tangible: an ability to curate and refine visual design and creative strategy, and to synthesize them with an array of tools with staggering capabilities. To make our daily design work most accessible to AI, it’s our duty as designers to build modular and atomic design systems that serve as traversable knowledge bases for ourselves and for our teams to build upon. The power of combining these component-based systems with AI models has virtually limitless potential. We’ll be expected to create and iterate more efficiently, and to recycle time for the creative process back into delivering expanded solutions for our clients.
The creative’s role as curator doesn’t eliminate the need to roll up our sleeves to excavate and hone the right solutions–it places a premium on discernment. If we harken back to the tenets of design thinking, we’re tasked as we always were with understanding our client, their product, and their audience as well as they do. Just as we did before AI, we’re problem-solving for people–now with the companionship of AI as a partner, as a colleague, and as an added tool in the toolkit to realize creative solutions more efficiently and, hopefully, to greater effect.
As AI expertly takes over certain aspects of our craft, it’s incumbent upon us to adapt, experiment, and determine the right combination of manual creative and AI tools to achieve the best possible work product. We already find ourselves in a “survival of the most adaptable” world, and seasoned experts must shift gears, learn new applications, and improvise new ways to problem-solve at ever-increasing speeds.
While the need to deliver “more, faster” isn’t necessarily music to any creative’s ear, the key takeaway is that we’ll be most effective when we harness AI and use it as an extension of ourselves. What does that mean in practical terms? Get comfortable with as many tools as possible. Experiment with them daily. Try out an AI plugin within your existing apps. Test-drive emerging AI apps. Refine your results in other AI apps. When you’re ready, take on the challenge of building and training your own models on your own design systems. The only way to apply AI effectively is to become fluent with the tools and to understand their potential as intimately as possible.
AI may be intelligent, but don’t be scared–only you know how to synthesize your clients’ needs with the growing arsenal of tools at your creative disposal.
