Why AI Still Can’t Do My Job

AI. Everyone is doing it. I've even had some fun with turning myself into a plastic doll in a blister pack with all the accessories. It's totally wild what you can do with a couple of carefully thought out prompts. If you don't look too closely the results can be pretty amazing. 

But does that mean I'm out of a job? Short answer ... hell no. 

Here's the thing, AI can create the image, and pretty quickly. But it's really only copying and combining elements it's found all over the internet. It's not creating, it's remixing. 

AI doesn't have unique perspective and lived experience. A point of view. It doesn't really understand what it's drawing or why. Therefore - apart from the possibility of having 6 fingers on one hand - you also run the risk that it could spit out something that's way too close to someone else's copyrighted work. 

AI also doesn't understand what it's like to draw with pen or pencil on paper. It's never smudged the ink, or cut it's finger with the scalpel. I've been doing this for decades, way back when you actually had to draw by hand and then head into the darkroom to convert the creation into a bromide, run it through the wax machine, and finally carefully etch it out by hand using a scalpel. 

Not shortcuts, no clicks. Design wasn't digital, it was physical and tangible. 

Without that lived memory, AI can only provide what you ask for. It can't add anything itself because there's nothing there to add. No intuition, no feeling, no soul, no experience. So while that final result might look nice, it doesn't actually evoke any feelings.

Because none were put into the creation.

But lets delve a little deeper - before I even pick up my digital pen. 

Not long ago, a client come to me with ... well not really a brief, more of a random collection of ideas. It was a mood, a feeling, and a mix of styles they liked, along with experiences they admired and a message they were struggling to articulate.

Had they entered all this information into AI, I've no doubt they would have received something in return. And it may have even looked half decent. But I've no doubt their response would be - that'll do. 

Instead, we had coffee. AI doesn't drink coffee by the way. And we talked. Really talked. We talked about why they started their business and their passion behind it. We chatted about their clients, their wild ideas, the things they secretly hoped would happen one day. We browsed through my portfolio, looking at different styles of drawing, and I watched and listened. Taking notice of those micro expressions, offhand comments, lingering on pages, or a brief spark in their eyes.

Without the client realising, we had worked together to create something real - something with the personality they were looking for but didn't know how to describe. So when when I finally presented the design (because I'm not quite as fast as AI). they didn't say "it's nice". They said "Wow, how did you see what was in my head!"

Seeing what's in my clients head and putting it on paper (or digital), is my superpower. 

In a world flooded with AI images that exude no feeling, it real design is actually more about having a real conversation. Listening and paying attention to what's not being said.

Currently there's no algorithm for that. To get the real result, you will still need to buy me a real coffee.