Redefining Creativity: AI's Impact on Future Design Roles

In 2019, Sebastian Errazuriz predicted that 90% of architects will lose their jobs to AI. He didn’t comment on designers, but I collaborated with ChatGPT to construct a realistic future scenario…

Errazuriz felt that architects needed to be warned of the risks, proclaiming to the industry “It's almost impossible for you to compete... the thing is you're not that special".

Well, I think in 2023 a more positive view of genAI is emerging, one where the role of humans in creative fields might change radically – but is likely to be redefined rather than disappear. So, how might the design profession change, let’s say in 5 years’ time?

After an intensive ‘futurology’ session with ChatGPT, where we considered how genAI might evolve by 2028, we felt that human creativity, judgement, and emotion would still be critical to the design process. But the day-to-day role of a designer would be very different, with AI heavily integrated.

Let’s take Aisha, a designer, whose working day in 2028 might look something like this:

Morning: Aisha begins with a review of design concepts generated overnight by AI. Her expertise lies in ensuring the concepts have a human and individual touch, ensuring they resonate emotionally with users.

Midday: She collaborates with AI systems in real-time to refine design projects, playing a role akin to a creative director who guides the AI's output towards aesthetically pleasing and emotionally engaging results.

Afternoon: Aisha conducts workshops on the art of AI-human collaboration in design, sharing insights on maintaining a balance between AI efficiency and human creativity.

This suggests that a designer’s role might become more about guidance, inspiration and curation. More like say, a Creative Director. So this made me wonder: Will it get harder for junior designers to build up their skills and progress, when a lot of what makes up their role today might be done by genAI?

To play out the scenario further, I fed ChatGPT a current job ad for a Junior Designer in London, and asked it to recreate this as it might be in 2028. I highlighted in bold the parts that shift between the two periods. It’s interesting, plausible and suggests that most of us will still be thriving in 2028 – but how we spend our days might be very different than today.