I test the AI tools, design trends, and brand moves marketers are talking about, then tell you what holds up and what doesn’t. Written by the author of the bestselling The Visual Marketer, after 20+ years leading brand, creative, and digital experience marketing teams.
17% Fewer Design Postings Since Image-Generation AI Tools Released
10 January 2024 | Issue #30 |
What stage are you in your AI journey? Heather Murray, who is a must follow if you're on LinkedIn, posted a survey last week asking her network this very question. It closely mirrored one thing I've been trying to stress in this newsletter: It feels like you're behind, but you're not. Now, her results are somewhat skewed because AI is what she talks about and it's what her audience wants to know about, so these are folks who are already engaged with AI. But of that group, 37% were either overwhelmed or just dabbling. Heather said that when she's out talking to people, they're mostly just starting to play around with AI, if they're doing anything at all. Just yesterday I was talking to a designer who is one of the most technically advanced designers I've worked with, and I showed him how easy it was to remove a couple of light posts from this photo. 20 seconds of genAI avoided 4-5 minutes of cloning (AKA stamping if you're old like me). Even people who are up on the latest design tools haven't spent much time playing with these newer tools. But, it means that even if you're someone who is always the go-to resource for new design tools, you better be doing your homework and testing things out. Because someone else is getting a head start on you.
🦹🏼 Generative AI Has a Visual Plagiarism ProblemThe world of AI-generated imagery is facing a bit of a conundrum, as highlighted in this article from IEEE Spectrum. It turns out that tools like Midjourney and DALL-E 3 might be stepping into a legal gray area by producing images that closely resemble copyrighted materials.
💃🏻 Want to avoid your next PowerPoint design job?AI can make creating presentations a whole lot easier and more efficient. While it's not a magic wand that does everything for you, it sure helps in cutting down the workload.
New Research: 17% Fewer Design Postings Since Image-Generation AI Tools ReleasedNew research out of Harvard and other institutions are reporting that job labor market sites, like Upwork, have seen fewer postings in automation-prone jobs. They've been able to track that these jobs – writing, engineering, software, app and web development – are down 21%, compared to manual-prone jobs (data entry, video services, etc), since generative AI tools were released. It looks like image-generation jobs are taking the biggest hit right now. It's a 15-page research report, but I got a lot out of this paper. It's 2024. Do you know where your design career is going? HOW CAN I HELP YOU?
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Marketing by Design – Design thinking that makes marketing work
I test the AI tools, design trends, and brand moves marketers are talking about, then tell you what holds up and what doesn’t. Written by the author of the bestselling The Visual Marketer, after 20+ years leading brand, creative, and digital experience marketing teams.
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