We are all well aware that Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is currently dominating almost every aspect of our lives. From graphic design to customer service, AI has proven to be capable of many things a human can do. However, it’s undeniable that a lot of people are starting to get worried. As seen in so many movies of AI taking over the world, people are worried that AI is going to rid people of their jobs, especially graphic designers. This is because many feel that it is so much easier to have an AI generate a design for you rather than hiring a designer. There are so many apps and games that let AI generate certain designs for you. For instance, we have ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that is consistently and constantly evolving to be better.
However, we think what a lot of people fail to see is that humans are much more complex than AI. Yes, they’re intelligent but only with what humans program them to do. Thus, this article is gonna talk about how human designers are irreplaceable by AI while also listing their limitations. This is not to say that AI designs are bad, there are also a lot of advantages to it too.
Source: vecstock on Freepik
Advantages of Using AI To Design
Yes, human designers are irreplaceable, but there is still a list of how AI helps:
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Boost Productivity and Efficiency
Sometimes in design, there are tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. In this case, we can automate the repetition by utilising AI. It’s like the best of both worlds, combining the ideas and designs of a human with the efficiency of AI tools. On top of that, you can also use AI tools to help you generate templates or layouts for your usage.
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Based on Gathered Data
Anything you seek or do with AI tools is generated from data that is programmed into the AI. For instance, if your goal was to search “how to properly create a web page layout” on a search engine, you’d probably have to surf a few sites, gathering info to find your answer. Whereas if you use a tool like ChatGPT, you’d get your whole answer since it generated that answer based on multiple sources.
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Source of Inspiration and Assistance
Let it be clear that AI isn’t supposed to be something you copy-paste from. Allow us to give a friendly reminder that even though whatever you seek is generated based on what you asked, AI doesn’t generate original or new content. Thus, you’d be plagiarizing if you are directly copy-pasting. Even if you don’t think so, it’s still unethical to do so. It’d be like taking someone’s homework and presenting it as your own. That’s why it’s important to remember that AI is a good source of ideas, assistance and inspiration only. For instance, if you’re stuck on a design idea for a brand’s packaging, you could ask for assistance.
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Accessible and Inclusive
Last but not least, AI tools are accessible to almost anyone in the world regardless of who you are and what you’re looking for. AI has helped, and will hopefully continue to help a lot of people all around the world. For instance, people who don’t have experience in design or the skills to design could easily turn to AI tools to help them and a low to no cost. This provides a great opportunity for small business owners or entrepreneurs who have limited resources or do not have the budget to hire a designer.
Limitations of AI’s Capabilities
So, although AI is helpful, here are a few things AI lacks:
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Communication and Cooperation
In the branding industry, especially when you’re dealing with clients on a new branding project, a lot of proper communication and cooperation is needed to get through it smoothly. Communicating to properly understand and respond to each other is something that AI lacks.
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Emotional Intelligence
Since AI tools are programmed with specific data or abilities, emotional intelligence just isn’t something that can be input. This, unfortunately, rids AI of having any ability to express or incorporate emotion into anything, which humans are quite good at. We, humans, possess the ability to understand a lot of things on a deeper level.
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Ability to Be Subjective
Similar to the previous point, AI simply lacks the ability to be spontaneous or reasonable, which are characteristics needed when having a client-designer relationship. To properly come up with a design, there needs to be a deep understanding of what your clients need or what their preferences are. So, since AI tools rely on what has been input, or how they’re programmed, they often fail to really provide desired designs.
Interested to learn more about a brand’s visual identity? Click here to check out our other blog!
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Creativity and Originality
Since AI is a tool created and programmed by humans, there is no way of programming them to be, as mentioned before, spontaneous or creative. Humans learn and adapt from living and experiencing every day firsthand. This makes us possess the ability to think of something new and never-before-seen.
Source: Freepik
How Humans Differ and Stand Out
Simply put, the differences between humans and AI are the opposite of the above limitations. Let’s shed a little light on the subject:
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Creativity and Originality
As mentioned, humans learn new things, and face experiences firsthand. We learn and adapt, absorbing knowledge while gaining both hard and soft skills, something that AI lacks. This has given humans the ability to think, have common sense (in most cases), and create new things or come up with new ideas. In the case of designing for a branding project, being creative and original helps humans come up with designs that no AI is able to generate.
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Adaptability and Other Soft Skills
Having the hard skills to be a designer, such as being good at using Adobe tools, isn’t the only thing required to be an honestly good designer. It takes passion, understanding of other humans and other soft skills that humans possess that simply make us human. We provide a human touch on things if you will.
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Subjective Judgment
Designs generated by AI are good but humans are able to be, as mentioned earlier, more creative. We are able to incorporate subtle details or aesthetics into designs that AI could not generate. For instance, Nike’s iconic swoosh logo was designed based on the brand’s vision and purpose. This is something that AI would not be able to comprehend and incorporate into designs.
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Communication and Cooperation
Last but not least, humans are able to communicate with compassion, understanding, etiquette and all the other ways AI cannot. Since designing a brand is a project involving two parties, proper communication and cooperation are needed to ensure that both sides are satisfied with the timelines, deadlines and overall designs.
Conclusion
When asked, “Do you think AI can replace human graphic designers?”, even ChatGPT itself answered, “AI has made significant advancements in various fields, including graphic design, but it is unlikely to completely replace human graphic designers in the foreseeable future”. So, although AI is taking over a lot of services, there are still things that AI can never provide while humans can. Humans are still needed in many aspects of various industries. Art, emotions and design take more than just skill, it takes emotional intelligence as well as soft skills that can’t be coded into AI programs. That’s what the experts at CR8 Consultancy have, the right skills to provide the visual identity you envision for your brand.
Let us help you with your graphic design needs!