AI is changing creative jobs. As organisations cut costs and hand tasks to automated tools, specialists are seeing parts of their craft absorbed by software. Where does this leave creatives? Generalism.
Like many creatives, I feel the pressure and uncertainty of AI, but also its exciting potential (so a mixed bag of emotions). It’s a reminder to raise my game and not be complacent.
For generalists, that’s the opportunity: to use AI not as a crutch, but as a tool to deepen our knowledge and extend our creativity. By ‘generalist,’ I don’t mean mediocre at everything, that tired ‘Jack of all trades’ stereotype. I mean someone with deep core skills who has, through experience, naturally developed reach into adjacent areas.
‘Jack of all trades’ has always sounded like an insult. ‘AI’ in design isn’t much better—some agencies are open about using it, others won’t touch it, and online arguments rage about whether it’s eroding the craft or improving it. But what if both labels are actually advantages? What if the generalist designer with AI in their toolkit is the one best positioned for where creative work is heading?
Some agencies, like Collins, have been candid and open about their use of AI and I applaud that. As they put it, “Never delegate your understanding”, AI can support, but it can’t discern, feel, or see like a designer. For now, agencies are still justifying their AI use: ‘we use it, but creativity stays ours.’ That sounds a little defensive right now, but I don’t think it will last. In a few years, it will simply be an accepted part of working in design.
Because, in truth, AI is not the enemy of craft but, like generalism, has been misunderstood.
What if both of these so-called “dirty words”, generalist and AI, are actually the unfair advantages of the next creative era: more crumble and custard than pineapple and pizza (at least in my book).
“AI is nibbling, even munching, at the creative industry’s traditional outputs and methods of working. We, as designers, will need to adapt to survive this new reality.”
A career shaped by breadth
Nielsen Norman Group recently wrote about the Return of the UX Generalist, positing that “AI is broadening the scope of what any individual can accomplish, regardless of their specific expertise.” I think the same applies across design as a whole, not just UX. The future belongs not to those who cling to a single narrow skill, but to those who can move between skills, scales, and contexts (using AI as a collaborator rather than a competitor).
And that’s a story I’ve lived myself.
I’ve been freelancing for over 25 years, moving between startups, corporates, and agencies. That variety taught me to pivot and to value breadth over depth.
How it played out
I’d been working with Conflict Armament Research (CAR) for a while designing their website, reports, branding and leaflets. I understood the field: weapons tracing, conflict documentation, evidence gathering for arms control. So when they needed UX work on a field operations app, they brought me in. Then the logo. Then the brand direction. The assumption was simple: the person who already knew their story and nature of their work could shape both the tool and the brand around it.
That’s the generalist advantage: CAR didn’t waste time briefing a branding agency on what I already knew from help with their UX and UI for the app.
“There was a recognition that the person who already knew their story could shape both the tool and the brand around it.”
Visualising generalism
Nielsen Norman Group framed the UX generalist as a figure spanning breadth and depth (see below):
© Nielsen Norman Group. Gibbons, S. and Sunwall, E. (2025, March 28). The Return of the UX Generalist. Retrieved September 29, 2025, from https://www.nngroup.com/articles/return-ux-generalist/
If mapped onto my own career, the picture would look like this:
- Breadth of Experience — moving across industries, scales, and disciplines.
- Depth of Knowledge — building strong craft in design and branding, with hearty dollop of strategy.
- AI Amplification — using new tools to refine, articulate, and accelerate without replacing the work itself.
It’s not about being a unicorn who can do everything. It’s about building breadth through a career of experience, then expanding it with AI’s ability to sharpen perspective and insight.
How AI is changing creative jobs for designers
From background work to deeper insights
Take brand strategy, for instance. AI can support by defining audiences, mapping pain points, analysing competitors, or offering insights into positioning. The craft of design remains in creative hands, but getting there can be informed on a deeper level.
AI doesn’t invent ideas or make leaps for creatives, but it does help structure, refine, and accelerate the background work.
How it played out
Take a pitch for recent client. I used AI to test tone of voice options (not to write them, but to see how different approaches might resonate with that audience). Then I had it analyse the competitive landscape: who else was in the space, how they positioned themselves, what their visual branding said about their strategy. I knew all this generally. AI just gave that little bit of depth to what I was looking at and wanting to define.
AI also helped structure the proposal itself: keeping track of different service tiers, making sure nothing got lost as the scope shifted. When I designed the logo, I fed it back to AI along with my reasoning (why I’d chosen that colour palette, that form, that typography etc). AI didn’t critique my choices or suggest alternatives (well it tried, sometimes it’s overly eager). AI just helped me explain them more clearly. “Yes!” I exclaimed to no-one but my screen, “that’s what I am trying to say”.
