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Does Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) belong in Graphic Design? Is it a threat to Graphic Designers? Here are some pros and cons to answer those questions and why there is a need for balance.

  • Holly Embry
  • Aug 1
  • 6 min read

Written by Holly Embry

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With the sudden emergence and growth of A.I. many people have embraced this new tool without giving much thought beyond its convenience. However, most designers would tell you that there is a lot more to graphic design than simply making an image that just “looks good”.


Human creativity and depth of principle


Human creativity is better than A.I. because a computer program cannot understand the reasoning or the principles behind what makes graphic design work.  A.I. operates only on the key information it is given and nothing else. It is meant to be used as a tool because that is what it is – it has no understanding of the fundamentals behind what makes good design better than something that simply looks good on a basic level.


There are many reasons why relying on A.I. for quick graphic design might not be the best approach: Loss of human touch, originality concerns, job impact, intellectual property issues, and lack of flexibility are just some of the reasons why using A.I. to create a quick solution is not the best way to do it. These reasons listed along with several others bring to light the need for caution and support the idea that working with humans will achieve a much better result. A.I. may have its uses, but it should not be considered as a replacement or substitute for a skilled graphic designer.


Many people have been lured in by the promise of convenience without realizing that in the process they have lost what it is that actually makes graphic design work, and instead choose to accept results that are sub-par.


Designers have mixed opinions on the pros and cons of the use of AI in graphic design.

In a world where everyone can be a graphic designer, is A.I.’s convenience a threat to professional designers?


The threat of A.I. is not so much in the tool itself, but in the untrained public who use those tools to create professional-level “looking” images yet lack the knowledge and experience of how to make those images be the most effective or able to provide the best communication.


Just look at three aspects of design: form, meaning, and function.  The use of templates in A.I. can achieve good form easily enough, but it cannot do so for the other two nor does it have the ability to achieve the effective communication that must come from them. You cannot find the important skills and expertise in an A.I. program that you get in a trained graphic designer.


Here are just four areas where designers make the difference


The method and the message

Design is not just about what the image looks like, but how it works. All of the things that make up an image and what it is trying to communicate are better handled by an educated and experienced designer that is sensitive to what the client is trying to achieve and can give them better direction – that is something that a program just can’t do.


Combining principles (good design) with marketing strategy

A.I. can mimic form, but it cannot adjust messaging or implement an improved strategy.


More than one-and-done, it’s a process

For each job or project, designers can go through many proofs/examples and get feedback for each one to refine the final result.  By rethinking and exploring different options, designers provide a human-centered solution that A.I. is simply not capable of creating.


How the use of empathy guides the direction of graphic design

Designers seek to understand their audience to make their images more effective in communicating the client’s message(s). This is important so that the image will better appeal to its target audience. By understanding your audience, you the designer are then able to make the image have greater meaning. Again, this is a concept that A.I. cannot achieve – with results solely based on input.


In a world where everyone can be a designer, it’s the quality of work that stands out.  A project may look good, but does it achieve the best result by conveying the message it was intended to do? Simple replication from well-designed even ‘cookie-cutter’ templates may still fall short without the right work process to support it. This process is what requires a human graphic designer.


THE PROS AND CONS OF A.I. IN GRAPHIC DESIGN


7+ Pros of A.I. in graphic design:

Automation of repetitive tasks

Faster, more efficient design processes

cost-effectiveness (long term)

affordable tools and software

experimentation, innovation and creativity

new possibilities for creative expression

making design more accessible to non-designers

Enhancing collaborative creation


7+ Cons of A.I. in graphic design:

Quality and originality (generic)

Potential loss of unique

human touch

Impact on employment for human designers

Intellectual property concerns (ethical, legal)

Bias in A.I. algorithms

Over reliance on A.I. tools

Potential for technical issues and errors

Maintaining consistent branding across assets                    

Commoditizing design with AI

Reducing creative satisfaction


A.I. may have some benefit if it is used in a balanced manner that does not allow it to overshadow or saturate every aspect of graphic design.


A.I. also lacks the human ability for creating original content, understanding nuances, and filtering biases.

Where A.I. doesn’t measure up


Hiring a graphic designer is not only for technical or practical skill, but also for things like taste and ethics along with the discernment that is necessary to direct your message and strategy in the direction you want it to go. All of these are things that A.I. cannot produce. Getting a usable result for A.I. requires a lot of front-end work, and then the result may still not be usable because the A.I. would not know enough about design to know what’s wrong with it or if anything needed correction at all.


It cannot give you feedback or constructive criticism and even if it could make changes based on added information, the responsibility still falls to the one using the A.I. to be confident in the end result.  However, using A.I. in this manner is really just making more work, not less, which can cancel out whatever benefit of convenience it had to begin with.


By comparison, a designer may only need a few details from a client to be able to make a genuinely good result which may only need minimal correction to achieve the desired effect. But isn’t that the very reason why you would hire a designer? These days most anyone can make something that “looks good”, but the designer can go beyond that and give you what you’re really asking for.


Editing is another area where A.I. falls short


Another thing that A.I. is not capable of is making small edits or changes.  In order for A.I. to make a change it must remake the whole image or instead of applying a change to one place it will make the change across the entire image – which is not what you want to happen.


With a designer, you have the opposite. A designer can make a small change on the exact same image in a matter of minutes which not only gets the right result, but in a much faster timeframe with much less effort. To say it plainly, A.I. is best used as a tool, and is not a replacement for the creativity and expertise of a human designer.


For now, at least, when it comes to A.I. – less is more


Not everyone is so ready to accept the emergence of A.I. in the graphic design world. Many are concerned that A.I. will overshadow the need for designers making many jobs “obsolete”. In a recent jobs report, graphic design was listed among those in decline with the trend linked to A.I.’s growth.  Even now, many are still unsure about using it, whether to dive in to stay competitive or to maintain the integrity found in doing real work.


For many in the design world, the drawbacks of using A.I. come from using it too much or even exclusively rather than using it as a tool meant to compliment or give added support to the design process. There are those who believe it is possible to gain the benefits of using A.I. all while limiting the drawbacks of it by keeping the design process human-centric. This means only using A.I. for those jobs that would take away the necessary focus for things that require a more creative and strategic process.


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