The Real Problem with AI and It’s Not Theft
I saw a carousel post on Instagram by graphic designer Martyna Wedzicka-Obuchowicz this week titled Trust Your Human Designer, where she talks about a change she’s seen recently in her client relationships.
“Most of my clients treat my work (and me) similarly to AI tools, expecting more proposals, more changes, more everything….I don’t worry about whether artificial intelligence will replace me. I worry about my relationship with my clients and their trust in my work.”
- Martyna Wedzicka-Obuchowicz
Any chimpanzee who’s learned to type words into a Speak-and-Spell can craft an AI image, but it takes a professional eye to distinguish if what’s created sucks or not. The thing is, many clients do not care about the details as we do, and that’s a dangerous position for creative pros.
This is especially true as we move into an uncertain economy and businesses start cutting budgets. Many small to medium-sized businesses will need to trim their budgets, and graphic design, photography, and illustration are all on the chopping block.
For less than the cost of an Aeron chair, small businesses can invest in a suite of AI tools to help them create images, video, and written content—why do they need you?
Shifting the Responsibility
Before this AI generation, creatives still had to defend the time and cost it took to create good work, but they only had to compete with other designers for the opportunity to bid on projects. They must contend with a business owner’s nephew who learned to use Stable Diffusion in their 11th-grade technology class.
“Why should I pay you when I can do most of
this myself in Photoshop?”
This must be one of the most demoralizing concepts for any creative, especially those fresh out of art school wondering how they will pay back their student loans if nobody will hire them.
Commercial artists and designers did not go into the business to become salespeople, but the new reality is that learning those skills is more critical than ever.
On Wedzicka’s final panel of the carousel, she states that human designers care about your project, while AI does not. This is obvious, but I don’t think that’s enough to convince a bootstrapped business to cut costs in other areas instead of hiring a freelancer.
To win back clients' hearts and minds, you must find ways to show why your work matters. Set yourself apart by sharing how vulnerable AI technology is and why human input is essential. These are some ideas for conversations to have with clients who are leaning into AI.
“Using AI is often an exercise in “good enough” because the tech cannot interpret your feelings and emotions like a human can. You’ll spend more time trying to get the exact result until you get fed up and accept good enough as a solution.
Most AI results are created with a middle-of-the-road approach, where the technology has taken in source material (often unlicensed) and produced a mediocre result. There’s little nuance, and details matter when you’re growing a business, especially with your brand and identity.
If you ever need to make subtle changes to your creative work or add to your branding, AI will struggle to understand your needs. At the same time, a human artist or designer can accept the new directives and execute those adjustments quickly and accurately.
Because AI is built on the work of others, you have a much higher risk of copyright infringement/plagiarism if you unknowingly use work sourced from a creative person who is vigilant about their intellectual property. You can save money with AI, but it could cost you more legal fees.
Working with a creative freelancer contributes to the economic system that gives back to your business over time. AI doesn’t understand that concept.
Your customers may have other objections or considerations, and if you know what they might be, it’s a good idea to write down your responses to them now so you know what to say when they arise.
Unfortunately, we are only at the beginning stages of what AI can achieve, and over time, it will get more challenging to justify the costs of your services. The only way to truly set yourself apart from AI is to create unique and irreplaceable work because if you’re only making work that anyone else can do easily, AI will figure it out. You’ll end up a commodity that nobody needs.
