How Generative AI is Changing Creative Careers

By Lucy Marino, Executive Director, Marketing and Creative, Robert Half

Whenever businesses adopt a new technology, creative and digital teams are often among the first to embrace it, learning new tools quickly because their work is defined and driven by change and innovation.

But there’s one rapidly evolving technology — artificial intelligence — that has many creative professionals wondering if they’ll be able to adapt fast enough. Generative AI is proving to be an engine for business success, but this transformative moment has some creatives asking if it threatens their careers.

When I meet with employers and job-seeking professionals, as well as my team of recruiters, I tell them the same thing: I believe the creative profession will be enhanced by this technology.

When asked in a 2023 Robert Half survey, 34% believed generative AI would positively impact their career, compared with 21% who worried it could make their skills obsolete.

But according to a recent Robert Half survey of U.S. marketing and creative workers in 2024, 36% feel generative AI has had little to no impact on their role. Also, 40% say generative AI tools actually helped them work more efficiently and achieve better results.

Employees in the marketing and creative space say the greatest benefits of using generative AI on the job are automating time-consuming tasks (43%) and increasing efficiency and productivity (22%). That includes creative and digital teams, who will rely more heavily on it to reduce tedious work, leading to more practical and cost-effective design processes overall. Creative teams are already using AI-powered tools and platforms like Adobe Sensei, DALL-E 2, and Khroma to expedite time-consuming tasks like image editing and color blending.

Common ways creative professionals are already working with generative AI to add value to their company include:

UX designers using customer data from AI applications to inform designs for new products;

Multidisciplinary teams creating seamless end-to-end user experiences across web, mobile, augmented reality, virtual reality and other media;

Digital markers generating highly personalized marketing content based on unique sources of unstructured data from consumer profiles and community insights.

How ideas are brought to life will change for many creative professionals. They will be able to quickly generate a multitude of concepts they can then build upon and refine. And when creators aren’t constantly pressed to ideate on their own, they have more time to focus on larger conceptual thinking and learning.

But as AI-generated content becomes more prevalent, some creatives may be concerned their work will be devalued. Certainly, that’s a possibility, but I believe human-honed products will always hold premium value. For example, generative AI can’t replace the uniquely human capacity to access subtle social and cultural cues, which is critical for developing customer-centric products and services.

Generative AI is still relatively new, and many companies are just starting to experiment with it. That means creative professionals have both time and opportunity to drive how the technology is implemented and used in their organizations — and therefore can help shape future jobs in the industry.

Right now, employers are looking to hire creative professionals who can bring generative AI skills to the table— but you don’t need to be an expert. Just be ready to use available tools to push design solutions to a new level — and always be learning.

In other words, don’t wait for your employer to get on board with generative AI before getting familiar with it yourself. Consider getting your feet wet with the platforms independently. I also suggest seeking out content — videos, industry websites and other learning outlets — to understand the multiple ways generative AI is being used in the creative process. A quick online search yields many free and low-cost courses for designers to tackle the basics of AI and its applications, including LinkedIn Learning, which offers a number of expert-led courses on AI for design.

Once you’ve gained a foundational understanding of the generative AI creative landscape, you can start adding your own ideas to the conversation about where this technology is leading. How it can be applied in your workplace? How can you start building your skills to be a workplace leader on AI?

Employers need to be partners in this process, too. And the creative industry at large should be focused on building a greater understanding about the potential use cases for AI and what the future may hold for these professions.

And I believe the future is bright. Algorithms, no matter how sophisticated, will never take the place of human inspiration. Creative professionals can build their careers with confidence in their ability to deliver future value and reap professional opportunities.

Explore Robert Half’s marketing and creative jobs today. Follow Lucy Marino on LinkedIn.

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