Just a though dump here guys - share whatever you think even if it’s not directly related to what I’ve posted 
I don’t do as much rendering/visuals/artistic stuff these days (partly because AI) - I think how AI affects that realm is at least for now, worlds different versus “spec’d” design work
For those of you who are genuinely busy right now (envious!!) - instead of reading this post/rant, post your strategy for navigating the AI boom.
I do 2D CAD, 3D modeling, and programming - I’m not much of a ‘real’ programmer (getting better and better) - but I do enough reading to know more about the software industry than my programming skill level would infer.
I’m not worried about AI replacing the work that I actually do (not yet):
If AI can model something correctly, it was probably incredibly easy to model in the first place (excluding art/creative stuff). We see people spitting out entire buildings. But are you actually going to use that? Are you actually going to a client without checking it? Or worse yet (for us), send it to the next person in line and expect them to find all the flaws?
Checking is the hardest part of design and drafting. In the past, these people were the highest paid in the industry. Something changed and people just checked less and less. And the trend where a person could save a few minutes could mean costing someone further down the line a few extra hours.
Many of use have already dealt with this: Ever take on a job where someone has “already done most the work” - All too common is being handed a client’s Sketchup model. Not to dunk on Sketchup (lots of great work comes from it) but the learning curve is very favorable if you don’t have a clue.
Whether we know it or not, we’ve actually been facing many different issues in our industry the last several years.
- False marketing claims about products which, in turn, raise expectations - Some years back they claimed BIM was something like 10x faster than CAD. It wasn’t. In the office I worked at it was in fact about 4x slower. A few of us worked long hours with no extra pay to help out the BIM manager. The BIM manager was actually part of the problem - they were a phony and set up the projects poorly - and little did we know that they were actually throwing us under the bus behind our backs.
- Perpetual licensing and the relative variability of software costs - Perpetual licenses probably hurt freelancers the most, especially if you live in a country where they can actually enforce software piracy. You now pay so much for software that you can’t upgrade your PC. It’s created an artificial ceiling for us.
- Outsourcing - More affecting those of us who freelance, outsourcing can equate to fair competition. Agencies often spam and swarm potential clients to the extent where it makes it significantly harder for you to match up with the best clients, and vice-versa. Agencies (and individuals) may also be posing as clients themselves… hence my next point…
- RENT SEEKING - In upper-case because this might be hurting us more than AI right now. For 2D CAD related jobs is happening, but as of now I’m not quite sure the extent. I’ve found that with Rhino we often make our own opportunities and are somewhat immune (but not entirely). Rent seeking in software development is off the charts right now. Basically we’d be dealing with a intermediary who not only contributes zero value to the project, but degrades it; they have to limit information should the client or person actually doing the work discover what’s up… This is actually what I’m most curious about right now and an example of AI having a negative effect on you in a way you maybe hadn’t even though of.
Add to all the above, economic conditions, getting older and slower (at least for me), huge growth in real legitimate talent/competition, and whoever knows what else - we’ve already been battling it for years.
Not only relating to CAD, people are showing less and less respect to those that do the actual work. Too many people want to manage and be a ‘boss’ and they want it to be effortless. Sometimes they’re even willing to sacrifice huge amounts of profit for that.
My 2 cents regarding AI:
When I’m smart about how I use AI it helps me quite a bit. It’s naturally not hard to go overboard. Case in point: Letting the AI write too much code, and losing my understanding of what the code is actually doing. For CAD and 3D modeling, AI CAN’T do what I do. It can ostensibly appear to do what I do, but checking and fixing the work would take longer than just modeling it myself.
There’s a different between relying on AI or using AI to assist your work. I’m hoping I remain more towards the later. Smart use of AI makes me more competitive and in theory allows me to offer better value to clients, but at the same time, one way or another, AI is going to make it harder to match up with those clients.
I guess my big point here is that we’re already experiencing (or have experienced) several key shake-ups. In addition to finding ways to prevent myself from becoming irrelevant, I’m also finding ways to navigate around all that non-AI related stuff.