That’s where it’s useful: not replacing judgment, but sharpening how you communicate it.
“AI helped me explain my rationale more clearly. “Yes!” I exclaimed to no-one but my screen, “that’s what I am trying to say””.
AI as a thinking partner (and where it falls short)
To me, using AI feels like improvisation: I present a rationale, get its response, and in that back-and-forth make insights I might not have reached alone. The value isn’t always in what AI suggests, but in the headspace it creates. For solo creatives, that’s what studios have always offered — a partner to challenge assumptions.
Indeed, generalists can spot when an AI response opens interesting creative ground, even if the suggestion itself isn’t usable. Connecting dots across disciplines is exactly what turns AI’s average outputs into springboards for real insights.
Example
Say AI suggests adding filters to an e-commerce page. A generalist designer connects that to decision paralysis and luxury brand positioning, realizing filters would actually hurt and that users need a curated experience that narrows choices.
This pattern reveals AI’s fundamental limitation: it can accelerate, but it can’t discern, feel, or see. It often stumbles on cultural nuance and sounds authoritative when it isn’t (sometimes I feel it’s gaslighting me on purpose). Generalists, who are used to looking at many things and noticing when something feels off, are well placed to spot those blind spots.
The two-sided impact on creative work
AI is changing creative jobs not just by replacing them, but by aligning with generalist work and giving individuals the leverage once reserved for large teams.
That leverage cuts both ways. Quick jobs often become more involved such as refining prompts, checking brand fit and ensuring originality. At the same time, AI now covers the iteration and layout once done by junior teams, hollowing out low to mid level work. The impact on younger designers? Likely rough. When I was at college, the Mac was seen as a crutch for creativity; AI reinforces that tenfold if not properly harnessed.
All this results in tension: clients expect faster and cheaper, while the reality is a shift toward more consultative, strategic design work. For generalists, that shift is an advantage: the broader your adaptability and judgment, the more irreplaceable you become in guiding AI to useful outcomes.
I won’t pretend this transition is comfortable for everyone. Juniors face a harder path to building experience, and the industry is reshaping in ways that feel uncertain. But for those of us who’ve been round the block a few times, this moment rewards exactly what we’ve accumulated: judgment, adaptability, and the ability to guide AI rather than be guided by it.
“Agencies feel the same squeeze. With AI handling more production, junior roles are thinning out and clients are questioning fees and worth.”
The rebirth of the generalist: The unfair advantage
The rebirth of the generalist comes down to strong craft, honed over years of experience, coupled with the support AI offers (and an understanding of its pitfalls). As journalist Christine Romans, from NBC News, said (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘AI can copy the book, but it can’t copy decades of experience.’ That’s the real advantage we still hold.
So here we are where AI is nibbling, even munching, at the creative industry’s traditional outputs and methods of working (see this article I wrote about agencies use of AI). The challenge for us now is to adapt to this new reality, keep our human creativity, and use breadth, adaptability, and judgment to make AI support our work rather than become a fallback.
All of which could be considered the ‘unfair advantage’ we all crave to differentiate ourselves (but only when guided by human instinct, because AI’s assumptions are its weakest trait).
The generalist is back, but only if you remember to look up from the screen. Create first. Use AI to sharpen what you’ve already thought, not to think for you.
“The real value isn’t always what AI suggests but in the creative headspace the exchange puts you in.”
5 ways AI expands a creative’s repertoire
AI doesn’t replace the craft of design—that remains firmly human. What it can do is sharpen, extend, and challenge how creatives work. I’ve explored AI, and it extends my toolkit in five notable ways:
1. Research at speed
AI can scan competitor campaigns, straplines, or tone of voice in minutes. I use it for quick competitor snapshots, but judgment decides which insights are worth carrying forward.
2. Collaboration
I’ve used AI to get feedback, from testing brand positioning to checking if a colour is accessible. Sometimes it’s useful, sometimes not. Even when it gets things wrong, it pushes me to think a problem through more thoroughly. It feels like improvisation: I put forward a rationale, get a response, and sometimes that back-and-forth reveals something I wouldn’t have seen alone.
3. Idea articulation
I’ll rough out a strategy or brand position and use AI to provide feedback. It can help spot different angles and get the phrasing right, with the final output always coming from my hand.
4. Breadth of view
Generalists need to cross sectors quickly. AI helps work out sector-specific language, pain points, or audience expectations.But I still decide what fits and what’s nonsense.
5. Iteration
AI can generate multiple routes at once, such as different campaign routes, headline directions, tone variations (of varying worth). That lets me test breadth before narrowing focus.