I think something that might be of note in the whole AI debate is how to look at this from a forecasting point of view. We are very “in the now” creatures, so we tend to react to what’s in front of us but don’t do well at really seeing things from a future perspective (naturally since we’re not fortune tellers).
So the closest thing we have to preparing ourselves are tools like “hype cycles” and forecasting charts, which is part of what my job is about. So how that affects us is in the sense of what is coming in the next 2-5 years (or likely to).
- Is it likely design, engineering and AI are going to be embedded? Yes, it’s already happening. How remains to be seen.
- Is it likely AI and storytelling for pitching and selling our designs is going to be more common? Yes, it’s already happening at design school levels and bigger design pitch decks, marketing productions etc.
- Is it something we need to adapt to and start using now? It’s debatable in what way that’s going to play out because we’re still at a stage where AI can’t fly solo on alot of things or are not ready for public acceptance yet (plus regulatory things that are starting to happen in reaction to some “whoa whoa hold up, we need to slow down” reactions from key players.
What I think is certain is that once the hype cycle dies down, the dust settles from novel/pointless AI companies dying out, we’re going to see these new hybrid workflows become more accepted and even nessesary. We’re in a quiet recession, money is tight and now is really the type transformative moment companies are using as an excuse to slip in AI into things we do see and many things we don’t see.
Conclusion: Whether we like it or not, I think we’re coming up to a moment where many traditional workflows are going to be forced into some type of AI workflow or assistance as more and more people expect it. The question will be is how does a company think about aligning with that (or not). and how much of a gamble will that be.
For example, Procreate has taken a strong stance against AI and some argue that could be a very detremental thing down the line to company if customers are expecting AI assisted features like something like photoshop already has.
