AI: Taking Over Young Designers’ Jobs or Easing Work as We Know It?

By Rachel Breakie

Graphic design students, creative professionals, educators in creative, design, and technological areas: Artifical Intelligence (AI) is transforming graphic design and sparking debate over whether it empowers creativity or threatens the authenticity of human expression.

As AI is abruptly transforming numerous industries overnight, graphic design students and professors have found themselves having to decide whether to adapt, resist or sit back and watch their industry evolve without them.

Industries’ use and integration of AI into their everyday workload and job requirements has boomed.

It is now even a priority for companies and their employees to know how to use AI and be expected to use it daily. Adobe has released Firefly, a family of AI products within their programs to make designing easier.

According to Adobe’s website, “Firefly has been used to generate over 8 billion images across Adobe’s creative tools, including Photoshop, Express, Illustrator and more,” demonstrating how AI generation has truly taken off.

However, this rise in AI use raises questions about whether it’s helping to expand creativity or take away the originality of artistry.

Young designers, soon to enter the industry, are at a crossroads as they decide whether to implement AI into their toolkit or let it take over their jobs. Professors must decide whether it is worth it to educate on the use of this tool or choose to preserve the fundamentals of graphic design and creative thinking. 

AI’s integration into graphic design provokes various reactions among students. Some see it as a helpful tool, while others avoid it due to ethical concerns or worry about long-term effects.

Newton Bates, a design student at Flagler College, uses AI regularly and is not too concerned about its presence.

“I don’t care; I just know my work is better,” he says.

However, another Flagler design student, Maddie Rodriguez, feels uneasy when she occasionally relies on AI.

“You expand creativity on your own time, not by letting AI do it for you,” she said, suggesting AI could make us too reliant on technology and take away from our authentic creative human expression.

Job security is another concern for young designers. Many fear entry-level positions will continue diminishing, making it even harder to find their first gig.

Flagler College student Jaime Sabella, for example, worries about life after graduation.

“It’s definitely scary, because it’s already hard to find a job,” she said.

Despite AI’s exponential development, students still agree that AI-generated designs lack the depth and emotion of human design.

Analisa Mazzei, another student at Flagler, notes how AI prioritizes perfection in its algorithms and how this differs from the human touch’s imperfect authenticity.

“AI isn’t trained to make mistakes,” she said. “Handmade work embraces flaws, while AI aims for artificial perfection. While AI can create appealing content at times, students know that human creativity still holds more value.”

Professors are still figuring out if and how to teach AI to students. Some believe it should be integrated as a universal tool for designers, while others fear it may weaken essential design skills.

Chris Smith, a graphic design professor at Flagler College, says, “Students still need to know the fundamentals. If you only rely on AI, you’re not really designing.”

Joe Fioramanti, another design professor at Flagler, knows AI is just an evolution.

“AI isn’t going anywhere. Students who learn to work with it will have an edge,” he says, comparing the explosion of AI to the printing press, digital design, and even the introduction of Photoshop.

Contrastingly, Flagler College Professor Bernadette Rivel states that AI could never replace the human touch in design.

“What we do comes from the heart,” she explains. “AI lacks emotional depth. It’s just putting things together based on data. It doesn’t truly create.”

AI has transformed hiring patterns and requirements, but traditional design skills still seem to remain at the top of that list. Professors see this change and are starting to implement AI into their curriculum as a helpful tool instead of a substitute for work. AI is here to stay.

Students and professors alike are trying to learn how to coexist in the design world with the boom of AI. The debate over how AI’s role will continue, but the consensus seems to be that while AI can improve efficiency and workflow, it cannot replace originality, artistry, and the authenticity that depicts human creative expression.

The future of AI in graphic design should not be a battle between AI and humans but rather a question of how designers can use it to benefit and improve their lives and work as this artificial intelligence continues to evolve just like all technology before it.