AI is not your enemy; it’s your co-pilot

Despite media critiques of creatives losing out on jobs to generative AI tools, droves of designers and content creators are using them – just not how you think.

The increased popularity of several incredibly powerful AI creative tools – including ChatGPT, Dall-E and Midjourney – has raised concern over the effects this tech could have on creative industries.

Some pessimists argue that these tools will be devastating, with businesses opting for cheaper AI-based tools over more expensive and time-consuming human creatives. Optimists, however, believe that these tools will augment and support, rather than replace, their human users.

But what’s really going on?

In May 2023, the Pew Research Center found that although 58 percent of US adults are familiar with ChatGPT, only 14 percent had used it.

When you drill down beyond the general population, the data gets even more interesting: 41 percent of marketers said they had used AI to create personalised consumer experiences, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

Creatives are part of this growing user base, as Hovhannes Avoyan, founder and CEO of design and editing platform Picsart, can attest to.

“We are generating two million AI-generated images a day,” said Hovhannes, who explained that “almost 70 percent of our users edit their AI-created stuff.”

“So it’s not like you just create and share. You create, you edit, you modify – and you add your own personality – and then you share,” added Hovhannes.

AI cannot replace human creativity

Perhaps this is where AI has the greatest potential in the creative space; not to take over entirely, but to allow people to create better material for themselves, and to aid those who cannot afford the services of an advertising agency or graphic design firm in the first place.

Hovhannes stated that, for the Picsart team, AI is “not a replacement for human creativity”. It’s “a co-pilot, or an assistant”, helping users to be more productive; to
create and have fun. “Lots of human editing is happening behind the scenes,” Hovhannes added.

If you’re wondering whether you should get on board, the answer should be some degree of yes, said Hovhannes: “People are not going to compete with AI directly; they are going to compete with other people who are using AI”.

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Main image: Hovhannes Avoyan, co-founder and CEO of Picsart: Web Summit